"As to the horses, you are not so far wrong as one might expect,
O'Neil. We rode them this morning from Versailles."

"From Versailles!" O'Neil repeated. "And what, in the name of all
the saints, took you to Versailles! I am afraid, Desmond, that you
are falling into very evil courses.

"Well, tell us all about it. I shall be glad to be able to believe
that there is some redeeming feature in this strange business."

Desmond laughed, and then said, more seriously, "Well, I have had
an adventure. Other people were concerned in it, as well as
myself. I have made up my mind to tell you both, because I know
that I can depend upon your promises to keep it an absolute
secret."

"This sounds mysterious indeed," O'Sullivan said. "However, you
have our promises. O'Neil and I will be as silent as the grave."

"Well, then, you know how you were chaffing me, the other day,
about finding Mademoiselle Pointdexter?"

"You don't mean to say that you have found her, Kennedy?" O'Neil
exclaimed incredulously.

"That is what I mean to say, though found is hardly the word,
since I was not looking for her, or even thinking of her, at the
time. Still, in point of fact, I accidentally came across the
place where she was hidden away, and after a sharp skirmish, in