Porthos looked at the stableboy. "When did Captain Athos go out?"

"Last night," the boy answered. "He does it at least once a week, though he is late getting back this time."

"Once a week?" Porthos repeated.

"We had no idea." he told me.

"Do you know which direction or anything that might help find him?" I asked the boy.

At his negative response, I sighed. "Let's see if the gossips can tell us anything."

I heard a familiar laugh join with Porthos' at my comment. After another long hug, D'Artagnan, Porthos and I went to see Flip and Zad. They were waiting for us, although Flip didn't seem happy to see Porthos.

After a few treats and hellos, they told me what they could of where Roger and Athos went on their nightly travels. They wouldn't give me any other information about the reason for them though. Not even a hint of what happened or was said.

I told Porthos I had a general idea of where to start looking and borrowing one of the extra horses, we headed out. A little over half an hour later, we found Roger standing by himself next to the road.

I immediately went to him. He was wearing just a halter and lead rope and a pair of hobbles around his front pasterns. That explained why he hadn't made it back to camp. But Athos would never hobble Roger.

I took the hobbles off and checked to make sure he wasn't injured. As I was doing that, I got the story of what had happened. Athos and Roger had come out the night before, after the guard had shown up with the news that I was waiting and asking for Porthos or D'Artagnan. Athos had been upset and so neither of them was paying attention and they went further than they normally did in their ride. Athos decided to just sleep where they were and return to camp in the morning.

Just before dawn, however, they were attacked by three men. After overpowering Athos and beating him, they threw him in the back of their wagon. When Roger tried to follow, they tried shooting at him and when that didn't work, they held a pistol on Athos to get Roger to hold still, then turned the pistol on Roger while they put the hobbles on him.

While Roger had relayed his story, Porthos and D'Artagnan had been examining the road. They agreed a wagon had driven through earlier after I told them what I had learned. Once Roger was feeling up to it, we followed the wheel tracks to where they turned on to a more well-traveled road. I had a quick conversation with some birds and they were able to tell me which way the wagon had gone. Several miles later, we found it next to an old farmhouse.