Daniel had not suffered half as much the day when the assassin’s ball ploughed through his chest.  He was evidently reading one of those last cries which precede agony.  After these two fearful letters, he could only expect a last one from Henrietta,—­a letter in which she would tell him, “All is over.  I am dying.  Farewell!”

He sent for the chief surgeon, and said, as soon as he entered,—­

“I must go!”

The good doctor frowned, and replied rudely,—­

“Are you mad?  Do you know that you cannot stand up fifteen minutes?”

“I can lie down in my berth.”

“You would kill yourself.”

“What of that?  I would rather suffer death than what I now endure.  Besides, I have made up my mind irrevocably!  Read this, and you will see yourself that I cannot do otherwise.”

The chief surgeon took in Henrietta’s last letter almost at a single glance; but he held it in his hand for some time, pretending to read it, but in reality meditating.

“I am sure,” the excellent man thought in his heart, “I am sure, in this man’s place, I should do the same.  But would this imprudence be of any use to him?  No; for he could not reach the mouth of the Dong-Nai alive.  Therefore it is my duty to keep him here:  and that can be done, since he is as yet unable to go out alone; and Lefloch will obey me, I am sure, when I tell him that his master’s life depends upon his obedience.”

Too wise to meet so decided a determination as Daniel’s was by a flat refusal, he said,—­

“Very well, then; be it as you choose!”

Only he came in again the same evening, and, with an air of disappointment, said to Daniel,—­

“To go is all very well; but there is one difficulty in the way, of which neither you nor I have thought.”

“And what is that?”

“There is no vessel going home.”

“Really, doctor?”

“Ah! my dear friend,” replied the excellent man boldly, “do you think I could deceive you?”

Evidently Daniel thought him quite capable of doing so; but he took good care not to show his suspicions, reserving to himself the right of making direct inquiries as soon as the opportunity should offer.  It came the very next morning.  Two friends of his called to see him.  He sent Lefloch out of the room on some pretext, and then begged them to go down to the port, and to engage a passage for him,—­no, not for him, but for his man, whom urgent business recalled to France.

In the most eager manner the two gentlemen disappeared.  They stayed away three hours; and, when they came back, their answer was the same as the doctor’s.  They declared they had made inquiries on all sides; but they were quite sure that there was not a single vessel in Saigon ready to sail for home.  Ten other persons whom Daniel asked to do the same thing brought him the same answer.  And yet, that very week, two ships sailed,—­one for Havre, the other for Bordeaux.  But the concierge of the hospital, and Lefloch, were so well drilled, that no visitor reached Daniel before having learned his lesson thoroughly.