"Go and tell that gentleman that I should like to ask him a few
questions."

They looked about for the gentleman. Some one had seen him standing on
the steps, lighting a cigarette. The next news was that he had given
cigarettes to a group of soldiers and strolled toward the lake, saying
that they were to call him if he was wanted.

They called him. No one replied.

But a soldier came running up. The gentleman had just got into a boat
and was rowing away for all he was worth. The commissary looked at
Gilbert and realized that he had been tricked:

"Stop him!" he shouted. "Fire on him! He's an accomplice!..."

He himself rushed out, followed by two policemen, while the others
remained with the prisoners. On reaching the bank, he saw the gentleman,
a hundred yards away, taking off his hat to him in the dusk.

One of the policemen discharged his revolver, without thinking.

The wind carried the sound of words across the water. The gentleman
was singing as he rowed:

"Go, little bark,
Float in the dark..."

But the commissary saw a skiff fastened to the landing-stage of the
adjoining property. He scrambled over the hedge separating the two