“Get that thought out of your head!” he commanded.
My hopes fell. I knew now for the first time that I had a man of more than usual insight and cunning to deal with. If I were to try any further tricks, they must be managed with the utmost skill and daring.
We went on. The moon rose higher in the heavens. The trees waved their long branches over our heads. The road twisted and turned like a snake. One scheme after another came into my head, but I cast them all aside, for with his alertness and the quickness of his mind my captor had a hold on me as firm as chains.
Of a sudden the road bent. As we turned the corner the dull light from the windows of the inn shone before us. To make sure that I would not make a final break for freedom, the fellow behind me grasped me by the arm.
In a few steps we were at the inn door. It was standing open. The old dust-covered lanthorn was hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room, sputtering forth its uncertain yellow light. To my dismay I saw De Marsac sitting directly under it at the table. He seemed impatient for he was twisting his mustache with the thumb and forefinger of one hand and drumming nervously with the other.
My captor had just shoved me across the threshold. He opened his mouth to speak when two fellows in the garb of common soldiers brushed roughly past. Their faces were white from fear, and from the way they were breathing I judged that they had been running. They threw themselves at De Marsac’s feet.
“My lord!” they cried. “The highwayman of Tours is running wild in the forest! He has shot three of your men already. If you will——”
My captor broke him off. He advanced with his chest thrown out and his head high in the air.
“The highwayman of Tours is dead!” he growled in a voice deep in his throat. “I shot him with my own hand. His body lies under a tree about a league to the south on the left of the road. To prove it, here is the boy who accompanied him.” He stopped for a moment and gazed proudly at De Marsac. “My lord,” he went on, “the fifty crowns that you have offered as a reward is mine!”
De Marsac rose slowly from his seat. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and let his eye roam over me. He smacked his lips and smiled, as though I was a tender morsel he was about to devour.