“He is in hospital at Amiens, and they have taken out one of his eyes. It is said, too, that he may go blind in the other. When they asked him to explain how it happened, he said he had had a quarrel with some English soldiers, and that three of them set on him.”
Paul and Manon exchanged glances.
“Shall I tell him?” her eyes asked him.
Brent nodded.
“That is not quite the truth, monsieur. You are our friend, and you can keep a secret. Bibi came by those wounds in this very room.”
“Tonnerre—here?”
Very simply she described to Anatole Durand all that happened, and so vivid were her words that the old man found it difficult to sit still. His eyes lit up; he had the eyes of a fighter.
“But it is incredible! What a wild beast! You did very well, Monsieur Paul, to thrash that stallion.”
He jumped up and clapped Paul on the shoulder.
“So you wish me to say nothing of this?”