"Monsieur de Saint-Eustache." he answered.

"And for the rest, as to expecting you here, they did not, but they
were prepared against the remote chance of your coming. From what
I have gathered, there is not a hostelry betwixt this and Lavedan
at which the Chevalier has not left his cutthroats with the promise
of enormous reward to the men who shall kill you."

I caught my breath at that. My doubts vanished.

"Tell me what you know," said I. "Be brief."

Thereupon this faithful dog, whom I had so sorely beaten but four
nights ago, told me how, upon finding himself able to walk once
more, he had gone to seek me out, that he might implore me to
forgive him and not cast him off altogether, after a lifetime
spent in the service of my father and of myself.

He had discovered from Monsieur de Castelroux that I was gone to
Lavedan, and he determined to follow me thither. He had no horse
and little money, and so he had set out afoot that very day, and
dragged himself as far as Blagnac, where, however, his strength had
given out, and he was forced to halt. A providence it seemed that
this had so befallen. For here at the Etoile he had that evening
overheard Saint-Eustache in conversation with those two bravi below
stairs. It would seem from what he had said that at every hostelry
from Grenade to Toulouse - at which it was conceivable that I might
spend the night - the Chevalier had made a similar provision.

At Blagnac, if I got so far without halting, I must arrive very