"An escaped prisoner, more like," suggested the Doctor; "broken out
of Dartmoor, and hiding there for a chance to slip across."

"Monsieur le Lieutenant has guessed," the little man answered,
turning affably to the Doctor. "A spy? No. It is not on purpose
that I find me near your fortifications--oh, not a bit! A prisoner
more like, as Monsieur says. It is three days that I was a prisoner,
and now look here, a prisoner again. Alas! will Monsieur le
Capitaine do me the honour to confide the name of his corps so
gallant?"

"The Two Looes."

"_La Toulouse!_ But it is singular that we also have a Toulouse--"

"Hey?" broke in Second Lieutenant Clogg.

"I assure Monsieur that I say the truth."

"Well, go on; only it don't sound natural."

"Not that I have seen it"--("Ha!" commented Mr. Clogg)--"for it lies
in the south, and I am from the north: Jean Alphonse Marie Trinquier,
instructor of music, Rue de la Madeleine quatr '-vingt-neuf, Dieppe."

"Instructor of music?" echoed Captain Pond and the Doctor quickly and
simultaneously, and their eyes met.

"And _Directeur des Fetes Periodiques_ to the Municipality of Dieppe.
All the Sundays, you comprehend, upon the sands--_poum poum!_ while