elling at a horrifying speed was
assuming a serious look, my sister and cousins at length decided that
they had no alternative but to give us away. They had, of course,
realised that Pong was implicated from the beginning. Consequently,
with the flourish of one who has hit upon the solution of a problem,
they divulged our existence. They were politely, but wholly
disbelieved. In reply, they had politely, but confidently, invited the
police to wait and see....

For over four hours they had anxiously awaited the arrival of Pong.
When at last the humiliating truth began to dawn upon them, and it
became evident that we had ruled Vendome out of our itinerary, the
shock of realising, not only that they were to be denied an opportunity
of refuting the charges preferred, but that they were destined to leave
the town branded as three of the biggest and most unsuccessful liars
ever encountered, had well-nigh reduced Daphne and Jill to tears. And
when, upon the sickly resumption of negotiations, it appeared highly
probable that they would not be permitted to proceed, Jill had wept
openly....

France is nothing if not emotional.

Visibly affected by her distress, the police had immediately become
less hostile. Observing this, Daphne had discreetly followed her
cousin's example. Before the sledge-hammer blows of their lamentation
two gendarmes began to sniff and a third broke down. The girls
redoubled their sobs. They were practically there.

"You never saw anything like it," concluded Jonah. "Within three
minutes four of the police were crying, and the head bottle-washer was
beating his breast and imploring me in broken accents to explain away
my guilt. I threw five hundred francs on his desk and covered my eyes.
With tears rolling down his cheeks, he pushed the notes under a
blotting-pad and wrote laboriously upon a buff sheet. Then a woman was
produced. Between explosions of distress she made us some tea. In
common decency we couldn't push off for a while. Besides, I wasn't
quite sure that it was all over. However, everybody seemed too
overcome to say anything, so, after a bit, we chanced it and made a
move for the car. To my relief, they actually helped us in, and two of
them fought as to who should start us up." He looked round coldly.
"And now, perhaps, you'll be good enough to tell us what we've been
punished for."

I told what there was to tell.

As I came to the end. Berry nodded at Jonah.

"Yes