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Updated: May 21, 2025
Then Sapt and Fritz, with the gentlemen behind them, crossed the bridge, slowly, warily, and without noise; and Fritz stumbled over the body of De Gautet in the way of the door. They felt him and found him dead.
Still the cries would go on; and my men would let down the drawbridge; and it would be strange if Rupert, hearing his name thus taken in vain, did not descend from where he slept and seek to cross. De Gautet might or might not come with him: that must be left to chance. And when Rupert set his foot on the drawbridge?
Be Rupert Hentzau's errand what it might, and the villainy he was engaged on what it would, I had scored one point. He was on the other side of the moat from the King, and it would be by no fault of mine if ever he set foot on the same side again. I had three left to deal with: two on guard and De Gautet in his bed. Ah, if I had the keys!
He was answered by the very words I had written in my letter. "Help, Michael Hentzau!" A fierce oath rang out from the duke, and with a loud thud he threw himself against the door. At the same moment I heard a window above my head open, and a voice cried: "What's the matter?" and I heard a man's hasty footsteps. I grasped my sword. If De Gautet came my way, the Six would be less by one more.
Rupert's arm was through De Gautet's, and in the middle of the bridge he detained his companion and leant over. I dropped behind the shelter of "Jacob's Ladder." Then Master Rupert had a little sport. He took from De Gautet a bottle which he carried, and put it to his lips. "Hardly a drop!" he cried discontentedly, and flung it in the moat.
Antoinette de Mauban shrieked, but I rose to my feet, laughing aloud. De Gautet and Bersonin lay like men stunned. Detchard was under the table, but, as I rose, he pushed it from him and fired again. I raised my revolver and took a snap shot; I heard him curse, and then I ran like a hare, laughing as I went, past the summer-house and along by the wall.
"I hope all beneath your roof are not sick. What of my good friends, De Gautet, Bersonin, and Detchard? I heard the last had suffered a hurt." Lauengram and Krafstein looked glum and uneasy, but young Rupert's smile grew broader. "He hopes soon to find a medicine for it, sire," he answered. And I burst out laughing, for I knew what medicine Detchard longed for it is called Revenge.
She left the window. The door sounded again, and Black Michael closed the shutters. "De Gautet, De Gautet, man!" sounded from the drawbridge. "Unless you want a bath before your bed, come along!" It was Rupert's voice, coming from the end of the drawbridge. A moment later he and De Gautet stepped out on the bridge.
I asked negligently. "Ay, and a beauty," he nodded. "But you've seen her." "Ah! was it at a tea-party, when some of your friends got on the wrong side of the table?" "What can you expect of fools like Detchard and De Gautet? I wish I'd been there." "And the duke interferes?" "Well," said Rupert meditatively, "that's hardly a fair way of putting it, perhaps. I want to interfere."
I would rear it against the wall just by the bridge; and when the bridge was across, I would stealthily creep on to it and then if Rupert or De Gautet crossed in safety, it would be my misfortune, not my fault. They dead, two men only would remain; and for them we must trust to the confusion we had created and to a sudden rush.
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