'You might,' he said; 'they would not serve me,' and then with a drunken familiarity he came close to my elbow. 'I'll show you the Toison d'Or. It is there—the second turn to the left and then straight before you. As for me, I go back to taste Grigot's Beaugency—his dog-poison,' he repeated with the spiteful insistence of a man in his cups.
'The fool in his folly speaketh wisdom!' Pantin muttered under his breath, and then the man, staggering from me, attempted to go back whence he had been flung, but either the morning air was too strong for him, or else he was taken with a seizure of some kind, for ere he had gone ten paces he fell forwards on his face, and lay there in the slime of the street.
At any other time I would have stopped to assist the man, but now I could only look upon his condition as a direct interposition of Providence and I let him lay where he had fallen.
'Come, Pantin,' I cried, 'we have found the spot.'
Following the directions given by our guide we found he had not deceived us, and in a few minutes I was standing at the entrance of the blind passage, at one end of which was the Toison d'Or.
The wasps' nest was not yet awake, but as I stood for a moment discussing with Pantin what we should do next, a couple of men well muffled in cloaks passed down the lane on the opposite side, and it was all I could do to preserve an expression of unconcern on my face, for in one of the two I recognised Lafin. He, too, stooped for a moment, as if to fasten a point that had come undone, and, whilst doing so, fixed his eyes full on me. I met his gaze as one might look at a perfect stranger, but seeing he continued it, put my hand to the hilt of my sword with a scowl. The doubt on his face cleared on the instant to a look of relief, and I saw his thin lips curve into a slight smile of contempt as he rose and walked quietly after his companion. That swaggering movement of my hand to my sword-hilt had convinced him that I was one of the swashbucklers of the Faubourg St. Martin, and as such unworthy even of the contempt of the heir of the Vidame.
'Who is it?' asked Pantin, who had been observing me closely.
'Lafin.'
'Are you sure, monsieur?'
I nodded, and he went on, 'Then, monsieur, if I mistake not, M. le Vicompte is right, and we hunt the boar as well as the wolf. I will give word of this at the Arsenal before three hours are over.'