"And do you know who the villain is?"
Lupin hesitated and then replied:
"No, I don't know.... And that is just how we shall find out. But, I implore you, keep cool. Not a word, not a movement, whatever happens!"
"I promise you."
"I want more than that, doctor. You must give me your word of honour."
"I give you my word of honour."
The doctor went away. Lupin at once climbed a neighbouring mound from which he could see the windows of the first and second floor. Several of them were lighted.
He waited for some little time. The lights went out one by one. Then, taking a direction opposite to that in which the doctor had gone, he branched off to the right and skirted the wall until he came to the clump of trees near which he had hidden his motor-cycle on the day before.
Eleven o'clock struck. He calculated the time which it would take the doctor to cross the kitchen-garden and make his way into the house.
"That's one point scored!" he muttered. "Everything's all right on that side. And now, Lupin to the rescue? The enemy won't be long before he plays his last trump ... and, by all the gods, I must be there!..."