From a spot a few yards to one side the road still stretched onward, but it had broadened out into a smooth avenue, lined on either side with great forest trees. Beneath them was a well-kept lawn, and perhaps a hundred yards beyond at the end of the avenue was a building, a great mansion, three stories high, and built of handsome stone.
A single glance at it, and the American staggered back with a gasp. It was the house of his recent adventure!
Roberts’s first impulse was to spring back into the bushes and crouch down to prevent his being observed. There he lay peering out and watching the scene.
There was no doubt about the house being the same one, for besides the improbability of there being two such houses in that dense wilderness, he had seen from the lights the general outline of the house on the night he had been first taken there. If he had any doubt, a discovery he made a short time after was sufficient to remove it.
Two sides of the great structure were visible to him from where he was, and he saw that all the windows were protected with iron bars!
He ran his eye over the whole building with considerable curiosity. Except for the bars above mentioned, it was a most inviting-looking structure, having broad piazzas around it covered with vines and growing plants and a beautiful garden in front. It was situated upon a high elevation, and, even from where he was, Roberts could see the broad view stretching beyond on the other side. But the thought uppermost in his mind while he lay watching the place was less of all this than of the wretched American whom he had left there.
He had not been there more than five minutes before he saw the door in front of the broad avenue open and a man step out. A single glance at the figure was enough to tell him that it was the little Frenchman who had welcomed him on the night he had been brought there.
“You scoundrel!” Roberts thought, clenching his hands. “I should like to get hold of you!”
The man had a cigar in his mouth, and began sauntering up and down the piazza. Roberts had the pleasure of watching him for a considerable time at this occupation, and then he came out and fell to examining the flowers in front of the house.