du
Docteur-Blanche!... Isn't rue Mozart barred at the end? Yes. The driver
must be going round by the boulevard Montmorency.... Ah, well! I am in
no hurry! There will be time enough for me to pay my respects to the
illustrious Jules!"

Just as Fandor was thus congratulating himself, he was thrown against
the side of his cell! The van seemed to have come into violent collision
with some object and had tilted over to a considerable extent.

Muffled oaths came from neighbouring cells; a stifled exclamation
reached Fandor's ears; then louder still, came the intermittent humming
and snorting of a motor-car.

"Confound you!... can't you pay attention to where you are going?...
Keep to your right!"

Slightly stunned, Fandor heard some one knocking.

A voice asked:

"Are you hurt?"

"No, but ..."

Already the questioner had moved away.

"Evidently," thought Fandor, "the driver wants to know whether his human
packages are damaged or not! We have collided with another vehicle!...
Cheerful!"

Fandor's cell was now at such an angle that he could only suppose that
the Salad Basket had had one of its wheels broken.

"What a nuisance!" he murmured. "Before they have finished their palaver
as to how the accident happened and have repaired the damage, we shall
have been here a full half-hour.... Jules will be in a temper!"

Minute succeeded minute, long, interminable minutes, and Fandor could
not hear clearly what was said, what was being done to put the Salad
Basket on its legs again.... The atmosphere in the little cell was
becoming intolerable; for the movement of the vehicle had driven fresh
air inside the shutter, and now that the Salad Basket was stationary,
the air was becoming almost unbreathable.

Fandor's nerves were on edge.

"It cannot be that they are going to leave us stranded here!" thought
he.... "Ah, now they have started repairs!" Fandor noticed that his cell
was gradually regaining its ordinary level.... A lifting-jack must have
been slipped under the vehicle, for there was a melancholy creaking
sound. They must be putting the wheel on again!...

"No," thought Fandor, after some time had passed. "Never would I have
supposed that it could have taken so much time to repair a Salad
Basket!... Why we shall soon have been stuck here for two mortal
hours!... I hope it won't make any difference to our going to the Depot,
nor stop my getting into close touch with that villain Jules!"

There was a furthe