"You're as good an animal as the one we stole, so that debt is paid," he said; and then he hastened after the wagon going in the direction of Vayenne.
The driver pulled up his horses when Herrick hailed him.
"Ay; they're the sort I care most about."
Herrick climbed up on to the wagon, which was loaded with straw.
"There's for fare," he said, putting money into the driver's hand as the horses moved slowly on again.
"I'll take you in and bring you out for this, if you like, and you've a mind to wait while I unload the straw."
"I don't want to come out again," said Herrick. "It's the getting in that's the difficulty. I'm for the new Duke, and there are some who plot against him. I might be stopped at the gate. I propose to lie buried in this straw, and once in the city, I will drop out of the wagon. Will you do me the service?"
The man looked at Herrick doubtfully and then at the money.
"But if there's trouble at the gate and they find you?" he said.
"Then I have climbed up into the wagon as you came along, and you didn't know it. I warrant you've often given an unconscious lift to a free passenger that way."
"Ay; that's true. I'll do it," the driver answered, putting the money in his pocket. "Get you down in the straw."
They lumbered presently over the bridge, and were passing through the gate when the wagon stopped.
"That's a road that goes toward Passey, isn't it?"
"Met any soldier on the road this morning?"
"No. If you want a priest there's one up the street yonder."
"Ay. Taking it to a man in the Place Beauvoisin. I go there with a load every month."
Then the wagon began to move again and to jolt over rough, cobbled streets. For some time Herrick did not move, but presently lifted his head cautiously to see where they were going, and to choose a moment when he might drop from the wagon without attracting undue attention. To do so unseen would be impossible, for at this hour of the day there were many people in the streets. Herrick chose a busy corner. There was nothing really remarkable in a man leaving a wagon as it lumbered slowly along. The chief risk was that some one had had his suspicions aroused at the gate, and had followed. Herrick dropped carelessly into the roadway close to an alley that led out of the main street, and which he immediately made for. He wanted to take his bearings; he also wanted a hat. The sooner he could lose himself in the life of the streets the better. Fortunately he was well provided with money, thanks to the dwarf, and he decided to take a lodging at some third-rate café. He had formed no plans as yet beyond the determination to get into the castle, and into the presence of Count Felix somehow. Friend Jean might certainly help him so far, and presently he would go to St. Etienne and look for him. What was to happen when he did succeed in seeing Count Felix he had not thought about. So far fortune had favored him, and to fortune he trusted the future.