And, after a time, he opened his eyes.
"Help will be here soon," I said.

"She has gone to bring help." Full ten minutes passed slowly; he lay breathing with difficulty, and from time to time I wiped his brow.

At last he spoke.
"There's some brandy in my pocket.

Give it me," he said.
I found the flask and gave him some of its contents, which kept the life in him for a little longer.

And I was glad to feel that he settled himself, as though more comfortably, against me.
"What happened ?" he asked very faintly.
And I told him what had happened, as I conceived it--how that Bontet must have given shelter to Pierre, till such time as escape might be possible; but how that, when Bontet discovered that the necklace was in the inn, the two scoundrels, thinking that they might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb, had determined to make another attempt to secure the coveted spoil; how, in pursuance of this scheme, Bontet had, as I believed, suppressed the duke's message to his friends at Pontorson, with the intent to attack us, as they had done, on the sands; and I added that he himself knew, better than I, what was likely to have become of the necklace in the hands of Mme.