“That the outrage could have been planned without your knowledge, Count,” he said resolutely, “is inconceivable.”
Irromar smiled indulgently. “I cannot be answerable, either, for the workings of your imagination,” he replied, with irritating demur. “Do I understand you, or your friend, to say that the five men you speak of have been killed?”
Ludovic nodded assent “Luckily. It was our lives or theirs.”
The Count looked grave. “I hope you may be able to justify such an extreme measure,” he said. “Even in these wilds, we do not hold life so cheap as you military gentlemen seem to suppose. But I should like to think that this is all a pleasant little fiction on your part.”
His indifference was growing more and more exasperating. “I am quite ready to justify what I and my friend have been forced to do in this business,” Ludovic returned sternly. “The atrocious attack upon us can never be explained away, and I am at a loss even to guess its motive. But as it seems quite useless to expect sympathy from you in the matter, we will ask you to let us resume our journey without further delay, and to send word to the ladies that we are ready and await them here.”
There was a deepening of the curious look in the Count’s eyes.
“The ladies?” he repeated, in a tone of bland surprise. “Surely they have been with you. They left the castle, I understand, about half an hour since, and followed you down the valley.”
Ludovic’s face darkened as the scheme of treachery grew more apparent.
“It is impossible,” he objected. “In that case we must have met them. You have been misinformed. May I ask you to let the ladies know that we are waiting to start.”
The Count seemed to lose patience. “The ladies are no longer under my roof, I tell you,” he insisted. “If you think they have missed their way, I will send out a party to seek them. I can do no more.”