unfortunate creature acted like a madwoman, and when she felt my
arm round her waist, she cried in a hoarse voice:

"'I see it ... You have sold me ... You thought that I should expose
myself.... Oh! you filthy brutes--you filthy brutes!'

"And suddenly, passing from abuse to entreaties, pale and with
chattering teeth, she threw herself at my feet, and said, in a low
voice:

"'Listen to me, my dear: you don't look a bad sort of fellow, and you
would not like them to lock me up. I have a kid and the old woman to
keep. Hide me behind the bed, do, and please don't give me up.... I
will make it up to you, and you shall have no cause for grumbling....'

"At that moment however, the lock which they had unscrewed fell onto the
floor with a metallic sound, and Madame de Lauriere and the Police
Commissary, wearing his tricolored scarf, appeared in the door, while
behind them the heads of the uncle and of the lawyer could be seen
indistinctly in the background.

"The girl had uttered a cry of terror and going up to the Commissary she
said, panting:

"'I swear to you that I am not guilty, that I was not ... I will tell
you everything if you will promise me not to tell them that I spilt, for
they would pay me out....'

"The Commissary, who was surprised, but who guessed that there was
something which was not quite clear behind all this, forgot to draw up
his report, and so the lawyer went up to him and said:

"'Well, monsieur, what are we waiting for?'

"But he paid no attention to anything but the woman, and looking at her
sharply and suspiciously through his gold-rimmed spectacles, he said to
her in a hard voice:

"'Your names and surnames?'

"'Juliette Randal, or as I am generally called, Jujutte Pipehead.'

"'So you will swear you were not--'

"She interrupted him eagerly:

"'I swear it, monsieur, and I know that my little man had nothing to do
with it either. He was only keeping a look-out while the others collared
the swag. ... I will swear that I can account for every moment of my
time that night. Roquin was drunk, and told me everything.... They got
five thousand francs from Daddy Zacharias, and of course Roquin had his
share, but he did not work with his partners. It was Minon Menilmuche,
whom they call _Drink-without-Thirst_, who held the gardener's hands,
and who bled him with a blow from his knife.'

"The Commissary let her run on, and when she had finished, he questioned
me, as if I had belonged to J