"
"In other words, you are now a police-agent, and you were set to watch
for some one like me."
"Why not you?" asked Anatole, trying, but in vain, to fix him with his
watery eyes. "In any case," he went on, "I wish to serve a comrade--at
risk to myself, perhaps."
"You shall not suffer for it, never fear, in the long run. Count
always upon me."
"They may say that I have betrayed my trust; that I put friendship
before duty. That has always been my error; I have too soft a heart."
Anatole now began to cry with emotion at his own chivalrous
self-sacrifice, which changed quickly into bravado as he cried,
striking the table noisily--
"Who cares? I would save you from the Prefect himself."
At this moment the big man who had been watching at the window
returned, accompanied by two others. He walked straight towards the
door of the wine-shop.
"_Sacre bleu! le patron_ (chief). You are lost! Quick! take me by the
throat."
Hyde jumped to his feet and promptly obeyed the curious command.
"Now struggle; throw me to the ground, bolt through the back door,"
whispered Anatole, hastily.
All which Hyde executed promptly and punctiliously. Anatole suffered
him to do as he pleased, and Hyde escaped through the back entrance
just as the other policemen rushed in at the front.
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