uns of sportsmen were still noisy through the tufted plain) the
_Cigarette_ was drawing near at his more philosophic pace. In those days
of liberty and health he was the constant partner of the _Arethusa_, and
had ample opportunity to share in that gentleman's disfavour with the
police. Many a bitter bowl had he partaken of with that disastrous
comrade. He was himself a man born to float easily through life, his
face and manner artfully recommending him to all. There was but one
suspicious circumstance he could not carry off, and that was his
companion. He will not readily forget the Commissary in what is
ironically called the free town of Frankfort-on-the-Main; nor the
Franco-Belgian frontier; nor the inn at La Fere; last, but not least, he
is pretty certain to remember Chatillon-sur-Loire.

At the town entry, the gendarme culled him like a wayside flower; and a
moment later two persons in a high state of surprise were confronted in
the Commissary's office. For if the _Cigarette_ was surprised to be
arrested, the Commissary was no less taken aback by the appearance and
appointments of his captive. Here was a man about whom there could be no
mistake: a man of an unquestionable and unassailable manner, in
apple-pie order, dressed not with neatness merely but elegance, ready
with his passport at a word, and well supplied with money: a man the
Commissary would have doffed his hat to on chance upon the highway; and
this _beau cavalier_ unblushingly claimed the _Arethusa_ for his
comrade! The conclusion of the interview was foregone; of its humours I
remember only one. "Baronet?" demanded the magistrate, glancing up from
the passport. "_Alors, monsieur, vous etes le fils d'un baron?_" And
when the _Cigarette_ (his one mistake throughout the interview) denied
the soft impeachment, "_Alors_," from the Commissary, "_ce n'est pas
voire passeport!_" But these were ineffectual thunders; he never dreamed
of laying hands upon the _Cigarette_; presently he fell into a mood of
unrestrained admiration, gloating over the contents of the knapsack,
commending our friend's tailor. Ah! what an honoured guest was the
Commissary entertaining! What suitable clothes he wore for the warm
weather! What beautiful maps, what an attractive work of history he
carried in his knapsack! You are to understand there was now but one
point of difference between them: what was to be done with the
_Arethusa_? the _Cigarette_ demanding his release, the Commissa