"No, it's not necessary. I will let you know all that Steinweg says. May I see you down to your carriage? These three flights are rather steep. . . ." He opened the door and stood back to let her pass. At that moment shouts were heard in the passage and people came running up, inspectors on duty, office-messengers, clerks: "Chief! Chief!" "What's the matter?" "Dieuzy! . . ." "But he's just left here. . . ." "He's been found on the staircase. . . ." "Not dead? . . ." "No, stunned, fainting. . . ." "But the man . . . the man who was with him . . . old Steinweg?" "He's disappeared. . . ." "Damn it!" He rushed along the passage and down the stairs, where he found Dieuzy lying on the first-floor landing, surrounded by people who were attending to him. He saw Gourel coming up again: "Oh, Gourel, have you been downstairs? Did you come across anybody?" "No, chief. . . ." But Dieuzy was recovering consciousness and, almost before he had opened his eyes, mumbled: "Here, on the landing, the little door. . . ." "Oh, hang it, the door of Court 7!"[5] shouted the chief detective. "Didn't I say that it was to be kept locked? . . . It was certain that, sooner or later . . ." He seized the door-handle. "Oh, of course! The door is bolted on the other side now!" [Footnote 5: Since M. Lenormand left the detective service, two other criminals have escaped by the same door, after shaking off the officers in charge of them; the police kept both cases dark. Nevertheless, it would be very easy, if this communication is absolutely required, to remove the useless bolt on the other side of the door, which enables the fugitive to cut off all pursuit and to walk away quietly through the passage leading to Civil Court 7 and through the corridor of the Chief President's Court.] The door was partly glazed. He smashed a pane with the butt-end of his revolver, drew the bolt and said to Gourel: "Run through this way to the exit on the Place Dauphine. . . ." He went back to Dieuzy: "Come, Dieuzy, tell me about it. How did you come to let yourself be put into this state?" "A blow in the pit of the stomach, chief. . . ." "A blow? From that old chap? . . . Why, he can hardly stand on his legs! . . ." "Not the old man, chief, but another, who was walking up and down the passage while Steinweg was with you and who followed us as though he were going out, too. . . . When we got as far as this, he asked me for a light. . . . I looked for my matches . . . Then he caught me a punch in the stomach. . . . I fell down, and, as I fell, I thought I saw him open that door and drag the old man with him. . . ." "Would you know him again?" "Oh yes, chief . . . a powerful fellow, very dark-skinned . . . a southerner of sorts, that's certain. . . ."