'They are gone, and you do not know ?' He turned suddenly on me and gripped my arm.

'No, I do not know! I do not know!' he cried, with a complete change of manner and in a tone of fierce excitement.

'Only, may the fiend go with them! But I do know this.

I know this, M.de Marsac, with whom they went, these friends of yours! A fop came, a dolt, a fine spark, and gave them fine words and fine speeches and a gold token, and, hey presto! they went, and forgot you!' 'What!' I cried, beginning to understand, and snatching fiercely at the one clue in his speech.

'A gold token?
They have been decoyed away then! There is no time to be lost.