"If you hear firing from either of these posts, you are to advance at once with twenty men. Select them now, so that there will be no confusion."
Michel listened to these orders in silence.
"Well, comrade," said Simon, "what do you think of my arrangements?"
"They are excellent, and you ought to be a general."
"I could serve only the Republic," answered Simon, "I resigned in 1804."
Michel looked at him as if he did not more than half understand, then he muttered, reluctantly:
"Well, every man is entitled to his opinions."
"Now that our arrangements are made, we two will go on," said Simon.
They walked for some five minutes and reached the entrance of the gorge. There the road suddenly widened, and gently descended to the valley. On the left there was an enormous rock forty feet high. It was shaped like a pyramid standing on its apex. Simon went round it, feeling with his hands, tearing off bits of moss from time to time.