How, indeed? I asked myself. Aloud I answered slowly, in order to have
the more time to think:
"In your present enterprise, monsieur."
"The devil! What do you know of my present enterprise?" he asked,
quickly.
I saw that I had at least awakened his interest in the idea that I might
be worth using alive.
"I will tell you," I answered, "if you will first ask this unpleasant
person behind me to step aside."
"Unpleasant person!" repeated Barbemouche, astonished at my audacity.
"You dog, do you speak in such terms of a gentleman?"
So he was under the delusion also that he possessed gentility.
"Stop, Gilles!" commanded De Berquin. "Go yonder, while I listen to this
amusing knave. Let him talk awhile before he dies."
Barbemouche sullenly went over to the side of Francois, and stood there
glowering at me. It was a relief to know that his sword-point was no
longer at my back.
"Now, rascal!" said De Berquin to me. "My present enterprise, and how you
can be useful to me in it?"
"In the first place, monsieur," I began, having no knowledge how I was to
finish, "you and your gallant company are doubtless tired, hungry, and
thirsty--"
An assenting grunt from the tall fellow, and a look of keen interest on
the faces of all, showed that I had not spoken amiss.
"You are quite lost in these woods," I went on. "You do not know how near
you may be to any road or to any habitation, where you might have roof,
food, and drink.
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