“Look here, Mr. Aycon.  You’re running a great risk for nothing.  Be a sensible man.  Go back to Avranches, thence to Cherbourg, and thence to where you live—­and leave me to settle my own affairs.”

“Before I accept that proposal,” said I, “I must know what ’your own affairs’ include.”

“You’re making a fool of yourself—­or being made a fool of—­which you please,” he assured me; and his face wore for the moment an almost friendly look.  I saw clearly that he believed he had won the day.  The old lady had managed to make him think that—­by what artifice I knew not.  But what I did know was that I believed not a jot of the insinuation he was conveying to me, and had not a doubt of the truth, and sincerity of Marie Delhasse.

“The best of us do that sometimes,” I answered.  “And when one has begun, it is best to go through.”

“As you please.  Have you ever practiced with your left hand?”

“No,” said I.

“Then,” said he, “you’ve not long to live.”

To do him justice, he said it in no boasting way, but like a man who would warn me, and earnestly.

“I have never practiced with my right either,” I remarked.  “I think I get rather a pull by the arrangement.”

He walked on in silence for a few yards.  Then he asked: 

“You’re resolved on it?”

“Absolutely,” I returned.  For I understood that he did but offer the same terms as before—­terms which included the abandonment of Marie Delhasse.

On we went, our faces set toward the great Mount, and with the sinking sun on our left hands.  We met few people, and as we reached the sands yet fewer.  When we came to a stand, just where the causeway now begins (it was not built then), nobody was in sight.  The duke took out his watch.

“We are punctual to the minute,” said he.  “I hope those fellows won’t be very late, or the best of the light will be gone.”

There were some large flat blocks of stone lying by the roadside, and we sat down on them and waited.  We were both smoking, and we found little to say to one another.  For my part, I thought less of our coming encounter than of the success of the scheme which I had laid for Marie’s safety.  And I believe that the duke, on his part, gave equally small heed to the fight; for the smile of triumph or satisfaction flitted now and again across his face, called forth, I made no doubt, by the pleasant conviction which Mlle. Delhasse had instilled into his mind, and which had caused him to dub me a fool for risking my life in the service of a woman who had promised all he asked of her.

But the sun sank; the best of the light went; and the officers from Pontorson did not come.  It was hard on six.

“If we fight to-night, we must fight now!” cried the duke suddenly.  “What the plague has become of the fellows?”

“It’s not too dark for me,” said I.

“But it soon will be for me,” he answered.  “Come, are we to wait till to-morrow?”