I began to wonder, too, what the Essence of Selfishness, that spoiled and adorable cat of mine, would think when it came her bedtime hour. Would Suzette, in her anxiety over my absence, remember to give her the saucer of warm milk? Yet I knew the Essence of Selfishness would take care of herself; she would sleep with Suzette. Catch her lying out on the bare ground like her master when she could curl herself up at the foot of two fuzzy blankets in a tiny room next to the warm kitchen.
It was after midnight when Pierre crawled over to me again, and pointed to a black patch of mussel rocks below.
"There are the two men Gaston saw," he whispered. "They are waiting to signal the channel to their comrades."
I strained my eyes in the direction he indicated.
"I cannot see," I confessed.
"Here, take the glass," said he. "Those two humps behind the big one are the backs of men. They have a lantern well hidden—you can see its glow when the glass is steady."
I could see it all quite clearly now, and occasionally one of the humps lift a head cautiously above the rock.
"She must be lying off close by," muttered Pierre, hoarse with excitement. Again he hurriedly ran his hand over the breech of my carbine. "The trigger pulls light," he breathed. "Courage, monsieur! We have not long to wait now." And again he was gone.