(2)
But Roland, uninjured though almost crazy, was in the yard, his hands shaking so much as he re-saddled Zéphyr that he could hardly pull the girths. Even so, he had enough wits left to realise that the large stout man, himself greatly discomposed, who had, as far as he remembered, dragged him bodily out of the affray, was right when he said that it was perfectly useless to follow the vanished carriage along the Auray road. The best thing that he could do was to hasten back to Finistère and spread the news. Roland was conscious that his adviser was helping him now, keeping up, as he put on Zéphyr’s bridle, a running accompaniment of wrath—“Disgraceful . . . infamous . . . to purloin a carriage too. . . .”
“Look here, boy,” he said suddenly, throwing the reins over the Arab’s neck, “—by the way, I suppose you’re his son, are you not?”
Roland, too dazed and wretched to be surprised at the idea, shook his head, and put his foot in the stirrup.
“You’re devilish like him,” said Camain explanatorily. “Wait a minute—I want to say something. The Duchesse de Trélan—if you see her, tell her she can command my services. Camain, my name is; she knew me at Mirabel . . . I expect you have heard about that. Hôtel du Lion d’Or at Lorient will find me.”
Roland, in the saddle now, nodded. O God, O God, they had let him be taken!
“I’ll see that your comrades are looked after,” added the Deputy kindly, looking up at his young, desperate face. “I hope it is all a mistake—damn it all, it must be! and that they will release him when they get to Vannes. Yet it is best not to count on it. Good luck to you!”
Roland bent down and seized the hand of the ex-administrator of Mirabel, who so little divined in him the “marauder” of last April, and next moment was out of the courtyard.
But even as he passed under the tunnel leading to the street he heard this Camain calling after him, and impatiently reined up again.
“Look here, young man,” said the Deputy in a lowered tone, “as it was owing to my—as I feel a sort of interest in the Trélan family, I’m damned if I don’t follow those scoundrels to Vannes to-night, just to keep an eye on the business. Tell the Duchesse that—and should she come to Vannes in person, tell her to go to the Hôtel de l’Epée, and if I am not still there myself I will leave a message for her.”