It was Kolb’s idea to go to the bailiff, to pretend to be willing to betray his master, and in this way to discover the traps which would be laid for David. Kolb told the servant who opened the door that he wanted to speak to M. Doublon on business. The servant was busy washing up her plates and dishes, and not very well pleased at Kolb’s interruption; she pushed open the door of the outer office, and bade him wait there till her master was at liberty; then, as he was a stranger to her, she told the master in the private office that “a man” wanted to speak to him. Now, “a man” so invariably means “a peasant,” that Doublon said, “Tell him to wait,” and Kolb took a seat close to the door of the private office. There were voices talking within. “Ah, by the by, how do you mean to set about it? For, if we can catch him to-morrow, it will be so much time saved.” It was the fat Cointet who spoke. “Nothing easier; the gaffer has come fairly by his nickname,” said Cérizet. At the sound of the fat Cointet’s voice, Kolb guessed at once that they were talking about his master, especially as the sense of the words began to dawn upon him; but, when he recognized Cérizet’s tones, his astonishment grew more and more. “Und dat fellow haf eaten his pread!” he thought, horror-stricken. “We must do it in this way, boys,” said Doublon. “We will post our men, at good long intervals, about the Rue de Beaulieu and the Place du Mûrier in every direction, so that we can follow the gaffer (I like that word) without his knowledge. We will not lose sight of him until he is safe inside the house where he means to lie in hiding (as he thinks); there we will leave him in peace for awhile; then some fine day we will come across him before sunrise or sunset.” “But what is he doing now, at this moment? He may be slipping through our fingers,” said the fat Cointet. “He is in his house,” answered Doublon; “if he left it, I should know. I have one witness posted in the Place du Mûrier, another at the corner of the Law Courts, and another thirty paces from the house. If our man came out, they would whistle; he could not make three paces from his door but I should know of it at once from the signal.” (Bailiffs speak of their understrappers by the polite title of “witnesses.”) Here was better hap than Kolb had expected! He went noiselessly out of the office, and spoke to the maid in the kitchen. “Meestair Touplon ees encaged for som time to kom,” he said; “I vill kom back early to-morrow morning.” A sudden idea had struck the Alsacien, and he proceeded to put it into execution. Kolb had served in a cavalry regiment; he hurried off to see a livery stable-keeper, an acquaintance of his, picked out a horse, had it saddled, and rushed back to the Place du Mûrier. He found Madame Eve in the lowest depths of despondency. “What is it, Kolb?” asked David, when the Alsacien’s face looked in upon them, scared but radiant.