It sounded very simple. But he was quite aware of the flaws in his plan. In the first place, the sun had scarcely disappeared behind the summit of the mountains; and that meant another hour and a half or two hours of daylight. Moreover, the enemy would draw nearer, little by little, and post themselves at the top of the path; and how was he, hampered by the girl, to force a passage? Aurelie was doubtful, asking herself what she was to believe. In spite of herself, her eyes were fixed on marks in the wall, which enabled her to follow the rising of the water. But Ralph’s coolness was uncommonly impressive. “You will save us, I’m sure of it,” she murmured. “Presently,” he said airily. “You trust me?” “Yes: I trust you. You told me one day—do you remember? When you were reading the lines on my hand—that I was to beware of danger from water? Your prediction is being accomplished; and yet, I am not at all afraid, for you can do anything. You work miracles.” “Miracles?” said Ralph, still maintaining his efforts to reassure her by speaking lightly. “No: not miracles. I merely reason, and then act as the occasion demands. Because I never questioned you about your childish memories, and nevertheless brought you here to the very scene you saw so long ago, you think me a kind of sorcerer. You’re wrong. It was all a matter of reasoning and thought. Yet I had no more precise information than the rest of them. Jodot and his confederates knew the bottle as well as I did, and like me read the formula inscribed under the name of Eau de Jouvence. What information did they get from it? None. But I made inquiries, and I saw that nearly the whole of the formula was a reproduction, with the exception of one line of the analysis of the springs of Royat, one of the principal hot bath establishments of Auvergne. I looked at the map of Auvergne and on it I find the village and lake of Juvains—Juvains, an obvious contraction of the Latin word Juventia, which means Jouvence. I knew where I was. After an hour’s gossip at Juvains I learned that old M. de Talencay, the Marquess of Carabas of this part of the world, must be at the very heart of the business, and approached him as your envoy. When he told me that you had formerly come here on the Sunday and Monday of the Assumption, that is to say the fourteenth and fifteenth of August, I fixed our visit for the same day. As it happens, the wind was blowing from the north-east, as on your earlier visit. So we had the escort of the bells. And that’s all the miracle there was about it, young lady with the green eyes.” But words were not enough to distract her attention any longer. A moment later she murmured: “The water is rising—it’s rising. It’s covered the two stones and is wetting your shoes.”