Chapter 25

“Yes, I see ... or rather, I soon shall see ... you in clover and me in the soup, I expect,” said Béchoux, morbidly resigned to the ultimate doom. Baron de Gravières had led them the length of several ditches on his estate, and they were now taking a narrow grass path across a field. He stopped short a few minutes later, near a clump of oaks. “There,” he said in a staccato voice, “in that field on the right ... in the haystack.” Béchoux’s mouth wore a twisted smile. Feeling he might as well get it over, he darted t…