the maid I will get to know the hour of the chaise's starting and the
route so that you can plant your men. I grant that this has the air of a
highwayman's attack, but, after all, the uniform covers a host of civil
sins, and, really, I do not see a better way to have done with the
youth. It will never do to have him strut about Paris boasting that he
snatched the sword away from an officer and drubbed him with a cane into
the bargain."

Sullen fire burned in the hearer's eyes. He stamped his foot, suppressed
an oath, and when he looked up, had a serene countenance.

"You have said enough. A willing steed does not need the spur. I will
lay the train and prepare the match. Let each look to himself lest he
suffer by the explosion."

Successful though the old woman had been in her arrangement to convert
an offended employer into a vigorous ally, she shuddered as if he were,
in these ominous words, as good a soothsayer as he pretended to be.




CHAPTER VII.

ONE GOOD TURN DESERVES--A BAD ONE.


Probably no more terrifying a figure could have presented itself at the
Persepolitan Hotel than the major of cavalry, and he looked the type of
his class, insolent with aristocratic hauteur, martial to the point of