“I think you do,” returned Ludovic. “The men whom you were kind enough to send with us have just, in conjunction with two other ruffians who lay in wait in our carriage, made a dastardly attempt on our lives.”
The Count had preserved his look of mystified inquiry, till the last words changed it to one of serious, then smiling incredulity. “Lieutenant, surely you have prepared a little jest for our breakfast table.”
“I fancy,” Ompertz, towards whom the Count had glanced in half-amused inquiry, put in with bluff impatience, “those five sportsmen who are now lying in the gorge yonder will miss both the jest and the breakfast.”
As though failing still to obtain a satisfactory explanation, the Count looked back to Ludovic.
“I am still in the dark. If this is not a jest, will you, sir, kindly tell me what has happened?”
“I have already told you,” Ludovic returned sternly. “It is for me to ask you, Count Irromar, whether this abominable attempt was made at your instigation?”
The Count gave a shrug of impatient contempt. “My instigation?” he echoed, with a show of restrained indignation. “If I understand aright, you come to me with an extraordinary tale of having been attacked by five men, three of them my servants; and you return to the house which has received you, you must allow, with every token of hospitality, and accuse me, your host, of being the author of this unheard-of outrage. Really, my Lieutenant, I hope my ideas of hospitality differ vastly from yours.”
“They do,” Ludovic retorted dryly. “For I can scarcely believe that these men acted of their own accord.”
“Such things have happened,” Irromar rejoined suavely, “whether they have taken place to-day or not. I do my best to keep order in my household, but can hardly be held morally responsible for the acts of my servants.”
He was so confident, so incredulous, and withal so politely unruffled, that Ludovic found himself doubting whether the attempt, after all, should be laid to his charge. Then the woman’s face, which he had seen the night before, rose in his mind, and his mistrust returned in fuller force.