e slightest rakish angle. He was a "dog" indeed,
this police Inspector, wonderfully pleased with himself, bursting with
self-importance, and as arrogant as they make them.

"You will see," he coughed, turning upon the station-master; "we shall
have them, thanks to the telegrams I have sent. And then, my friend,
what will they think of us at the central station? Of me, and this
brilliant capture?"

"You!" exclaimed the station-master, somewhat taken aback; "of you,
Inspector! But wait a moment. It is true that you have sent those
telegrams off, and that, thanks to them, the runaways may be captured,
but I----"

"May be captured?" thundered the inspector; "as if indeed they were not
already in the hands of my subordinates. But proceed."

"I was about to add, to suggest, may I say? that, after all, in
carrying out your duties you have been largely assisted by my
promptness in remembering that three such persons as you described had
actually boarded a train at this station. Consider for a little while:
your description was, after all, not too elaborate--a little vague,
absolutely deficient in the case of one of the fugitives. Is it not
due in some small measure to my acumen that you are on the track of
these people? Come now, Inspector, be fair. If there is honour to be
won, apportion it out, and do not forget the assistance you have
received from others."

It was curious that, at that very moment, there should arrive at the
station, brought there in the police officer's car, which he had sent
to the sugar factory for that purpose, the manager whose office Henri
had so lately entered. The poor fellow was shaking with trepidation,
with fear of what was to happen; and if his thoughts had been vague
before, and not a little muddled, if terror of the law had somewhat
disconcerted him, and upset his equilibrium during and after his
cross-examination, terror of the future had made him now little more
than a babbling idiot--an object, indeed, for the contemptuous glances
of the police inspector and for his gibes and sallies.

"So," he said, standing over the portly figure of the little man, as he
came from the motor-car and stumbled down the platform, "so, you have
obeyed, Herr Winterborgen, you are here to identify the three whose
return in captivity we are waiting. That is good, and certainly you
will be able to tell us that they are the individuals."

The manager held his hands up, expostulating weakly. The