movement with keen attention. Having reached the little door, he took
my hand and pressed a seal to my lips, set in a ring which I had seen
him wearing on a finger of his left hand, and I gave him to understand
that this significant sign would be obeyed. In the street two horses
were waiting; we each mounted one. My Spaniard took my bridle, held
his own between his teeth, for his right hand held the bloodstained
bundle, and we went off at lightning speed.

"'I could not see the smallest object by which to retrace the road we
came by. At dawn I found myself close by my own door, and the Spaniard
fled towards the Atocha gate.'

"'And you saw nothing which could lead you to suspect who the woman
was whom you had attended?' the Colonel asked of the surgeon.

"'One thing only,' he replied. 'When I turned the unknown lady over,
I happened to remark a mole on her arm, about half-way down, as big as
a lentil, and surrounded with brown hairs.'--At this instant the rash
speaker turned pale. All our eyes, that had been fixed on his,
followed his glance, and we saw a Spaniard, whose glittering eyes
shone through a clump of orange-trees. On finding himself the object
of our attention, the man vanished with the swiftness of a sylph. A
young captain rushed in pursuit.

"'By Heaven!' cried the surgeon, 'that basilisk stare has chilled me
through, my friends. I can hear bells ringing in my ears! I may take
leave of you; you will bury me here!'

"'What a fool you are!' exclaimed Colonel Hulot. 'Falcon is on the
track of the Spaniard who was listening, and he will call him to