I came impulsively to the conclusion that there was just one course for my taking:  to see her and to beg, bully, or wheedle from her the unvarnished truth.  Then, if it was as I feared, she should go back to Paris if I had to carry her; she should accompany me to Bordeaux, and on the first steamer she should sail from France.  Yes; and the army should have its papers, for she should tell me where they were hidden.  Her work should end; but these men upstairs should not track her and trap her and drag her off to prison, perhaps to death.

There was danger in the plan, even if I should accomplish it.  I should get myself into trouble, dark and deep.  Well, if I had to languish behind bars for a while I could survive it.  But she might not.  As I thought of this I knew that I had made up my mind irrevocably.

It was a problem, nevertheless, to arrange an interview, with Van Blarcom sitting at his window, watching me like a lynx.  I couldn’t go up the stairs and batter on her door till she opened it; apart from the reception she would give me it would simply amount to making a present of my intentions to the men across the way.  Yet who knew how long they would keep up their surveillance?  Till I retired, probably!  “I’d give something to choke you and be done with it!” was the benediction I wafted toward the sentinel above.

I was owning myself at my wit’s end when a ray of hope was vouchsafed me.  The kitchen door opened and let out a leather-clad figure which strode across the courtyard, lantern in hand, and let itself into the garage.  Despite the dimness, I recognized Miss Falconer’s chauffeur, the man she had addressed as Georges when they left the rue St. Dominique.  The very link I needed, provided I could get into communication with him in some unostentatious way.

I rose, stretched myself lazily, and began to pace the court.  Perhaps a dozen times I crossed and recrossed it, each turn taking me past the garage and affording me a brief glance within.  The chauffeur, coat flung aside, sleeves rolled up, was hard at work overhauling his engine, with an obvious view to efficiency upon the morrow.  Up at the window I could see the glowing cigar-tip move now to this side, now to that.  Not for an instant was Van Blarcom allowing me to escape from sight.

After taking one more turn I halted, yawned audibly for the sentry’s benefit, and seated myself once more, this time on a bench by the door of the garage.  Van Blarcom’s cigar became stationary again.  The chauffeur, who had satisfied himself as to the engine and was now passing critical fingers over the gashes in the tires, looked up at me casually and then resumed his work.  Kneeling there, his tools about him, he was plainly visible in the light of the smoky lantern.  He was a young man, twenty-three or-four perhaps, strongly built and obviously of French-peasant stock, with honest blue eyes and a face not unduly intelligent, but thoroughly frank and open in the cast.  The actors in my drama, I had to own, were puzzling.  This lad looked no more fitted than Miss Falconer for a treacherous role.