serene moon, which was giving far too much light for his scheme to
succeed. Fortunately, however, he saw a great black cloud rapidly
advancing which threatened to hide the moon; so he set off down the
hill at a run in order to catch his wife at a nasty part of the road
some distance down, where she would be compelled to go slowly, and
thus give him a chance to spring on the trap and take her by
surprise. But quick as he was, Pierre was quicker, and both
Vandeloup and Kitty could see the two black figures running rapidly
along in the moonlight.

'Who are those?' asked Kitty, with a sudden start. 'Are they going
after Madame?'

'Little goose,' whispered her lover, with a laugh; 'if they are they
will never catch up to that horse. It's all right, Bebe,' with a
reassuring smile, seeing that Kitty still looked somewhat alarmed,
'they are only some miners out on a drunken frolic.'

Thus pacified, Kitty laughed gaily, and they wandered along in the
moonlight, talking all the fond and foolish nonsense they could
think of.

Meanwhile the great black cloud had completely hidden the moon, and
the whole landscape was quite dark. This annoyed Madame, as,
depending on the moonlight, the lamps of the trap were not lighted,
and she could not see in the darkness how to drive down a very
awkward bit of road that she was now on.

It was very steep, and there was a high bank on one side, while on
the other there was a fall of about ten feet. She felt annoyed at