For The Admiral

by W. J. Marx

"Certainly, friend, and I doubt if many travellers would care to share it with you. A civil question is worth a civil answer."

"Our business is our own," muttered Casimir, "and we are able to look after it."

The horseman who had first spoken was on the point of making an angry reply, but his companion exclaimed with a laugh, "Let the boor alone to do his business; by the look of his face 'twill bring him pretty close to the hangman's rope!" and, taking no further notice of us, they galloped on.

"By my faith, Casimir," I exclaimed hotly, "your Parisian manners are not of the pleasantest. I could wish that your patron had employed a less boorish messenger."

"See here, monsieur," said he, "there is no need for us to quarrel, but I don't intend losing my life on your account, and it's plain there is some one who bears you no goodwill. How do I know who these travellers are? They may belong to the same gang that shot at me in the wood!"

"Well," I returned rather scornfully, "since you are so fearful of being in my company we had better push on faster. The sooner you bring me to your patron the sooner you can take yourself off."

The rebuke apparently produced some effect, and for a time we proceeded at a fairly rapid pace; but the best part of the day was over, and the late afternoon was already closing in. To reach Poictiers before nightfall was out of the question, and I began to resign myself to sleeping at some wayside inn.

"At any rate," I thought, "there can be little danger. What with Casimir's fears and Jacques' vigilance I shall receive plenty of warning."

I was never an advocate of overboldness, but our guide erred in the other extreme. He became more and more nervous and fidgety, stopping a dozen times to listen, fancying he heard the beat of horses' hoofs in our rear, and declaring we were being followed. And the more his nervousness increased, the more Jacques and I laughed at his fears.

It was fast getting dark when we entered a narrow road, where there was scarcely room for Jacques and Casimir to ride abreast. To the right was a wall of rock, to the left a steep stony slope, on which one might easily break a limb if not one's neck. I rode a little in advance; Jacques on the edge of the slope, and Casimir next to the wall. It was so dark that we could see hardly more than a few yards ahead, and I warned Jacques to be careful.