om that man?"

"Why should I? I sold him a horse, and he paid me for it."

"Very well," said Bezard, with some hesitation. "Let us pass to the
eighth of April. At six o'clock that morning you drove to
Thillot-sous-les-Cotes, where you met a stranger at the entrance to the
village, and walked with him, and held a long and earnest conversation."

Paul was silent for a moment. The incident recalled was one that he would
fain have forgotten, one the truth of which he intended at all hazards to
conceal.

"I admit that I went to Thillot in secret," he answered in a changed
voice.

"Ah! Then you do not deny that you were attracted by the promises of
substantial payment for certain forged English notes which you could
furnish, eh?" grunted Bezard in satisfaction.

"I admit going to Thillot, but I deny your allegation," cried Paul in
quick protest.

"Then perhaps you will tell us the reason you took that early drive?"
asked a commissaire, with a short, hard laugh of disbelief.

The prisoner hesitated. It was a purely personal matter, one which
concerned himself alone.

"I regret, messieurs," was his slow reply, "I regret that I am
unable--indeed, I am not permitted to answer that question."

"Pray why?" inquired Bezard.

"Well--because it concerns a woman's honour," was the low, hoarse reply,
"the honour of the wife of a certain officer."

At those words of his the men interrogating him laughed in derision,
declaring it to be a very elegant excuse.

"It is no excuse!" he cried fiercely, again rising from his chair. "When
I have obtained permission to speak, messieurs, I will tell you the
truth. Until then I shall remain silent."

"Eh, bien!" snapped Bezard. "And so we will pass to the next and final
charge--that you prepared a statement in order to satisfy yourself
regarding the profits of your dealings in these spurious notes."

"I have no knowledge of such a thing!" Paul replied instantly.

"And yet for several weeks past a mysterious friend of yours has been
seen in the neighbourhood of your chateau. He has been staying in
Commercy and in Longuyon. I gave orders for his arrest, but, with his
usual cleverness, he escaped from Commercy."

"I prepared no statement."

"H'm!" grunted Bezard, looking straight into his flushed face. "You are
quite certain of that?"

"I swear I did not."

"Then perhaps you will deny that this is in your hand?" the director
asked slowly, with a grin, as he fixed his eyes upon