CHAPTER III.
A DOUBLE ABDUCTION.

HALF an hour later Count d’Artigas and Captain Spade
were walking along the road, bordered with venerable
beeches, that separates the right bank of the Neuse from
the establishment of Healthful House. They had both
taken leave of the Principal, the latter declaring himself
much honoured by their visit, and they thanking him for
his kind reception. A hundred dollars destined for the
staff testified to the Count’s generosity. He was a
foreigner of the greatest distinction —who could doubt it,
if distinction is to be measured by generosity !

Leaving Healthful House by the iron gates, halfway up
the hill, the Count and the Captain walked round the outer
wall, whose height precluded any attempts to scale it.
The former was pensive, and according to custom his
companion waited until he was addressed.

Count d’Artigas did not break the silence until the
moment when, pausing on the road, he was in a position
to measure with his eye the height of the wall in front of
Pavilion 17.

“You had time,” he said, “to study the premises ? ”