Inside the vehicle all was silent for a while, then M. le Comte asked quietly: "Did he find everything?" "Everything," replied Crystal. "I put in five wallets." "Yes. He took them all." "It is curious they should have fallen on us just by that broken bridge." "They were lying in wait for us, of course." "Knowing that we had the money, do you think?" asked the Comte. "Of course," replied Crystal with still that note of bitter resentment in her voice. "But who, besides ourselves and the préfet? . . ." began the Comte, who clearly was very puzzled. "Victor de Marmont for one . . ." retorted the girl. "Surely you don't suppose that he would play the rôle of a highwayman and . . ." "No, I don't," she broke in somewhat impatiently, "he wouldn't have the pluck for one thing, and moreover the masked man was considerably taller than Victor." "Well, then?" "It is only an idea, father, dear," she said more gently, "but somehow I cannot believe that this was just ordinary highway robbery. This road is supposed to be quite safe: travellers are not warned against armed highwaymen, and marauders wouldn't be so well horsed and clothed. My belief is that it was a paid gang stationed at the broken bridge on purpose to rob us and no one else." "Maurice will soon be after them to-morrow, and I'll see M. le Comte d'Artois directly we get to Lyons," said the Comte after a slight pause, during which he was obviously pondering over his daughter's suggestion. "It won't be any use, father," Crystal said with a sigh. "The whole thing has been organised, I feel sure, and the head that planned this abominable robbery will know how to place his booty in safety." Whereupon the Comte sighed, for he was too well-bred to curse in the presence of his daughter and his sister, Mme. la Duchesse had said nothing all this while: nor did she offer any comment upon the mysterious occurrence all the time that the next stage of the wearisome journey proceeded. VIII Less than an hour later the coach came to a halt once more. M. le Comte woke up with a start. "My God!" he exclaimed, "what is it now?" Crystal had not been asleep: her thoughts were too busy, her brain too much tormented with trying to find some plausible answer to the riddle which agitated her: "Who had planned this abominable robbery? Was it indeed Victor de Marmont himself? or had a greater, a mightier mind than his discovered the secret of this swift journey to Paris and ordered the clever raid upon the treasure?" The rumble of the wheels had--though she was awake--prevented her from hearing the rapid approach of a number of horses in the wake of the coach, until a peremptory: "Halt! in the name of the Emperor!" suddenly chased every other thought away; like her father she murmured: "My God! what is it now?"