"You are in the service of the
Lieutenant of Police?"

"Oh, no, sir, I pray you," Jude hissed. "I am no spy, a poor Abbe only;
and in the name of the Church----"

"The Church is one of our enemies."

"But I am not in orders--a secular, a reader, a poor companion. Oh, let
me go and I will do you no harm. I have some money--eighty-five
florins--at my lodgings; let me but go and bring it."

"And betray us all!" screamed Wife Gougeon. "No, Monsieur Abbe. When you
go from here it will not be to sing."

"Monsieur will doubtless sign an order for us to draw this sum," said
the Admiral most suavely.

"Immediately on my release," gasped the Abbe.

"It is more just that we should have the money first."

"But I am dying of fear. I have no courage. Listen, listen, I pray of
you good people. I shall give you all I have and fly from you for ever
as far as I can."

"Unbind his right hand," commanded the leader. "Is there any paper
here?"

"His own book. I took it from his pocket," said Wife Gougeon, handing
over a note-book.

The Admiral pounced upon it. The first entry he read aloud was headed
"_Hache--ex-convict_," succeeded by a description; following it were
memoranda concerning several others of the gang; further on, the number
and street of the shop, and at length an entry: "_The Admiral, an
individual of Brittany, who seems to have some connection with these
people._"

"Oho!" he cried, "Monsieur Abbe, what do you say to this?"

A hoarse, long groan was the reply.

Femme Gougeon came over to him, and putting her glittering eyes just
over his, caught his neck with her left hand, and stretching her right
up to Gougeon said "A knife!"

"No," the Admiral exclaimed peremptorily. "What would you do with the
blood? To the rats with him rather, like the others. Hache, the trap."

The ex-felon staggered across a pile of scraps, and raised a triplet of
planks which covered a pit. A sickening odour arose.

"Down with him," continued the robber Captain.

"But his money?" murmured Gougeon.

"Never mind it."

All the men present caught up Jude and hurried him quickly over the
gaping hole, in which he could hear a scuttling of vermin feet and a
chorus of squeaks.

"May the next be Repentigny!" the Admiral began. "Now up with him----"

A death-like hiss rose from Jude's lips, "Repentigny? He is my enemy
too. I will be your slave. I have too much fear of you to ever harm you.
Let me tell you about this Repentigny.