"On the condition, naturally, that my friend Dan Frost is released from the _Southern Cross_."
"Ah! Is it that you are quite sure that Monsieur Frost is confined on the ship?"
"Quite sure, Madame de la Fontaine. I was on board _The Southern Cross_ last night."
"Yes, I know it; and I congratulate you upon your extraordinary success. Very well, then, I accept your condition. Monsieur Dan Frost returns; Monsieur le Marquis is released. And now you will perhaps have the kindness--"
"No, madame; in this affair the Marquis and his friends have been the aggressors. I cannot consent that you should hold any communication with the Marquis till Dan returns free and unharmed to the Inn."
"And what assurance then shall I have that the Marquis will be released?"
"_Pardon, monsieur_. I accept your terms. Monsieur Frost shall return. The instant he enters the Inn at the Red Oak, you promise that the Marquis de Boisdhyver be released and that he be given this note from me?"
The lady took a sealed note from the pocket of her habit and handed it to Tom. "There remains, monsieur," she murmured, "but to bid you good-day. If you will be so kind--"
She ran lightly down the steps, and held up her foot for Tom to assist her into the saddle.
"Your friend will return _tout de suite_, monsieur," she cried gayly, as she drew in the rein.
"And we shall have the pleasure of seeing you again?" asked Tom.
"Ah! who can tell?" She touched the horse lightly with her whip, inclined her head, and soon disappeared down the avenue of maples.
Some time later Nancy and Tom watched her cantering across the beach. She waved her handkerchief as a signal to the schooner; a small boat put ashore, and she was rowed out to _The Southern Cross_.
"Once Dan is back, and we get rid of the old Marquis," said Tom, "I shall breathe considerably easier."
"I can't believe they will give the game up so easily," was Nancy's reply. "Seizing the Marquis, Tom, was a check, not a mate."
Out on the schooner in the Cove, Madame de la Fontaine and Dan Frost were once more talking together.
"Dear boy," said the lady. "I cannot do that which I promised. It is impossible that your sister shall make to you the request to give me the torn scrap of paper, for the reason that Mademoiselle Nancy has chosen to disappear. Have no fear, monsieur, for I have good reason to believe she has returned to the Inn at the Red Oak. Our schemes, _mon ami_, have failed. You are no longer a prisoner, you are free. And this is good-bye. I abandon our mission. I leave the House on the Dunes to-day; to-morrow I return to France."
