FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254  
255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   >>   >|  
Prefecture." Monferrand again walked to and fro with a pensive air, and ideas came to him as he spoke on in a slow, meditative fashion. "My orders! well, my orders, they are, first, that you must act with the very greatest prudence. Yes, don't gather a mob of promenaders together. Try to arrange things so that the arrest may pass unperceived--and if you secure a confession keep it to yourself, don't communicate it to the newspapers. Yes, I particularly recommend that point to you, don't take the newspapers into your confidence at all--and finally, come and tell me everything, and observe secrecy, absolute secrecy, with everybody else." Gascogne bowed and would have withdrawn, but Monferrand detained him to say that not a day passed without his friend Monsieur Lehmann, the Public Prosecutor, receiving letters from Anarchists who threatened to blow him up with his family; in such wise that, although he was by no means a coward, he wished his house to be guarded by plain-clothes officers. A similar watch was already kept upon the house where investigating magistrate Amadieu resided. And if the latter's life was precious, that of Public Prosecutor Lehmann was equally so, for he was one of those political magistrates, one of those shrewd talented Israelites, who make their way in very honest fashion by invariably taking the part of the Government in office. Then Gascogne in his turn remarked: "There is also the Barthes affair, Monsieur le Ministre--we are still waiting. Are we to arrest Barthes at that little house at Neuilly?" One of those chances which sometimes come to the help of detectives and make people think the latter to be men of genius had revealed to him the circumstance that Barthes had found a refuge with Abbe Pierre Froment. Ever since the Anarchist terror had thrown Paris into dismay a warrant had been out against the old man, not for any precise offence, but simply because he was a suspicious character and might, therefore, have had some intercourse with the Revolutionists. However, it had been repugnant to Gascogne to arrest him at the house of a priest whom the whole district venerated as a saint; and the Minister, whom he had consulted on the point, had warmly approved of his reserve, since a member of the clergy was in question, and had undertaken to settle the affair himself. "No, Monsieur Gascogne," he now replied, "don't move in the matter. You know what my feelings are, that we ought to hav
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   230   231   232   233   234   235   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254  
255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Gascogne
 

Monsieur

 

arrest

 

Barthes

 

secrecy

 

newspapers

 

Lehmann

 
affair
 

Prosecutor

 
Public

orders

 

Monferrand

 

fashion

 

chances

 

matter

 
Neuilly
 

waiting

 
priest
 

genius

 

repugnant


people

 
replied
 

detectives

 

Ministre

 

taking

 

Government

 

district

 
honest
 

invariably

 

office


feelings
 

remarked

 
revealed
 

circumstance

 

approved

 

precise

 

intercourse

 

Revolutionists

 

reserve

 

offence


simply

 

Minister

 

character

 
suspicious
 
warmly
 

consulted

 
warrant
 

dismay

 

venerated

 

settle