for the beautiful creature to laugh and to make merry. She had
cruelly deceived me, played upon the chords of my sensitive heart for
purposes which no doubt would presently be made clear, but in the
meanwhile since the smuggling of the English files had been
successful--as it apparently was--what had become of Leroux and his
gendarmes?

What tragedy had been enacted in the narrow gorge of St. Cergues, and
what, oh! what had become of my hopes of that five thousand francs for
the apprehension of the smugglers, promised me by Leroux? Can you
wonder that for the moment the very thought of dinner was abhorrent to
me? But only for the moment. The next a sumptuous valet had thrown
open the folding-doors, and down the vista of the stately apartment I
perceived a table richly laden with china and glass and silver, whilst
a distinctly savoury odour was wafted to my nostrils.

"We will not answer a single question," the fair Angele reiterated
with adorable determination, "until after we have dined."

What, Sir, would you have done in my place? I believe that never until
this hour had Hector Ratichon reached to such a sublimity of manner. I
bowed with perfect dignity in token of obedience to the fair creature,
Sir; then without a word I offered her my arm. She placed her hand
upon it, and I conducted her to the dining-room, whilst Aristide
Fournier, who at this hour should have been on a fair way to being
hanged, followed in our wake.

Ah! it seemed indeed a lovely dream: one that lasted through an
excellent and copious dinner, and which turned to delightful reality
when, over a final glass of succulent Madeira, Monsieur Aristide
Fournier slowly counted out one hundred notes, worth one hundred
francs each, and presented these to me with a gracious nod.

"Your fee, Monsieur," he said, "and allow me to say that never have I
paid out so large a sum with such a willing hand."

"But I have done nothing," I murmured from out the depths of my
bewilderment.

Mademoiselle Angele and Monsieur Fournier looked at one another, and,
no doubt, I presented a very comical spectacle; for both of them burst
into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

"Indeed, Monsieur," quoth Monsieur Fournier as soon as he could speak
coherently, "you have done everything that you set out to do and done
it with perfect chivalry. You conveyed 'the toys' safely over the
frontier as far as St. Claude."

"But how?" I stammered, "how?"

Again Mademoiselle Ange