"Bah!" answered Andrew, his nerves not touched one whit by Laurent's forebodings. "Bah! 'Twould want forty men to place me at such disadvantage as you speak of. For, observe! I shall be at the top of the house, since I enter that way, and she is also there--do not you--one who has been a soldier--see the advantage I have? Five cannot mount the stairs abreast, 'tis unlike they will be broad in that part of the house. As they come singly, or in twos, I shall have my chance."
"They will use firearms."
"And so shall I. Fear not, my friend, I shall return alive."
And again Laurent said, "I pray so," while, again, he thought to himself, "It is impossible."
Then Andrew asked him if it was certain, as Jean had reported, that the dog was dead?
"He says," replied the other, "that almost for sure it must be. He and his cousin have laid the poison carefully; the cousin, indeed, getting at the meat with which it is fed. It cannot be still alive."
"Therefore," said Andrew, "I am safe from its discovery. Yet, poor beast, I would it had not been necessary."
"Pray God it is dead," replied Laurent. "Pray God it is. For if it still lives when you are in that house, nothing can save your presence from being known."
"Bah! croaker! Even if it still lives it must have a strong scent to discover me in the topmost part of the building when they are all below. I will not believe it."
After which he set about making all necessary arrangements for reaching the mansion into which he had resolved to penetrate that night.