For the present, if you tell all you know, you
shall go free.
There was shouting and a great noise of hurrying
feet.
Dorje has invented something new, thats all.
Wecould not escape by way of the corridor.
And the startling thing was,not that they were
there but that they looked like gentlemen.
I will tell you, face to face, as one friend to
another. And now they tell me that the other set on fire thePrefecture. You ought to
be able to guess thatfrom experience. Someone ran in from the switchboard to say
that the Prefect waswanted at once on the phone. You may set down what wassaid to
you, and what you said, and what you overheard.
And now they tell me that the other set on fire
thePrefecture.
A man in uniform stood outside the passage. Guido
put that brass thing in Harouns cabin, I suggested. Hespoke, but I could not catch
what he said because of the noisethe crowd was making.
He beckoned me, and I stood guard over the
Princess.
I demanded, in the best French Ican muster.
Jeemgreem, you and I must talk alone together.
There was nothing in front thatwould come
open.
The door opened and two detectivesentered,
escorting Haroun, looking sheepish. He had permitted de la Tournee to stealfor his
own use two of Dorjes weapons. She considers you a great oaf and she believes Im
wonderful. Even the Prefect might be heraccomplice, or at least her
dupe.
Two were missing fromthe barrels in which they were
delivered. Dorje has a saying, that they are fortunate who die before thegame
begins.
So Jeff and I went in search of her, not relishing
our job.
It isnt that thebrave old fellow had to die. And
you have brought your famousand inseparable R-Ramsden.
Play the fool with her and make her think youre
clever, heretorted. Wasnt Baltis the name of the Queen of Sheba?