.

The Next Day.
It was seven o'clock in the morning, the first rays of day lightened the pools of the marsh, in which the sun was reflected like a red ball, when Athos, awakening and opening the window of his bed-chamber, which looked out upon the banks of the river, perceived, at fifteen paces' distance from him, the sergeant and the men who had accompanied him the evening before, and who, after having deposited the casks at his house, had returned to the camp by the causeway on the right.
Why had these men come back after having returned to the camp?
That was the question which first presented itself to Athos.

The sergeant, with his head raised, appeared to be watching the moment when the gentleman should appear to address him.

Athos, surprised to see these men, whom he had seen depart the night before, could not refrain from expressing his astonishment to them.
"There is nothing surprising in that, monsieur," said the sergeant; "for yesterday the general commanded me to watch over your safety, and I thought it right to obey that order." "Is the general at the camp ?" asked Athos.
"No doubt he is, monsieur; as when he left you he was going back." "Well, wait for me a moment; I am going thither to render an account of the fidelity with which you fulfilled your duty, and to get my sword, which I left upon the table in the tent." "This happens very well," said the sergeant, "for we were about to request you to do so." Athos fancied he could detect an air of equivocal _bonhomie_ upon the countenance of the sergeant; but the adventure of the vault might have excited the curiosity of the man, and it was not surprising that he allowed some of the feelings which agitated his mind to appear in his face.

Athos closed the doors carefully, confiding the keys to Grimaud, who had chosen his domicile beneath the shed itself, which led to the cellar where the casks had been deposited.