"This is not right," he growled, "this is not kind. You are poking
fun at me. I take the thing seriously; I listen to you, I obey you
in everything, and then you mock me in this way. We find a clue,
and instead of following it up, you stop to relate all these absurd
stories."

"No," replied his companion, "I am not jesting, and I have told you
nothing of which I am not absolutely sure, nothing that is not strictly
and indisputably true."

"And you would have me believe--"

"Fear nothing, papa; I would not have you do violence to your
convictions. When I have told you my reasons, and my means of
information, you will laugh at the simplicity of the theory that seems
so incomprehensible to you now."

"Go on, then," said the good man, in a tone of resignation.

"We had decided," rejoined Lecoq, "that the accomplice mounted guard
here. The time seemed long, and, growing impatient, he paced to and
fro--the length of this log of wood--occasionally pausing to listen.
Hearing nothing, he stamped his foot, doubtless exclaiming: 'What the
deuce has happened to him down there!' He had made about thirty turns (I
have counted them), when a sound broke the stillness--the two women were
coming."

On hearing Lecoq's recital, all the conflicting sentiments that are
awakened in a child's mind by a fairy tale--doubt, faith, anxiety,