"Do not run with the wolves too long or the wolf-hunters may not stop to ask the difference. There is a fable about that--which I have read somewhere--in Perrault or La Fontaine. Take back your parole and get out of Aramon. All this foolishness will go like that----" (he snapped his finger and thumb in the air), "and I only hope that I shall have time to read Hugo once through before I have again to think of a train every five minutes pouring north and south, east and west, through Aramon Junction!" I put the question of the report as delicately as possible. I have rarely seen a Frenchman laugh more boisterously. "But I have made no report. Why should I? I have received none and written none. The wires are cut in all directions. I have not a telegraphist on the place. There are my files if you want to look. Everything is going by the branch lines on the other side, but even of that I know only what I can see from my bedroom window, the white steam of trains trailing off among the green woods, and sometimes the dull rumble of a heavily laden goods convoy crossing a bridge. Of positive knowledge concerning railway affairs I have none. I sit and read Hugo and wait for the end of things. The old life will come back soon enough. Meanwhile I am earning my salary, and when traffic opens a pretty sum will be owing to me on the books of the company. "See here," he said, chuckling, "this is my only report. I will write it before your eyes." He pointed to a folio which lay open with the day and date, but all else blank. He took a pen and wrote: "As yesterday--no change. Guards--Caspar and Nolli. Both quiet. Messenger from Communal Government to ask about a report I am supposed to be making. Exhibit this." "There you are--you can copy that if you like. I give you my word of honour that is all the report I ever write, and that is just enough to prove me on the spot, able for duty, and to claim my pay!" I told Monsieur Weyse that I would not trouble him further. I should explain the foolish rumour to Keller Bey, and in all things he might count upon me. At the same time _if_ there happened to be any volume of Hugo he was not using----! Well, he might imagine my gratitude. He sprang to his feet with a kind of smothered whoop and began to delve among the pile which occupied the chair and slopped over upon the floor.