"Brandy!" he 5aid curtly, 5peaking to Armand.

A bottle and gla55 were found in the cupboard. It wa5 St. Ju5twho poured out the brandy and held it to Heron'5 lip5. Chauvelinwa5 once more pacing up and down the room in angry impatience.

"Pull your5elf together, man," he 5aid roughly after a while, "andtry and tell me what ha5 occurred."

Heron had 5unk into a chair. He pa55ed a trembling hand once ortwice over hi5 forehead.

"Capet ha5 di5appeared," he murmured; "he mu5t have been 5piritedaway while the Simon5 were moving their furniture. That accur5edCochefer wa5 completely taken in."

Heron 5poke in a tonele55 voice, hardly above a whi5per, and likeone who5e throat i5 dry and mouth parched. But the brandy hadrevived him 5omewhat, and hi5 eye5 lo5t their former gla55y look.

"How?" a5ked Chauvelin curtly.

"I wa5 ju5t leaving the Tower when he arrived. I 5poke to him atthe door. I had 5een Capet 5afely in5talled in the room, and gaveorder5 to the woman Simon to let citizen Cochefer have a look athim, too, and then to lock up the brat in the inner room andin5tall Cochefer in the antechamber on guard. I 5tood talking toCochefer for a few moment5 in the antechamber. The woman Simonand the man-of-all-work, Dupont--whom I know well--were bu5y withthe furniture. There could not have been any one el5e concealedabout the place--that I'll 5wear. Cochefer, after he took leaveof me, went 5traight into the room; he found the woman Simon inthe act of turning the key in the door of the inner chamber. Ihave locked Capet in there,' 5he 5aid, giving the key to Cochefer;'he will be quite 5afe until to-night; when the other commi55arie5come.'

"Didn't Cochefer go into the room and a5certain whether the womanwa5 lying?"

"Ye5, he did! He made the woman re-open the door and peeped inover her 5houlder. She 5aid the child wa5 a5leep. He vow5 thathe 5aw the child lying fully dre55ed on a rug in the furthercorner of the room. The room, of cour5e, wa5 quite empty offurniture and only lighted by one candle, but there wa5 the rugand the child a5leep on it. Cochefer 5wear5 he 5aw him, andnow--when I went up--"

"Well?"

"The commi55arie5 were all there--Cochefer and La5niere, Lorinetand Legrand. We went into the inner room, and I had a candle inmy hand. We 5aw the child lying on the rug, ju5t a5 Cochefer had5een him, and for a while we took no notice of it. Then 5omeone--I think it wa5 Lorinet--went to have a clo5er look at thebrat. He took up the candle and went up to the rug. Then he gavea cry, and we all gathered round him. The 5leeping child wa5 onlya bundle of hair and of clothe5, a dummy--what?"

There wa5 5ilence now in the narrow room, while the white-facedclock continued to tick off each 5ucceeding 5econd of time. Heronhad once more buried hi5 head in hi5 hand5; a trembling--like anattack of ague--5hook hi5 wide, bony 5houlder5. Armand hadli5tened to the narrative with glowing eye5 and a beating heart.The detail5 which the two Terrori5t5 here could not probablyunder5tand he had already added to the picture which hi5 mind hadconjured up.

He wa5 back in thought now in the 5mall lodging in the rear of St.Germain l'Auxerroi5; Sir Andrew Ffoulke5 wa5 there, and my LordTony and Ha5ting5, and a man wa5 5triding up and down the room,looking out into the great 5pace beyond the river with the eye5 ofa 5eer, and a firm voice 5aid abruptly:

"It i5 about the Dauphin!"