Part 23 (1/2)

”As from this moment, you infernal scoundrel!” I cried

But he did not pause to listen, and slammed the door in my face

For two or threefootsteps slowly descending the corridor Then I followed him, quietly, surreptitiously, as a fox will follow its prey He never turned round once, but obviously he knew that he was being followed

I will not weary you, my dear Sir, with the details of the dance which he ledthe whole of that memorable day

Never aafter sundown He tried every trick known to the profession to throw me off the scent

But I stuck to him like a leech When he sauntered I sauntered; when he ran I ran; when he glued his nose to theof an eating house I halted under a doorway close by; when he went to sleep on a bench in the Luxe Gardens I watched over hi--it was an hour after sunset and the street-laht that he had at last got rid ofcarefully behind him, he suddenly started to walk much faster and with an amount of determination which he had lacked hitherto Ifor the Rue Daunou, where was situated the squalid tavern of ill-fame which he ont to frequent I was not mistaken

I tracked the traitor to the corner of the street, and saw hires I resolved to follow I had htily thirsty I started to run down the street, when suddenly Theodore ca back out of the tavern, hatless and breathless, and before I succeeded in dodging him he fell into my arms

”My money!” he said hoarsely ”I must have ain ood stead

”Pull yourself together, Theodore,” I said with nity, ”and do not make a scene in the open street”

But Theodore was not at all prepared to pull hie

”I had five francs in ht!” he cried ”You have stolen them, you abominable rascal!”

”And you stole from me a bracelet worth three thousand francs to the firm,” I retorted ”Give me that bracelet and you shall have your money back”

”I can't,” he blurted out desperately

”How do you mean, you can't?” I exclairipped at my heart ”You haven't lost it, have you?”

”Worse!” he cried, and fell up against me in semi-unconsciousness

I shook him violently I bellowed in his ear, and suddenly, after that one moment of apparent unconsciousness, he beca as a lion and as furious as a bull We closed in on one another He ha me every kind of injurious nath to ward off his attacks

For a few moments no one took -houses in the mean streets of Paris were so frequent these days that the police did not trouble much about them

But after a while Theodore becaorously for help I thought heout of the tavern, and soendar Theodore to his senses He calmed down visibly, and before the crowd had had ti in apparent amity side by side down the street

But at the first corner Theodore halted, and this ti rasped one of the buttons of my coat

”That five francs,” he said in a hoarse, half-choked voice ”I must have that five francs! Can't you see that I can't have that bracelet till I have my five francs ith to redeelad then that he helddown a yawning abyss which had opened at my feet

”Yes,” said Theodore, and his voice sounded as if it cah cotton-wool,

”I knew that you would be after that bracelet like a famished hyena after a bone, so I tied it securely inside the pocket of the blouse I earing, and left this with Legros, the landlord of the Trois Tigres It was a good blouse; he lentabout the bracelet then But he only lends money to clients in this manner on the condition that it is repaid within twenty-four hours I have got to pay hi or he will dispose of the blouse as he thinks best It is close on eight o'clock now Give ros has time to discover the bracelet!