man, addressing Montbar, Adler and d'Assas, "do you
know him?"

"No," replied the three young men, "and we ask pardon for Morgan, who
did wrong."

"My dear Lecoq," exclaimed Morgan.

"That's right," interrupted Hastier. "I answer to that name! Well, what
did you want to tell me?"

"I wanted to say that if you are not the antipodes of the god
Harpocrates, whom the Egyptians represent with a finger on his lips,
you will, instead of indulging in a lot of declamations, more or less
flowery, tell us why this costume, and why that map?"

"The deuce!" retorted the young man. "If you don't know already, it's
your fault and not mine. If I hadn't been obliged to call you twice,
caught as you doubtless were in the toils of some beautiful Eumenides
imploring vengeance of a fine young man for the death of her old
parents, you'd know as much as these gentlemen, and I wouldn't have
to sing an encore. Well, here's what it is: simply of the remaining
treasure of the Berne bears, which General Lecourbe is sending to the
citizen First Consul by order of General Massena. A trifle, only a
hundred thousand francs, that they don't dare send over the Jura on
account of M. Teysonnet's partisans, who, they pretend, are likely to
seize it; so it will be sent by Geneva, Bourg, Macon, Dijon, and Troyes;
a much safer way, as they will find when they try it."

"Very good!"

"We were informed of this by Renard, who started from Gex at full speed,
and transmitted the news to l'Hirondelle, who is at present stationed at
Chalon-sur-Saone. He transmitted it to me, Lecoq, at Auxerre, and I have
done a hundred and fifty miles to transmit it in turn to you. As for the
secondary details, here they are. The treasure left Berne last octodi,
28th Nivose, year VIII. of the Republic triple and indivisible. It
should reach Genoa to-day, duodi, and leave to-morrow, tridi, by the
diligence from Geneva to Bourg; so that, by leaving this very night, by
the day after to-morrow, quintide, you can, my dear sons of Israel,
meet the treasure of messires the bears between Dijon and Troyes, near
Bar-sur-Seine or Chatillon. What say you?"

"By heavens!" cried Morgan, "we say that there seems to be no room for
argument left; we say we should never have permitted ourselves to touch
the money of their Highnesses the bears of Berne so long as it remained
in their coffers; but as it has changed hands once, I see no objection
to its doing so a second time. Only how are we