"He is a nice boy," said Zara. "I feel rather sorry for him.
He looked so anxious and distressed when I was so silly as to
faint on the beach just now. He handled me as tenderly as a
woman would have done--not that women have generally handled
me tenderly," she added.

"I was thinking the simile was rather misplaced," said the
King.


Gordon passed the city wall and heard the gates swing to
behind him. The Frenchman and his two captors were just
ahead, toiling heavily up the steep and narrow street. Gordon
threw his cigar from him and ran leaping over the huge cobbles
to the Frenchman's side and touched him on the shoulder.

"We are out of sight of the hotel, now, General," he said. He
pointed to the dark, cool recesses of a coffee-shop and held
back the rug that hung before it. "Come in here," he said,
"and tell me that story."



IV


Baron Barrat was suspicious by education--his experience of
life and his own conduct had tended to render him so; and
accordingly when, three hours after he had seen Gordon
apparently commit the French officer to jail, he found them