briefest delay; yet he found me here
before him. He swore fearfully, his face black, his moustachios stiff
with rage.

'What is this? What is it?' he cried. 'Where is the man?'

'What man?' I said.

'This Cocheforet!' he roared, carried away by his passion. 'Don't lie to
me! He is here, and I will have him!'

'You are too late,' I said, watching him heedfully. 'M. de Cocheforet is
here, but he has already surrendered to me, and is my prisoner.'

'Your prisoner?'

'Certainly!' I answered, facing the man with all the harshness I could
muster. 'I have arrested him by virtue of the Cardinal's commission
granted to me. And by virtue of the same I shall keep him.'

'You will keep him?'

'I shall!'

He stared at me for a moment, utterly aghast; the picture of defeat.
Then on a sudden I saw his face lighten with, a new idea.

'It is a d--d ruse!' he shouted, brandishing his pistol like a madman.
'It is a cheat and a fraud! By God! you have no commission! I see
through it! I see through it all! You have come here, and you have
hocussed us! You are of their side, and this is your last shift to save
him!'

'What folly is this?' I said contemptuously.

'No folly at all,' he answered, perfect conviction in his tone. 'You
have played upon us. You have fooled us. But I see through it now. An
hour ago I exposed you to that fine Madame at the house there, and I
thought it a marvel that she did not believe me. I thought it a marvel
that she did not see through you, when you stood there before her,
confounded, tongue-tied, a rogue convicted. But I understand now. She
knew you. She was in the plot, and you were in the plot, and I, who
thought that I was opening her eyes, was the only one fooled. But it
is my turn now. You have played a bold part and a clever one,' he
continued, a sinister light in his little eyes,' and I congratulate you.
But it is at an end now, Monsieur. You took us in finely with your talk
of Monseigneur, and his commission and your commission, and the rest.
But I am not to be blinded any longer--or bullied. You have arrested
him, have you? You have arrested him. Well, by G--, I shall arrest him,
and I shall arrest you too.'

'You are mad!' I said staggered as much by this new view of the matter
as by his perfect certainty. 'Mad, Lieutenant.'

'I was,' he snarled. 'But I am sane now. I was mad when you imposed upon
us, when you persuaded me to think that you were fooling the women to
get the secret o