The door shut softly and the sergeant turned sadly and went back to the Station, pondering over the personal annoyance this general post at night occasioned him. He was greeted on his return by a few sharp words. "Ah, there you are, Masson!... At last!... An event of the first importance occurs, an amazing scandal breaks out and you desert your post.... It's always the way if I'm not here to look after things. I shall have to report you, you know. Where have you been?" The speaker was a man still quite young, who wore the ribbon of the Legion of Honor. It was the chief himself. On the way home from some late party he had dropped into the Station out of simple curiosity. * * * * * Was he awake or was he dreaming? Fandor felt stiff all over, his head was heavy and his mind a blank.... And then came a thirst, a devouring, insatiable thirst. Where he was and how he had arrived there were things past his comprehension. So far as the feeble light permitted, he made out the room to contain the furnishings of an office, and by degrees, as his mind cleared, he recalled with a start his arrest. He was at the police station. But why in this particular room? The walls were hung with sporting prints. Bookshelves, a comfortable sofa, upon which he had spent the night, all these indicated nothing less than the private office of the chief. And then he recalled with what consideration he had been conducted hither. Evidently they took him for an intimate friend of the King. Nevertheless, he was under arrest for murder, or at least as an accomplice to a murder. "After all," he thought, "the truth will come to light, they'll capture the murderer and my innocence will be established. "Besides, didn't the King promise to see me through. Probably before this he has already taken steps for my release." He then decided to call out: "Is there anyone here?" Scarcely had Fandor spoken when a man entered, who, after a profound bow to the journalist, drew the curtains apart. "You are awake, Monsieur?" Fandor was amazed. What charming manners the police had! "Oh, yes, I'm awake, but I feel stiff all over." "That is easily understood, and I hope you will pardon ... You see, I didn't happen to be at the station ... and when I got here ... why, I didn't like to wake you." "They take me for a friend of the King of Hesse-Weimar," thought Fandor. "You did perfectly right, Monsieur ..." "M. Perrajas, District Commissioner of Police ... and the circumstances being such ... the unfortunate circumstances ... I imagine it was better that you did not return immediately to your apartment ... in fact, I have given the necessary orders and in a few moments ... the time to get a carriage ... I can, of course, rely upon the discretion of my men who, besides, are ignorant of ..." "Oh, that's all right."