rvice, in the execution
of my duty. It is not the first time, but now you must answer for
it."

"Dear me!" said the General in the same flippant, irritating tone.

"You will have to accompany me now to the Prefecture."

"And if it does not suit me to go?"

"I will have you carried there, bound, tied hand and foot, by the
police, like any common rapscallion taken in the act who resists
the authority of an officer."

"Oho, you talk very big, sir. Perhaps you will be so obliging as
to tell me what I have done."

"You have connived at the escape of a criminal from justice--"

"That lady? Psha!"

"She is charged with a heinous crime--that in which you yourself
were implicated--the murder of that man on the train."

"Bah! You must be a stupid goose, to hint at such a thing! A lady
of birth, breeding, the highest respectability--impossible!"

"All that has not prevented her from allying herself with base,
common wretches. I do not say she struck the blow, but I believe
she inspired, concerted, approved it, leaving her confederates to
do the actual deed."

"Confederates?"

"The man Ripaldi, your Italian fellow traveller; her maid,
Hortense Petitpre, who was missing this morning."

The General was fairly staggered at this unexpected blow. Half an
hour ago he would have scouted the very thought, indignantly
repelled the spoken words that even hinted a suspicion of Sabine
Castagneto. But that telegram, signed Ripaldi, the introduction of
the maid's name, and the suggestion that she was troublesome, the
threat that if the Countess did not go, they would come to her,
and her marked uneasiness thereat--all this implied plainly the
existence of collusion, of some secret relations, some secret
understanding between her and the others.

He could not entirely conceal the trouble that now overcame him;
it certainly did not escape so shrewd an observer as M. Flocon,
who promptly tried to turn it to good account.

"Come, M. le General," he said, with much assumed _bonhomie_. "I
can see how it is with you, and you have my sincere sympathy. We
are all of us liable to be carried away, and there is much excuse
for you in this. But now--believe me, I am justified in saying it
--now I tell you that our case is strong against her, that it is
not mere speculation, but supported by facts. Now surely you will
come over to our side?"

"In what way?"

"Tell us frankly all you know--where that lady has gone, help us
to lay our h