There were no English ladies in Darbisson, he said.... We told him as
nearly as we could just where the house was--we weren't very precise, I'm
afraid, for the village had been in darkness as we had come through it,
and I had to admit that the cypress hedge I tried to describe where we'd
met our friends was a good deal like other cypress hedges--and, as I say,
Rangon wasn't taking any. I myself was rather annoyed that he should
think we were returning his hospitality by trying to get at him, and it
wasn't very easy either to explain in my French and Carroll's Provençal
that we were going to let the thing stand as it was and weren't going to
call on our charming friends again.... The end of it was that Rangon
just laughed and yawned....

"'I knew it was good, my wine,' he said, 'but--' a shrug said the rest. 'Not so good as all that,' he meant....

"Then he gave us our candles, showed us to our rooms, shook hands, and
marched off to his own room and the Prévosts. "I dreamed of my old lady half the night. "After coffee the next morning I put my hand into my pocket for my
cigarette case and didn't find it. I went through all my pockets, and
then I asked Carroll if he'd got it. "'No,' he replied.... 'Think you left it behind at that place last
night?' "'Yes; did you?' Rangon popped in with a twinkle. "I went through all my pockets again. No cigarette case....

"Of course, it was possible that I'd left it behind, and I was annoyed
again. I didn't want to go back, you see.... But, on the other hand, I
didn't want to lose the case--it was a present--and Rangon's smile
nettled me a good deal, too. It was both a challenge to our truthfulness
and a testimonial to that very good wine of his....

"'Might have done,' I grunted.... 'Well, in that case we'll go and get
it.' "'If one tried the restaurant first--?' Rangon suggested, smiling again. "'By all means,' said I stuffily, though I remembered having the case
after we'd left the restaurant. "We were round at the restaurant by half-past nine. The case wasn't
there. I'd known jolly well beforehand it wasn't, and I saw Rangon's
mouth twitching with amusement. "'So we now seek the abode of these English ladies, _hein_?' he said. "'Yes,' said I; and we left the restaurant and strode through the village
by the way we'd taken the evening before....

"That vigneron's smile became more and more irritating to me.... 'It is
then the next village?' he said presently, as we left the last house and
came out into the open plain. "We went back....

"I was irritated because we were two to one, you see, and Carroll backed
me up. 'A double door, with a grille in front of it,' he repeated for
the fiftieth time.... Rangon merely replied that it wasn't our good faith
he doubted. He didn't actually use the word 'drunk.'... "'_Mais tiens_,' he said suddenly, trying to conceal his mirth. '_Si
c'est possible... si c'est possible_... a double door with a grille? But
perhaps that I know it, the domicile of these so elusive ladies.... Come
this way.' "He took us back along a plantain-groved street, and suddenly turned up
an alley that was little more than two gutters and a crack of sky
overhead between two broken-tiled roofs. It was a dilapidated, deserted
_ruelle_, and I was positively angry when Rangon pointed to a blistered
old _porte-cochère_ with a half-unhinged railing in front of it. "'Is it that, your house?' he asked. "'No,' says I, and 'No,' says Carroll ... and off we started again....

"But another half-hour brought us back to the same place, and Carroll
scratched his head. "'Who lives there, anyway?' he said, glowering at the _porte-cochère_,
chin forward, hands in pockets. "'Nobody,' says Rangon, as much as to say 'look at it!' 'M'sieu then
meditates taking it?'... "Then I struck in, quite out of temper by this time. "'How much would the rent be?' I asked, as if I really thought of taking
the place just to get back at him. "He mentioned something ridiculously small in the way of francs. "'One might at least see the place,' says I. 'Can the key be got?' "He bowed. The key was at the baker's, not a hundred yards away, he
said....

"We got the key. It was the key of the inner wooden door--that grid of
rusty iron didn't need one--it came clean off its single hinge when
Carroll touched it. Carroll opened, and we stood for a moment motioning
to one another to step in. Then Rangon went in first, and I heard him
murmur 'Pardon, Mesdames.'... "Now this is the odd part. We passed into a sort of vestibule or hall,
with a burst lead pipe in the middle of a dry tank in the centre of it. There was a broad staircase rising in front of us to the first floor, and
double doors just seen in the half-light at the head of the stairs. Old
tubs stood against the walls, but the palms and aloes in them were
dead--only a cabbage-stalk or two--and the rusty hoops lay on the ground
about them. One tub had come to pieces entirely and was no more than a
heap of staves on a pile of spilt earth. And everywhere, everywhere was
dust--the floor was an inch deep in dust and old plaster that muffled our
footsteps, cobwebs hung like old dusters on the walls, a regular goblin's
tatter of cobwebs draped the little bracket inside the door, and the
wrought-iron of the hand-rail was closed up with webs in which not even a
spider moved. The whole thing was preposterous....

"'It is possible that for even a less rental--'

"Rangon murmured, dragging his forefinger across the hand-rail and
leaving an inch-deep furrow....

"'Come upstairs,' said I suddenly....

"Up we went. All was in the same state there. A clutter of stuff came
down as I pushed at the double doors of the _salon_, and I had to strike
a stinking French sulphur match to see into the room at all. Underfoot
was like walking on thicknesses of flannel, and except where we put
our feet the place was as printless as a snowfield--dust, dust, unbroken
grey dust. My match burned down....

"'Wait a minute--I've a _bougie_,' said Carroll, and struck the wax
match....

"There were the old sconces, with never a candle-end in them. There was
the large oval mirror, but hardly reflecting Carroll's match for the
dust on it. And the broken chairs were there, all gutless, and the
rickety old round table....

"But suddenly I darted forward. Something new and bright on the table
twinkled with the light of Carroll's match. The match went out, and by
the time Carroll had lighted another I had stopped. I wanted Rangon to
see what was on the table....

"'You'll see by my footprints how far from that table _I've_ been,' I
said. 'Will you pick it up?' "And Rangon, stepping forward, picked up from the middle of the table--my
cigarette case." *       *       *       *       *

Loder had finished. Nobody spoke. For quite a minute nobody spoke, and
then Loder himself broke the silence, turning to me. "Make anything of it?" he said. I lifted my eyebrows. "Only your _vigneron's_ explanation--" I began, but
stopped again, seeing that wouldn't do.