no choice. For the moment, they must
believe the two of us dead--and leave me the peace to which a
prospective honest man is entitled. Later on, when I have given you
your liberty, you can talk as much as you please--I shall have nothing
more to fear."

By the way in which Lupin clutched his arm, Beautrelet felt that all
resistance was useless. Besides, why resist? Had he not discovered and
handed over the Hollow Needle? What did he care about the rest? Had he
not the right to humor the irresistible sympathy with which, in spite
of everything, this man inspired him?

The feeling was so clear in him that he was half inclined to say to
Lupin:

"Look here, you're running another, a more serious danger; Holmlock
Shears is on your track."

"Come along!" said Lupin, before Isidore had made up his mind to speak.

He obeyed and let Lupin lead him to the boat, the shape of which struck
him as peculiar and its appearance quite unexpected.

Once on deck, they went down a little steep staircase, or rather a
ladder hooked on to a trap door, which closed above their heads. At the
foot of the ladder, brightly lit by a lamp, was a very small saloon,
where Raymonde was waiting for them and where the three had just room
to sit down.

Lupin took the mouthpiece of a speaking tube from a hook and gave the
order:

"Let her go, Charolais!"

Isidore had the unpleasant sensation which one feels when going down in
a lift: the sensation of the ground vanishing beneath you, the
impression of emptiness, space. This time, it was the water retreating;
and space opened out, slowly.

"We're sinking, eh?" grinned Lupin. "Don't be afraid--we've only to
pass from the upper cave where we were to another little cave, situated
right at the bottom and half open to the sea, which can be entered at
low tide. All the shellfish-catchers know it. Ah, ten seconds' wait!
We're going through the passage and it's very narrow, just the size of
the submarine."

"But," asked Beautrelet, "how is it that the fishermen who enter the
lower cave don't know that it's open at the top and that it
communicates with another from which a staircase starts and runs
through the Needle? The facts are at the disposal of the first-comer."

"Wrong, Beautrelet! The top of the little public cave is closed, at low
tide, by a movable platform, painted the color of the rock, which the
sea, when it rises, shifts and carries up with it and, when it goes
down, fastens firmly ove