Bessie, when she saw him fall, ran quickly toward him and would have knelt beside him had not Nick restrained her. The man was dead; and he died so suddenly that he had not even the time to turn his eyes toward the woman whose every sense of propriety he had outraged, but whom, withal, he had treated kindly and considerately to the end.
And then they were brought to themselves again by Antoine, who was in the act of presenting the borrowed rapier to Nick.
“Permit me,” he said, bowing. “I did it with that trick I learned of you, monsieur, but now. And now, monsieur and mademoiselle, if you will but follow me—no? Yes! Listen! The smugglers are already on the stairs. In a moment they will be hammering at the door; but in an hour they will only just have broken it down. It is strong. It is reliable. Below, where it is necessary that we emerge again into the interior of the château, it is possible that we may meet with opposition; but, monsieur, we will not anticipate. No. If you will but have the kindness to come with me now. See!”
He approached the high wainscoting at one side of the room and pressed against an invisible spring—invisible to the others, but plain to him—and a section of the wall opened before them.
“My father was fencing-master to Monsieur Jean’s father,” he said, simply, in explanation. “I learned the secret from him. Aprez vous, monsieur, et mademoiselle? No? Then be so good as to follow me. I will lead the way.”
The stairs which they descended were not unlike the others by which they had gained the tower-room, save that they were narrower; and it seemed to Nick that they wound down and down, interminably. At last, however, they came to a halt at the foot of them.
“Beyond is the corridor of the ground floor of the château,” said Antoine, pointing at a door in front of them.
“Wait a moment,” said Nick, as he was about to open the door. “Antoine, I have a double duty to perform. I did not come here alone. I was accompanied by a friend—the one to whom the other letter is addressed.”
“Max?” asked Bessie.