elegram she had
received at the garage was from Vagualame!... How could an arrested
Vagualame send her a telegram, and such a telegram?

This telegram, in their usual cypher, informed her that at all costs,
and at once, she must separate herself from Corporal Vinson, who was
not the real Vinson, but a counter-spy!... Bobinette all but fainted
from fright.... She must escape from this counter-spy!... Yet, owing
to the false Vinson's insistence, she had been forced to share his
room!... He did not mean to let her out of his sight, that was
plain!...

No sooner had the false Vinson gone down to the car in the morning
than Bobinette had slipped off, hot foot for Rouen. The gun piece was
left behind! The chauffeur would bear the brunt of that, thought
Bobinette, as she sped on her way. Later, she read of his arrest and
release.

Her meeting with Lieutenant de Loubersac and the sight of the false
Vinson's arrest at the Saint Lazare station showed the terrified girl
that things had gone mysteriously, hopelessly wrong!...

Without resources, Bobinette had pawned her few jewels. Then a letter
from Vagualame had reached her. She had obeyed the instructions it
contained.... That he had learned her address did not surprise her:
she knew he never lost track of those it was to his interest to keep
an eye on.

Before Vagualame's note reached her she had been worried and bored.

"I must make sure of shelter and protection if needs be," she
reflected: "I will look up Geoffrey. We will meet at _The Crying
Calf_, it is safe there!"

"Sit you down here, little Bobine!" suggested Hogshead Geoffrey....
"And now, what will you take?"

Bobinette ordered a gooseberry syrup.

"Quite the lady's drink," remarked mine host of the wine-shop with a
humorous air.

Brother and sister exchanged confidences.... The good Geoffrey told of
his fight, of situations obtained and lost, of fisticuff encounters,
of quarrels and blows.... Bobinette went so far as to say that she was
very happy, very much at her ease.

"Just imagine," said she: "I am companion to an old lady, a Russian,
who in her time has had trouble with the police of her country, I
think."

"The police? I don't like the police!" interrupted her brother.

"Who does?" ejaculated Bobinette. "Lots of people come to her house. I
go to all the dinners, all the parties!"

"Ah, then, you'll foot the bill, Bobine, if you have such a rich
situation?"

"I will pay, Geoffrey," said Bo