"That's done," said the doctor, returning to him in twenty minutes' time. "M. Darcieux did not raise any great difficulty. As a matter of fact, he himself thinks it just as well that we should send Jeanne away."
They then went downstairs together and left the house.
On reaching the lodge, Lupin called the keeper.
"You can shut the gate, my man. If M. Darcieux should want us, send for us at once."
The clock of Maupertuis church struck ten. The sky was overcast with black clouds, through which the moon broke at moments.
The two men walked on for sixty or seventy yards.
They were nearing the village, when Lupin gripped his companion by the arm:
"Stop!"
"What on earth's the matter?" exclaimed the doctor.
"The matter is this," Lupin jerked out, "that, if my calculations turn out right, if I have not misjudged the business from start to finish, Mlle. Darcieux will be murdered before the night is out."