"So you think that it was through the revelations in the diary . . . ?" "Why, yes, Sire! He had time to read them. And, lurking I don't know where, kept informed of all our movements by I don't know whom, he put me to sleep last night, in order to get rid of me." "But the palace was guarded." "Guarded by your soldiers, Sire. Does that count with a man like him? Besides, I have no doubt that Waldemar concentrated his search upon the out-buildings, thus thinning the posts in the palace." "But the sound of the clock! Those twelve strokes in the night!" "It was mere child's play, Sire, mere child's play, to him, to prevent the clock from striking!" "All this seems very impossible to my mind." "It all seems monstrous clear to mine, Sire! If it were possible to feel in every one of your soldiers' pockets here and now, or to know how much money they will each of them spend during the next twelve months, we should be sure to find two or three who are, at this moment, in possession of a few bank-notes: French bank-notes, of course." "Oh!" protested Waldemar. "But yes, my dear count, it is a question of price; and that makes no difference to 'him.' If 'he' wished, I am sure that you yourself . . ." The Emperor, wrapped up in his own thoughts, was not listening. He walked across the room from left to right and right to left, then beckoned to one of the officers standing in the gallery: "My car. . . . And tell them to get ready. . . . We're starting." He stopped, watched Lupin for a moment and, going up to the count: "You too, Waldemar, be off . . . Straight to Paris, without a break . . ." Lupin pricked up his ears. He heard Waldemar reply: "I should like to have a dozen additional guards. . . . With that devil of a man. . . ." "Take them. And look sharp. You must get there to-night." Lupin stamped his foot violently on the floor: "Well, no, Sire! No, no, no! It shan't be, I swear it shan't! No, no never!" "What do you mean?" "And the letters, Sire? The stolen letters?" "Upon my word! . . ." "So!" cried Lupin, indignantly folding his arms. "So your Imperial Majesty gives up the struggle? You look upon the defeat as irretrievable? You declare yourself beaten? Well, I do not, Sire. I have begun and I mean to finish." The Emperor smiled at this display of mettle: "I do not give up, but my police will set to work." Lupin burst out laughing: "Excuse me, Sire! It is so funny! Your police! Your Imperial Majesty's police! Why, they're worth just about as much as any other police, that is to say, nothing, nothing at all! No, Sire, I will not return to the Santé! Prison I can afford to laugh at. But time enough has been wasted as it is. I need my freedom against that man and I mean to keep it." The Emperor shrugged his shoulders: "You don't even know who the man is."