"You are right, Père Jean," said Caillaud in a heartbroken tone, "I'll go and resign now; that's the best way. Off with you!"
"Let him go! and do you—keep your place," said Emile, coming out from behind a clump of bushes. "Down with you, comrade, as you want to fall," he added, adroitly tripping him up in schoolboy fashion, "and if you are asked who contrived this ambush, you can tell my father that his son did it."
"Ah! it's a good scheme," said Caillaud, rubbing his knee, "and if your papa has you put in prison it's none of my business. You threw me down a little hard, all the same, and I should have preferred to fall on the grass. Well! has that old fool of a Jean gone yet?"
"Not yet," said Jean, who had climbed a knoll and was prepared to take flight. "Thanks, Monsieur Emile, I shall not forget; I would have submitted to my fate, if the law alone had been concerned; but since I know that it's a piece of treachery on your father's part, I would rather throw myself head first into the river than give way to such a false, evil-minded man. As for you, you deserve to have come from better stock; you have a good heart, and as long as I live——"
"Be off," said Emile, walking up to him, "and keep from speaking ill of my father. I have many things to say to you, but this is not the time. Will you be at Châteaubrun to-morrow night?"
"Yes, monsieur. Take care that you are not followed, and don't ask for me in too loud a tone at the gate. Well, thanks to you I still have the stars over my head, and I am not sorry for it."
He darted away like an arrow; and Emile, turning, saw Caillaud lying at full length on the ground, as if he had fainted.
"Well? what's the matter?" the young man inquired in dismay; "did I really hurt you? Are you in pain?"
"I'm doing very well, monsieur," replied the crafty villager; "but you see I must wait for some one to come and lift me up, so that I may look as if I had been beaten."
"That is useless, I will take the whole responsibility," said Emile. "Get up and go and tell my father that I forcibly opposed Jean's arrest. I will follow close behind you, and the rest is my affair."