. "Where are they?"

"Here!" I answered, swallowing my rage as well as I might. "I am M.
Gringuet's deputy, and if you do not this instant--"

"M. Gringuet's deputy! Ho! ho!" he said. "Why, you fool, M.
Gringuet's deputy arrived two hours before you. You must get up a
little earlier another time. They are poor tricksters who are too late
for the fair. And now be silent, and it may save you a stripe or two
to-morrow."

There are situations in which even the greatest find it hard to
maintain their dignity, and this was one. I looked at Maignan and La
Trape, and they at me, and by the light of the lanthorn which the
latter held I saw that they were smiling, doubtless at the dilemma in
which we had innocently placed ourselves. But I found nothing to laugh
at in the position; since the people outside might at any moment leave
us where we were to fast until morning; and, after a moment's
reflection, I called out to know who the speaker on the other side was.

"I am M. de Fonvelle," he answered.

"Well, M. de Fonvelle," I replied, "I advise you to have a care what
you do. I am M. Gringuet's deputy. The other man is an impostor."

He laughed.

"He has no papers," I cried.

"Oh, yes, he has!" he answered, mocking me. "M. Curtin has seen them,
my fine fellow, and he is not one to pay money without warrant."

At this several laughed, and a quavering voice chimed in with "Oh, yes,
he has papers! I have seen them. Still, in a case--"

"There!" M. Fonvelle cried, drowning the other's words. "Now are you
satisfied--you in there?"

But M. Curtin had not done. "He has papers," he piped again in his
thin voice.

"Still, M. de Fonvelle, it is well to be cautious, and--"

"Tut, tut! it is all right."

"He has papers, but he has no authority!" I shouted.

"He has seals," Fonvelle answered. "It is all right."

"It is all wrong!" I retorted. "Wrong, I say! Go to your man, and
you will find him gone--gone with your money, M. Curtin."

Two or three laughed, but I heard the sound of feet hurrying away, and
I guessed that Curtin had retired to satisfy himself. Nevertheless, the
moment which followed was an anxious one, since, if my random shot
missed, I knew that I should find myself in a worse position than
before. But judging--from the fact that the deputy had not confronted
us himself--that he was an impostor, to whom Gringuet's illness had
suggested the scheme on which I had myself hit, I hoped