The weather was very well adapted for investigations of the character I have just made; it has been raining this evening, and the roads were wet and muddy--" "Well, the result, M.d'Artagnan ?" "Sire, your majesty told me that there was a horse lying dead in the cross-road of the Bois-Rochin, and I began, therefore, by studying the roads.

I say the roads, because the center of the cross-road is reached by four separate roads.

The one that I myself took was the only one that presented any fresh traces.

Two horses had followed it side by side; their eight feet were marked very distinctly in the clay.

One of the riders was more impatient than the other, for the footprints of the one were invariably in advance of the other about half a horse's length." "Are you quite sure they were traveling together ?" said the king.
"Yes sire.