o
days ago.--Only, be quick, if you wish to find me here."

"Are you going?"

"Yes, I shall take the next train back."

"What!--Why, you don't know--your inquiry--"

"My inquiry is finished. I know pretty well all that I wanted to know.
I shall have left Cherbourg in an hour."

Froberval rose to go. He looked at Beautrelet with an air of absolute
bewilderment, hesitated a moment and then took his cap:

"Are you coming, Charlotte?"

"No," said Beautrelet, "I shall want a few more particulars. Leave her
with me. Besides, I want to talk to her. I knew her when she was quite
small."

Froberval went away. Beautrelet and the little girl remained alone in
the tavern smoking room. A few minutes passed, a waiter entered,
cleared away some cups and left the room again. The eyes of the young
man and the child met; and Beautrelet placed his hand very gently on
the little girl's hand. She looked at him for two or three seconds,
distractedly, as though about to choke. Then, suddenly hiding her head
between her folded arms, she burst into sobs.

He let her cry and, after a while, said:

"It was you, wasn't it, who did all the mischief, who acted as
go-between? It was you who took him the photograph? You admit it, don't
you? And, when you said that my father was in his room, two days ago,
you knew that it was not true, did you not, because you yourself had
helped him to leave it--?"

She made no reply. He asked:

"Why did you do it? They offered you money, I suppose--to buy ribbons
with a frock--?"

He uncrossed Charlotte's arms and lifted up her head. He saw a poor
little face all streaked with tears, the attractive, disquieting,
mobile face of one of those little girls who seem marked out for
temptation and weakness.

"Come," said Beautrelet, "it's over, we'll say no more about it. I will
not even ask you how it happened. Only you must tell me everything that
can be of use to me.--Did you catch anything--any remark made by those
men? How did they carry him off?"

She replied at once:

"By motor car. I heard them talking about it--"

"And what road did they take?"

"Ah, I don't know that!"

"Didn't they say anything before you--something that might help us?"

"No--wait, though: there was one who said, 'We shall have no time to
lose--the governor is to telephone to us at eight o'clock in the
morning--'"

"Where to?"

"I can't say.--I've forgotten--"

"Try--try and remember. It was the name of a town, wa