"Why did these assailants take Madame Barras on with them?"
Marquis regarded me, I thought, with wonder.
"The devil, man!" he said. "They couldn't leave her behind."
"The danger would be too great to them?"
"No," he said, "the danger would be too great to her."
At this moment an object before us in the road diverted our
attention. It was the cut-under and the horse. They were
standing by the roadside where it makes a great turn to enter the
village from the south. There is a wide border to the road at
this point, clear of underbrush, where the forest edges it, and
there are here, at the whim of some one, or by chance, two great
flat stones, one lying upon the other, but not fitting by a
hand's thickness by reason of the uneven surfaces.
What had now happened was evident. The assailants of the
cut-under had abandoned it here before entering the village.
They could not, of course, go on with this incriminating vehicle.
The sight of the cut-under here had on Marquis the usual effect
of any important evidential sign. He at once ceased to hurry.
He pulled up; looked over the cut-under and the horse, and began
to saunter about.
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