fty yards beyond them, Francois Paul,
wrapped in thought, was walking slowly down towards the station of
Verrieres. Hearing the sound of steps behind him, he turned. When he saw
the sergeant he frowned. He glanced rapidly about him and saw that while
he was alone with the gendarme, so that no one could overhear what they
said, however loudly they might speak, they were yet in such a position
that every sign and movement they made would be perfectly visible to
whoever might watch them. And as the gendarme paused a few paces from
him and--remarkable fact--seemed to be on the point of bringing his hand
to his cap in salute, the mysterious tramp rapped out:

"I thought I said no one was to disturb me, sergeant?"

The sergeant took a pace forward.

"I beg your pardon, Inspector, but I have important news for you."

For this Francois Paul, whom the sergeant thus respectfully addressed as
Inspector, was no other than an officer of the secret police who had
been sent down to Beaulieu the day before from head-quarters in Paris.

He was no ordinary officer. As if M. Havard had had an idea that the
Langrune affair would prove to be puzzling and complicated, he had
singled out the very best of his detectives, the most expert inspector
of them all--Juve. It was Juve who for the last forty-eight hours had
been prowling about the chateau of Beaulieu disguised as a tramp, and
had had himself arrested with Bouzille that he might prosecute his own
investigations without raising the slightest suspicion as to his real
identity.

Juve made a face expressive of his vexation at the over-deferential
attitude of the sergeant.

"Do pay attention!" he said low. "We are being watched. If I must go
back with you, pretend to arrest me. Slip the handcuffs on me!"

"I beg your pardon, Inspector: I don't like to," the gendarme answered.

For all reply, Juve turned his back on him.

"Look here," he said, "I will take a step or two forward as if I meant
to run away; then you must put your hand on my shoulder roughly, and I
will stumble; when I do, slip the bracelets on."

From the mouth of the tunnel the plate-layer, the foreman and the
navvies all followed with their eyes the unintelligible conversation
passing between the gendarme and the tramp a hundred yards away.
Suddenly they saw the man try to get off and the sergeant seize him
almost simultaneously. A few minutes later the individual, with his
hands linked together in front of him, wa