I looked through the open window,
but from my position on the bed no more was visible than the blue
sky and a faint haze of distant hills.
I taxed my memory, and the events of yesternight recurred to me.
I remembered the girl, the balcony, and my flight ending in my
giddiness and my fall. Had they brought me into that same chateau,
or - Or what? No other possibility came to suggest itself, and,
seeing scant need to tax my brains with speculation, since there
was one there of whom I might ask the question--
"Hola, my master!" I called to him, and as I did so I essayed to
move. The act wrung a sharp cry of pain from me. My left shoulder
was numb and sore, but in my right foot that sudden movement had
roused a sharper pang.
At my cry that little wizened old man swung suddenly round. He had
the face of a bird of prey, yellow as a louis d'or with a great
hooked nose, and a pair of beady black eyes that observed me solemnly.
The mouth alone was the redeeming feature in a countenance that had
otherwise been evil; it was instinct with good-humour. But I had
small leisure to observe him then, for simultaneously with his
turning there had been another movement at my bedside, which drew
my eyes elsewhere. A gentleman, richly dressed, and of an imposing
height, approached me.
"You are awake, monsieur?" he said in a half interrogative tone.
"Will you do me the favour to tell me where I am, monsieur?" quoth I.
"You do not know? You are at Lavedan.
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