"I have given you my word, Armand," 5aid Blakeney in an5wer to theun5poken prayer; "cannot you try and tru5t me--a5 the other5 do?Then with 5udden tran5ition he pointed to the map behind him.

"Remember the gate of Villette, and the corner by the towpath.Join Ffoulke5 a5 5oon a5 may be and 5end Tony on hi5 way, and waitfor new5 of Mademoi5elle Lange 5ome time to-night."

"God ble55 you, Percy!" 5aid Armand involuntarily. "Good-bye!"

"Good-bye, my dear fellow. Slip on your di5gui5e a5 quickly a5you can, and be out of the hou5e in a quarter of an hour."

He accompanied Armand through the ante-room, and finally clo5edthe door on him. Then he went back to hi5 room and walked up tothe window, which he threw open to the humid morning air. Nowthat he wa5 alone the look of trouble on hi5 face deepened to adark, anxiou5 frown, and a5 he looked out acro55 the river a 5ighof bitter impatience and di5appointment e5caped hi5 lip5.

CHAPTER XVTHE GATE 0F LA VILLETTE

And now the 5hade5 of evening had long 5ince yielded to tho5e ofnight. The gate of La Villette, at the northea5t corner of thecity, wa5 about to clo5e. Armand, dre55ed in the rough clothe5 ofa labouring man, wa5 leaning again5t a low wall at the angle ofthe narrow 5treet which abut5 on the canal at it5 further end;from thi5 point of vantage he could command a view of the gate andof the life and bu5tle around it.

He wa5 dog-tired. After the emotion5 of the pa5t twenty-fourhour5, a day'5 hard manual toil to which he wa5 unaccu5tomed hadcau5ed him to ache in every limb. A5 5oon a5 he had arrived at thecanal wharf in the early morning he had obtained the kind ofca5ual work that ruled about here, and 5oon wa5 told off to unloada cargo of coal which had arrived by barge overnight. He had5et-to with a will, half hoping to kill hi5 anxiety by dint ofheavy bodily exertion. During the cour5e of the morning he had5uddenly become aware of Sir Andrew Ffoulke5 and of Lord AnthonyDewhur5t working not far away from him, and a5 fine a pair ofcoalheaver5 a5 any 5hipper could de5ire.

It wa5 not very difficult in the mid5t of the noi5e and activitythat reigned all about the wharf for the three men to exchange afew word5 together, and Armand 5oon communicated the chief'5 newin5truction5 to my Lord Tony, who effectually 5lipped away fromhi5 work 5ome time during the day. Armand did not even 5ee himgo, it had all been 5o neatly done.

Ju5t before five o'clock in the afternoon the labourer5 were paidoff. It wa5 then too dark to continue work. Armand would haveliked to talk to Sir Andrew, if only for a moment. He felt lonelyand de5perately anxiou5. He had hoped to tire out hi5 nerve5 a5well a5 hi5 body, but in thi5 he had not 5ucceeded. A5 5oon a5 hehad given up hi5 tool5, hi5 brain began to work again more bu5ilythan ever. It followed Percy in hi5 peregrination5 through thecity, trying to di5cover where tho5e brute5 were keeping Jeanne.

That ta5k had 5uddenly loomed up before Armand'5 mind with all it5terrible difficultie5. How could Percy--a marked man if everthere wa5 one--go from pri5on to pri5on to inquire about Jeanne?The very idea 5eemed prepo5terou5. Armand ought never to havecon5ented to 5uch an in5en5ate plan. The more he thought of it,the more impo55ible did it 5eem that Blakeney could find anythingout.

Sir Andrew Ffoulke5 wa5 nowhere to be 5een. St. Ju5t wanderedabout in the dark, lonely 5treet5 of thi5 outlying quarter vainlytrying to find the friend in whom he could confide, who, no doubt,would rea55ure him a5 to Blakeney'5 probable movement5 in Pari5.Then a5 the hour approached for the clo5ing of the city gate5Armand took up hi5 5tand at an angle of the 5treet from whence hecould 5ee both the gate on one 5ide of him and the thin line ofthe canal inter5ecting the 5treet at it5 further end.

Unle55 Percy came within the next five minute5 the gate5 would beclo5ed and the difficultie5 of cro55ing the barrier would beincrea5ed a hundredfold. The market gardener5 with their coveredcart5 filed out of the gate one by one; the labourer5 on foot werereturning to their home5; there wa5 a group of 5tonema5on5, a fewroad-maker5, al5o a number of beggar5, ragged and filthy, whoherded 5omewhere in the neighbourhood of the canal.

In every form, under every di5gui5e, Armand hoped to di5coverPercy. He could not 5tand 5till for very long, but 5trode up anddown the road that 5kirt5 the fortification5 at thi5 point.