"Are you sure of that?"
"Rather! Do you imagine that I'm staying here and doing all this dirty work for fun?"
They resumed their progress. After a quarter of an hour, a few drops of rain began to fall. There was a clap of thunder. The storm still appeared to be some distance away.
They had difficulty in completing the rough ascent: and Vorski had to help his companions.
"At last!" he said. "We're there. Otto, hand me the flask. That's it. Thanks."
They had laid their victim at the foot of the oak which had had its lower branches removed. A flash of light revealed the inscription, "V. d'H." Vorski picked up a rope, which had been left there in readiness, and set a ladder against the trunk of the tree:
"We'll do as we did with the sisters Archignat," he said. "I'll pass the cord over the big branch which we left intact. That will serve as a pulley."
He interrupted himself and jumped to one side. Something extraordinary had just happened.
"What's that?" he whispered. "What was it? Did you hear that whistling sound?"
"Yes," said Conrad, "it grazed my ear. One would have said it was a bullet."