"Not so loud! He can hear us."
"What! What do you mean?"
"I say that he is close by and that he doesn't lose a single word of what we say," she went on in the same low voice.
Raoul was dumfounded.
"But—but—what does it mean? Can you see him?"
"No. But I can feel his presence; and he can see us."
"Where from?"
"From some place among the hillocks. I have been thinking that this name of Hillocks Manor pointed to some inpenetrable hiding-place, and I've discovered a proof of it in one of those old books, which actually speaks of a hiding-place where the Vendéans lay hid, and says that it is believed to be in the neighborhood of Tiffauges and Clisson."
"But how should d'Estreicher have learnt of it?"
"Remember that the day of the assault your grandfather was alone, or believed himself to be alone. Strolling among the hillocks, he would have disclosed one of the entrances. D'Estreicher was watching him at the time. And since then the rascal had been using it as a refuge.