age.

But just as they were preparing to leave the place, having been released
by the officer, Count D'Orsay uttered an exclamation, and pointed to a
_fauteuil_--an easy chair--by the window.

"_Celui-la!_"

The officer stepped to the chair, and found, tucked between the cushion
and the arm, a silk purse, full of gold pieces.

Eric and Johnny were horror-stricken, and the good landlord was dumb with
astonishment.

The French count held up the purse triumphantly, and jingled the gold
before Eric's eyes, exclaiming, tauntingly,--

"It is mine, and I have it. The _prison_ is yours, and you shall have
it."

"Eric, Eric," cried Johnny, in agony of terror, "they _can't_ send us to
prison. We haven't done anything. We didn't know the money was there, or
the ring. O, what shall we do? Send for papa!"

Eric's face was very white, and his hand trembled visibly, as he wrote his
uncle's address on a card, and requested the landlord to send for him.

Count D'Orsay wished them to be at once conducted to prison: but this the
landlord would not allow, and the officer declared was unnecessarily
severe. They might remain in their room, with a guard, and the landlord
would be responsible for their remaining.

As soon as the detestable Frenchman had gone, Johnny threw himself at full
length upon the floor, crying violently. Eric could not comfort him, but
sat at the window, with a proud, defiant face and swelling heart.

Presently the kind landlord came again to them.

He had sent word by telegraph to Johnny's father, and received a return
message. Mr. Van Rasseulger would be with them by night.

This was comforting. And gradually the boys thought less and less of their
trouble, and became quite interested in making conjectures with the
landlord as to when and how the money and jewels came into their room, and
if Froll's disappearance could be owing to the same cause, or in any way
connected with it, and if she would probably return at night.

"It's an ill wind that blows nobody good," said Eric; "and perhaps, by
being detained here, we shall find her."

[Illustration: Eric and the French Count.--Page 143.]

"I don't care what they do when papa gets here," said Johnny, whose faith
in his father's power was limitless. "He'll just _fix_ that Count
D'Orsay."

Meanwhile Mr. Van Rasseulger was whizzing rapidly towards them in the
afternoon train, and another powerful friend was coming from an opposite
direction.

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