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Count Hannibal growled a word in his beard, and, turning in his saddle,

looked back the way he had come Half aacross the plain He turned again

"You know the road?" he said, curtly addressing the young man

"Perfectly As well as Carlat"

"Then lead the way, Monsieur, with Badelon And spare neither whip nor

spur There will be need of both, if ould lie war his horse, rode to the head of

the party, a faint s about his mouth ACount Hannibal and six men to cover

the rear The mist, which at noon had risen for an hour or tas

closing down again, and they had no sooner passed clear of the wood than

the trees faded out of sight behind them It was not wonderful that they

could not see Carlat Objects a hundred paces from theh a grey world so featureless, so unreal

that the riders, now dozing in the saddle, and noaking, seehtain; and all a dozen ti in their wretched saddles, and the horses stumbled, and the

men swore at them

Ha! La Garnache at last, and a sharp turn southward to Challans The