sauntered; when
he ran I ran; when he glued his nose to the window of an eating house
I halted under a doorway close by; when he went to sleep on a bench in
the Luxembourg Gardens I watched over him as a mother over a babe.

Towards evening--it was an hour after sunset and the street-lamps were
just being lighted--he must have thought that he had at last got rid
of me; for, after looking carefully behind him, he suddenly started to
walk much faster and with an amount of determination which he had
lacked hitherto. I marvelled if he was not making for the Rue Daunou,
where was situated the squalid tavern of ill-fame which he was wont to
frequent. I was not mistaken.

I tracked the traitor to the corner of the street, and saw him
disappear beneath the doorway of the Taverne des Trois Tigres. I
resolved to follow. I had money in my pocket--about twenty-five
sous--and I was mightily thirsty. I started to run down the street,
when suddenly Theodore came rushing back out of the tavern, hatless
and breathless, and before I succeeded in dodging him he fell into my
arms.

"My money!" he said hoarsely. "I must have my money at once! You
thief! You . . ."

Once again my presence of mind stood me in good stead.

"Pull yourself together, Theodore," I said with much dignity, "and do
not make a scene in the open street."

But Theodore was not at all prepared to pull himself together. He
was livid with rage.

"I had five francs in my pocket last night!" he cried. "You have
stolen them, you abominable rascal!"

"And you stole from me a bracelet worth three thousand francs to the
firm," I retorted. "Give me that bracelet and you shall have your
money back."

"I can't," he blurted out desperately.

"How do you mean, you can't?" I exclaimed, whilst a horrible fear like
an icy claw suddenly gripped at my heart. "You haven't lost it, have
you?"

"Worse!" he cried, and fell up against me in semi-unconsciousness.

I shook him violently. I bellowed in his ear, and suddenly, after that
one moment of apparent unconsciousness, he became, not only wide
awake, but as strong as a lion and as furious as a bull. We closed in
on one another. He hammered at me with his fists, calling me every
kind of injurious name he could think of, and I had need of all my
strength to ward off his attacks.

For a few moments no one took much notice of us. Fracas and quarrels
outside the drinking-houses in the mean streets of Paris were so
frequent th