ground floor; but I had fallen on my knees, and now,
as I picked myself up, I looked up, and it seemed to me as if I saw
Theodore's ugly face at his attic window. Certainly there was a light
there, and I may have been mistaken as to Theodore's face being
visible. The very next second the light was extinguished and I was
left in doubt.

But I did not pause to think. In a moment I was across the garden, my
hands gripped the top of the wooden fence, I hoisted myself up--with
some difficulty, I confess--but at last I succeeded. I threw my leg
over and gently dropped down on the other side.

Then suddenly two rough arms encircled my waist, and before I could
attempt to free myself a cloth was thrown over my head, and I was
lifted up and carried away, half suffocated and like an insentient
bundle.

When the cloth was removed from my face I was half sitting, half
lying, in an arm-chair in a strange room which was lighted by an oil
lamp that hung from the ceiling above. In front of me stood M. Arthur
Geoffroy and that beast Theodore.

M. Arthur Geoffroy was coolly folding up the two valuable papers for
the possession of which I had risked a convict ship and New Caledonia,
and which would have meant affluence for me for many days to come.

It was Theodore who had removed the cloth from my face. As soon as I
had recovered my breath I made a rush for him, for I wanted to
strangle him. But M. Arthur Geoffroy was too quick and too strong for
me. He pushed me back into the chair.

"Easy, easy, M. Ratichon," he said pleasantly; "do not vent your wrath
upon this good fellow. Believe me, though his actions may have
deprived you of a few thousand francs, they have also saved you from
lasting and biting remorse. This document, which you stole from M. de
Marsan and so ingeniously duplicated, involved the honour of our King
and our country, as well as the life of an innocent man. My sister's
fiance would never have survived the loss of the document which had
been entrusted to his honour."

"I would have returned it to Mademoiselle to-morrow," I murmured.

"Only one copy of it, I think," he retorted; "the other you would have
sold to whichever spy of the Danish or Russian Governments happened to
have employed you in this discreditable business."

"How did you know?" I said involuntarily.

"Through a very simple process of reasoning, my good M. Ratichon," he
replied blandly. "You are a very clever man, no doubt, but the
cleverest