“It certainly is Monsieur Paul’s dog; if he is here, his master cannot be far away.”
“At this moment, I should not be at all sorry to meet him. See, Honorine, Ami is going into the ravine; now he stops and comes back to us, and now he turns back again. He certainly is urging us to follow him; come.”
“But we can’t see where we are going; and those groans that we heard——”
“The dog is with us, and I am not afraid any more.”
Honorine allowed herself to be led into the ravine by Agathe, who had taken her hand.
The dog trotted before them. It was very dark in that sunken road, but they had taken scarcely twenty steps when a brilliant flash of lightning furrowed the clouds and enabled them to see distinctly everything within thirty yards. They then saw the owner of the Tower on his knees beside a grassy mound at one side of the road, in the centre of which stood a wooden cross.
At that strange apparition the two women halted, grasping each other by the hand; then Agathe murmured very low:
“Do you see that?”
“Yes, it’s Monsieur Paul; and he is kneeling by the cross on that grave.”
“Isn’t it very strange? What can he be doing by that cross?”