his companion:

"Follow me."

Returning to the dining-room, he softly opened the sash and drew the
Venetian blinds of a window in the side-wall. People were coming and
going, rendering flight out of the question.

Thereupon he began to shout with all his might, in a breathless voice:

"This way!... Help!... I've got them!... This way!"

He pointed his revolver and fired two shots into the tree-tops. Then
he went back to Vaucheray, bent over him and smeared his face and hands
with the wounded man's blood. Lastly, turning upon Gilbert, he took him
violently by the shoulders and threw him to the floor.

"What do you want, governor? There's a nice thing to do!"

"Let me do as I please," said Lupin, laying an imperative stress on
every syllable. "I'll answer for everything... I'll answer for the
two of you... Let me do as I like with you... I'll get you both out of
prison ... But I can only do that if I'm free."

Excited cries rose through the open window.

"This way!" he shouted. "I've got them! Help!"

And, quietly, in a whisper:

"Just think for a moment... Have you anything to say to me?... Something
that can be of use to us?"

Gilbert was too much taken aback to understand Lupin's plan and he
struggled furiously. Vaucheray showed more intelligence; moreover, he
had given up all hope of escape, because of his wound; and he snarled:

"Let the governor have his way, you ass!... As long as he gets off,
isn't that the great thing?"

Suddenly, Lupin remembered the article which Gilbert had put in his
pocket, after capturing it from Vaucheray. He now tried to take it in
his turn.

"No, not that! Not if I know it!" growled Gilbert, managing to release
himself.

Lupin floored him once more. But two men suddenly appeared at the
window; and Gilbert yielded and, handing the thing to Lupin, who
pocketed it without looking at it, whispered:

"Here you are, governor... I'll explain. You can be sure that..."

He did not have time to finish... Two policemen and others after them
and soldiers who entered through every door and window came to Lupin's
assistance.

Gilbert was at once seized and firmly bound. Lupin withdrew:

"I'm glad you've come," he said. "The beggar's given me a lot of
trouble. I wounded the other; but this one..."

The commissary of police asked him, hurriedly:

"Have you seen the man-servant? Have they killed him?"

"I don't know," he answered.

"You don't know?..."

"Why, I came with