"There's no time to lose!"
"What's all this?" asked Nic.
"Never mind; do exactly as I say, and there's a chance for you."
Nic put on the overcoat. Ferrol placed the cap on his head, and muffled
him up exactly as he himself had been, then made him put on his own top-
boots.
"Now, see," he said, "everything depends upon how you do this thing.
You are about my height. Pass yourself off for me. Walk loose and long
as I do, and cough like me as you go."
There was no difficulty in showing him what the cough was like: he
involuntarily offered an illustration as he spoke.
"As soon as I shut the door and you start forward, I'll fire on them.
That'll divert their attention from you. They'll take you for me, and
think I've failed in persuading you to give yourself up. Go straight on-
don't hurry--coughing all the time; and if you can make the dark, just
beyond the soldiers, by the garden bench, you'll find two men. They'll
help you. Make for the big tree on the Seigneury road--you know: where
you were robbed. There you'll find the fastest horse from your father's
stables. Then ride, my boy, ride for your life to the State of New
York!"
"And you--you?" asked Nicolas.
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