d him--to forget it, and all belonging to it. How
was I to guess you knew anything about--about that place _la bas_?"

"And why should I not know about it?" replied Mueller, flashing a rapid
glance at me.

Guichet was silent.

"What if I tell you that I am particularly interested in--that place _la
bas_?"

"Well, that may be. People used to come sometimes, I remember--artists
and writers, and so on."

"Naturally."

"But I don't remember to have ever seen you, M'sieur Mueller."

"You did not observe me, _mon cher_--or it may have been before, or
after your time."

"Yes, that's true," replied Guichet, ponderingly. "How long ago was it,
M'sieur Mueller?"

Mueller glanced at me again. His game, hitherto so easy, was beginning to
grow difficult.

"Eh, _mon Dieu_!" he said, indifferently, "how can I tell? I have
knocked about too much, now here, now there, in the course of my life,
to remember in what particular year this or that event may have
happened. I am not good at dates, and never was."

"But you remember seeing me there?"

"Have I not said so?"

Guichet took a couple of turns about the room. He looked flushed and
embarrassed.

"There is one thing I should like to know," he said, abruptly. "Where
was I? What was I doing when you saw me?"

Mueller was at fault now, for the first time.

"Where were you?" he repeated. "Why, there--where we said just now. _La
bas_."

"No, no--that's not what I mean. Was I .... was I in the uniform of the
Garde Chiourme?"

The color rushed into Mueller's face as, flashing a glance of exultation
at me, he replied:--

"Assuredly, _mon ami_. In that, and no other."

The model drew a deep breath.

"And Bras de Fer?" he said. "Was he working in the quarries ?"

"Bras de Fer! Was that the name he went by in those days?"

"Ay--Bras de Fer--_alias_ Coupe-gorge--_alias_ Triphot--_alias_
Lenoir--_alias_ a hundred other names. Bras de Fer was the one he went
by at Toulon--and a real devil he was in the Bagnes! He escaped three
times, and was twice caught and brought back again. The third time he
killed one sentry, injured another for life, and got clear off. That was
five years ago, and I left soon after. I suppose, if you saw him in
Paris the other day, he has kept clear of Toulon ever since."

"But was he in for life?" said Mueller, eagerly.

"_Travaux forces a perpetuite_," replied Guichet, touching his own
shoulder significantly with the thumb of his right hand.