"What a horrible mutilation!"
Then he turned, surprised to see the hall empty, and cried,—
"No one here! not a soul!"
His eyes lighted on the revolving stone, the passage, and the staircase.
"Ah, I understand! they have taken to their heels! Come on, comrades! come on! They have all run away; they have gone, evaporated, dissolved, vanished. There was a crack in this old jug of a tower; there is the hole through which they got out, the rascals! How are we ever to get the better of Pitt and Coburg, when men play tricks like these? The Devil himself must have come to their aid. There is no one here!"
A pistol-shot was fired, and a ball, grazing his elbow, flattened itself against the wall.
"Ah! some one is here, then! To whom do I owe this delicate attention?"
"To me," replied a voice.
Radoub, peering through the shadows, at last descried the form of Imânus.
"Aha!" he cried, "I have got one of you! The others have escaped, but you will not get off."