apin had made his report, "you have found the
real Captain la Jonquiere, then?"

"Yes, monseigneur."

"Is he called La Jonquiere?"

"Yes, monseigneur."

"L-a, la; J-o-n, jon; q-u-i-e-r-e, quiere?" continued he, spelling the
word.

"La Jonquiere," repeated Tapin.

"A captain."

"Yes, monseigneur."

"What is he doing?"

"Waiting and drinking."

"That must be he," said Dubois; "and does he pay?"

He evidently attached great importance to the question.

"Very well, monsieur."

"A la bonne heure, Tapin. You have some sense."

"Monseigneur," said Tapin, modestly, "you flatter me; it is quite clear,
if he had not paid he could not have been a dangerous man."

Dubois gave him ten louis as a reward, gave him some further orders, and
set out at once to go to the Rue des Bourdonnais.

Let us say a word regarding the interior of the hotel. It was partly
hotel, partly public house; the dwelling rooms were on the first-floor,
and the tavern rooms on the ground-floor.

The principal of these, the common room, had four oak tables, and a
quantity of red and white curtains; some benches along the walls, some
glasses on a sideboard, some handsomely framed pictures, all blackened
and rendered nauseous by smoke, completed the tout ensemble of this
room, in which sat a fat man, with a red face, thirty-five or forty
years old, and a little pale girl of twelve or fourteen.

This was the landlord and his only daughter and heiress.

A servant was cooking a ragout in the kitchen.

As the clock struck one, a French guard entered, and stopping at the
threshold, murmured, "Rue des Bourdonnais, Muids d'Amour, in the common
room, to sit at the table on the left, and wait."

Then, in accordance with this, the worthy defender of his country,
whistling a tune and twirling his mustache, seated himself at the place
indicated.

Scarcely had he had time to seat himself and strike his fist on the
table, which, in the language of all taverns, means "Some wine," than a
second guard, dressed exactly like the first, appeared at the door,
murmured some words, and, after a little hesitation, seated himself by
the other.

The two soldiers looked at each other, and both exclaimed:

"Ah!" which in all languages means surprise.

"It is you, Grippart," said one.

"It is you, L'Eulevant," said the other.

"What are you doing in this tavern?"

"And you?"

"I do not know."

"Nor I."

"You come here, then?"

[Illustration: CAPTA