a phrase here and there--saw the horror-stricken faces of
those who had seen, the placid, bovine expression of the two
_gardiens_, more inured to such sights and calmly taking notes by the
light of the electric standard.

"But to think that I drove that rascally murderer in my cab, and put
him down safe and sound not ten minutes ago!" came with the adjunct of
a loud oath from the irate chauffeur.

"How did it all occur?"

The _gardiens_ tried to stem the flow of the driver's eloquence; such
details should first be given to the police. _Voyons!_ But what were
two fat _mouchards_ against twenty stalwart idlers all determined to
hear--and then there were the women--they were determined to know
more.

Louisa bent her ear to listen. She was just outside the crowd--not a
part of it--and there was no really morbid curiosity in her. It was
only the call of the imagination which is irresistible on these
occasions--the prosy, matter-of-fact, high-bred girl could not, just
then, tear herself away from that cab and the tragedy which had been
enacted therein, in the mysterious darkness whilst the unconscious
driver sped along, ignorant of the gruesome burden which he was
dragging to its destination.

"_Voila!_" he was saying with many ejaculations and expletives, and a
volley of excited gestures. "Outside the _Parc_ near the theatre two
bourgeois hailed me, and one of them told me to draw up at the top of
the Galerie St. Hubert, which I did. The same one--the one who had
told me where to go--got out, clapped the door to and spoke a few
words to his friend who had remained inside."

"What did he say?"

"Oh! I couldn't hear and I didn't listen. But after that he told me to
drive on to Boulevard Waterloo No. 34 and here I am."

"You suspected nothing?"

"Nothing, how should I? Two bourgeois get into my cab; I see nothing;
I hear nothing. One of them gets out and tells me to drive on farther.
How should I think there's anything wrong?"

"What was the other man like? The one who spoke to you?"

"_Ma foi!_ I don't know. . . . It was raining so fast and pitch dark
just outside the _Parc_ lights--and he did seem to keep in the
shadow--now I come to think of it--and his cap--he wore a cap--was
pulled well over his face--and the collar of his coat was up to his
nose. It was raining so, I didn't really see him properly. I saw the
other one better--the one who has been murdered."

But the rotund _gardiens_ had had enough of thi