From the shrubbery in the rear of the manor there emerged a man. He looked cautiously about him, then signaled backward with his hand, whereupon a second man, then a third and a fourth, appeared.
Dark as it was, the count could distinguish that the men wore masks, and carried hatchets in their hands. He could not see what sort of clothes they wore.
They were robbers.
One of the men swung himself over the iron trellis of the veranda; his companions waited below, in the shadow of the gate.
The count hastened from his observatory.
First he wakened Henry.
"Robbers have broken into the manor, Henry!"
"The rascals certainly chose a good time to do it; now that the moon is in shadow, no one will see them," sleepily returned Henry.
"I saw them, and I am going to scare them away."
"We can fire off our guns from here; that will scare them," suggested Henry.