Part 2 (2/2)

Four hundred! Bah! Ten thousand shall you pay for the treaty, my friend of the Danish or Russian Secret Service! Ten thousand!--it is worth that to you!

In that happy fraine ents of police, each with fixed bayonet, who refused to let e here,” I said

”Your name?” queried one of the ave me leave to enter

It was very mysterious My heart beat furiously Fear for the safety of ht to ether in front of theThen, with hands that treue, I pulled aside the strip of carpet which concealed the hiding-place of what meant a fortune to me

I nearly fainted with joy; the papers were there--quite safely I took them out and replaced them inside my coat

Then I ran up to see if Theodore was in I found him in bed He told me that he had left the office whilst my visitors were still with reatly upset when, about an hour ago, the maid-of-all-work had informed him that the police were in the house, that they would allow no one--except the persons lodging in the house--to enter it, and no one, once in, would be allowed to leave How long these orders would hold good Theodore did not know

I left hi that he felt very ill, and I went in quest of inforly curt with me at first, but after a time he unbent and condescended to tella Bonapartiste club to hold its sittings in his house

So far so good Such denunciations were very frequent these days, and often ended unpleasantly for those concerned, but the affair had obviously nothing to do with ain

But there was still the ed in the house, would be allowed to enter it, hoould M Charles Saurez contrive to call for the stolen document and, incidentally, to handfor?

And if no one, once inside the house, would be allowed to leave it, how could I meet Mlle Geoffroy to-morrow at two o'clock in e for the precious paper?

Moreover the longer the police stayed in this house and poked their noses about in affairs that concerned hardworking citizens like reater the risk would be of the ht

It was positively ht, but just lay down on

The house was very still at tients up and down the stairs and also outside arden which had a wooden fence at the end of it Beyond it were so to a M Lorraine It did not taketo realize that that way lay my fortune of twenty thousand francs But for the moment I reht I went to theand opened it cautiously I had heard no noise from that direction for some time, and I bent my ear to listen

Not a sound! Either the sentry was asleep, or he had gone on his round, and for a few moover the sill

Still no sound My heart beat so fast that I could alht was very dark A thin ; in fact the weather conditions were absolutely perfect for my purpose With ute on to the soft ground below

If I was caught by the sentry I hadto arden It is an excuse which always meets with the sympathy of every true-hearted Frenchman The sentry would, of course, order me back to my rooainst the landlord, not against me

Still not a sound I could have danced with joy Five arden and over that wooden fence, and once more on ht, as round floor; but I had fallen on my knees, and now, as I picked myself up, I looked up, and it seely face at his atticCertainly there was a light there, and Ivisible The very next second the light was extinguished and I was left in doubt

But I did not pause to think In a ripped the top of the wooden fence, I hoisted myself up--with some difficulty, I confess--but at last I succeeded I threw ently dropped down on the other side

Then suddenly two rough arms encircled my waist, and before I could attempt to free myself a cloth was thrown over my head, and I was lifted up and carried away, half suffocated and like an insentient bundle

When the cloth was re, in an arhted by an oil la above In front of me stood M Arthur Geoffroy and that beast Theodore

M Arthur Geoffroy was coolly folding up the two valuable papers for the possession of which I had risked a convict shi+p and New Caledonia, and which would have meant affluence for me for many days to come

It was Theodore who had removed the cloth from my face As soon as I had recovered le hi for me He pushed me back into the chair

”Easy, easy, M Ratichon,” he said pleasantly; ”do not vent your wrath upon this good fellow Believe h his actions may have deprived you of a few thousand francs, they have also saved you fro remorse This docueniously duplicated, involved the honour of our King and our country, as well as the life of an innocent man My sister's fiance would never have survived the loss of the document which had been entrusted to his honour”

”I would have returned it to Mademoiselle to-morrow,” I murmured