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An inquiry at the coroner's office developed the fact that there were no records reaching back beyond nineteen hundred and eight and the official could not even tell who had had the office in nineteen hundred. De Launay, who had expected little success, made a few more inquiries but developed nothing.
"Faith, the idea is not bad," said Gondi; "it is better to be shot up there than hanged down here, as we shall be if we are found, for De Launay must be already missed by his company, and all the court knows of our quarrel." "Parbleu! gentlemen," said Montresor, "help is coming to us."
One of them spent practically all his time glancing through the door, which he held on a crack, into the courtroom. The other was neither alert nor interested. The officer who had brought De Launay, and who, presumably, was to make the charge against him, remained, while his companion departed.
"At twenty," said the King, "boys love the wrong girl. At thirty they marry the wrong woman. At forty they meet the only true and fitting soul's companion, and cry for the moon till the end! My son is in the first stage, or I am much mistaken, he loves the wrong girl!" He walked on, and De Launay followed, with a vague sense of amusement and disquietude in his mind.
"I knew him," said De Launay. "You knowed my old man?" "But maybe he'd not remember me." Sucatash sensed the fact that De Launay intended to be reticent. "Dad sure knows all the old-timers and their histories," he declared. "Him and old Ike Brandon was the last ranchers left this side the Esmeraldas, and since Ike checked in a year ago he's the last survivor.
Meanwhile M. de Launay had signed to the carriage to approach; the postilion had obeyed, the door was opened, and the governor with his head uncovered held his hand to Bathilde, to assist her into the carriage. She hesitated an instant, turning uneasily to see that they did not take Raoul away by the other side; but seeing that he was ready to follow her, she got in without resistance.
He saw now what had caused those frantic gestures and shouts. It had been he, De Launay, who had uncovered to the prospector's gaze the gold which should have been mademoiselle's. No wonder he had no desire to laugh as he turned back into the valley. He was weighted down with the task that was his. He had to tell Solange that the quest on which she had come was futile.
Behind them the pack horses straggled, leaping and crashing clumsily in the jungle of impeding tree trunks. De Launay came to a stop and looked despairingly about him. About thirty yards away, among the green saplings and gray down timber, stood a bluish shape, antlered, with long ears standing erect. The black-tailed deer watched him curiously, and without any apparent fear.
But, after a momentary silence, he turned once more in his saddle. "Say, mad'mo'selle," he said, "this here De Launay, now; he's sure enough your husband?" "Of course." "But he ain't noways a regular, honest-to-God husband, is he?" "We are married," said Solange. "Is that not enough?" "I reckon so. Still, there's Dave and me we would sure admire to know how this feller stands with you."
De Launay came out of his trance with a start to find a hundred and seventy pounds of cow-puncher sprawling in his lap and clinging about his neck. His dull eyes, gummy with sleep, showed him a hat of sorts, a greasy waistcoat Calmly he took the cowboy by the neck and raised him. The fellow uttered a cry that was choked.
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