“The two of them were one. There was no way of getting at the one without getting at the other.” “The unfortunate girl——” “Well, do you want the treasure, or don’t you? You’re not going to get it by just smoking your pipe—not a treasure like this.” “All the same——” “Have you, or haven’t you seen the Marquess’s will?” exclaimed Jodot impatiently. “Aurelie inherits the whole of the Juvains estate. What did you think of doing then? Marry her perhaps? It takes two people to make a marriage, my lad; and I’ve an idea that that fine fellow, William, wouldn’t have been one of them.” “Well?” “Well, this is what is going to happen, my lad. To-morrow the lake of Juvains will be neither higher nor lower than usual. The day after and no sooner, since the Marquess has forbidden them to come on to the plateau, the shepherds will return. They will find the Marquess killed by a fall into a ravine; and nobody will suspect that any one lent him a helping hand to lose his balance. Then no heir is found since he has no relations, and no will, since I’ve got it. Consequently the estate becomes the property of the republic. Six months later it is sold. We buy it.” “And where do we get the money?” said William doubtfully. “We shall easily find it in six months,” said Jodot in sinister accents. “Besides, what’s the estate worth to any one who does not know the secret?” “And suppose a prosecution is started?” “Who’s going to be prosecuted?” “Ourselves.” “What for?” “This business of Limézy and Aurelie.” “Limézy? Aurelie? Drowned, vanished, impossible to find!” “They’ll be found in the grotto.” “They will not. We’ll go round to-morrow morning, tie a couple of big stones to their legs and drop them in the lake.” “And Limézy’s car?” “We’ll drive away in it as soon as we’ve sunk the bodies; and no one will ever know that they came here. Every one will think that the girl has been carried off from the sanatorium by her lover and that they’re traveling about the country. That’s my plan. What do you think of it?” “Excellent, you old blackguard,” said a voice close to them. “But there’s one great drawback to it.” They turned their heads with a start of terror. A man was squatting on the turf in oriental fashion a few feet away on their left “A great drawback,” the man repeated. “All this fine plan depends on deeds done. But what happens if the lady and gentleman of the grotto took it into their heads to clear out?” Their hands moved stealthily towards their rifles and revolvers. They were no longer there. “Weapons? What for?” said the man in mocking accents. “A sopping shirt and trousers, that’s all I’ve got. Weapons? Between brave fellows like us?” Jodot and William did not stir. For Jodot, it was the man of Nice who had re-appeared; for William it was the man of Toulouse. Above all it was the formidable enemy of whom, they believed, they had got rid, and whose corpse——