“Must I come down?”
“No.... I feel a little weak . . . but I shall manage.”
Indeed, he reached the window of the embrasure pretty quickly and crept along the passage in the wake of his rescuer. The open air, however, seemed to make him giddy. Also, to give himself strength, he had drunk half the bottle of wine; and he had a fainting-fit that kept him lying on the stones of the embrasure for half an hour. Lupin, losing patience, was fastening him to one end of the rope, of which the other end was knotted round the bars and was preparing to let him down like a bale of goods, when Daubrecq woke up, in better condition:
“That’s over,” he said. “I feel fit now. Will it take long?”
“Pretty long. We are a hundred and fifty yards up.”
“How was it that d’Albufex did not foresee that it was possible to escape this way?”
“The cliff is perpendicular.”
“And you were able to....”
“Well, your cousins insisted.... And then one has to live, you know, and they were free with their money.”
“The dear, good souls!” said Daubrecq. “Where are they?”