“Larsan probably is not far off,” he said. “During dinner I made a tour of observation around the place. We possess at the North gate a natural means of defense which is really marvellous, and which completely replaces the old fortifications of the château. We have there fifty paces away, at the western shore, the two frontier posts of the French and Italian revenue officers, whose untiring vigilance may be of the greatest assistance to us. Pere Bernier is on the most friendly terms with these worthy people, and I am going with him to talk to them. The Italian customs officer speaks only Italian, but the French officer speaks both languages, as well as the patois of the country, and it is this man, whom Bernier tells me is called Michael, to whom I look to be of the greatest use to us. Through his means we have already learned that the two revenue posts are much interested in the strange manœuvres of the little boat, which belongs to Tullio, the fisherman, whom they call ‘the hangman of the sea.’ Old Tullio is one of the former acquaintances of the customs men. He is the most skillful smuggler on the coast. He had with him this evening in his boat an individual whom the revenue officers had never seen. The boat, Tullio and the passenger, all disappeared at the Pointe de Garibaldi. I have been there with Pere Bernier, and we found nothing, any more than M. Darzac, who visited the spot before us. However, Larsan must have landed. * * * I have a presentiment of the fact. In any case, I am sure that Tullio’s little boat is anchored near the Pointe de Garibaldi.” “You are sure of that?” cried M. Darzac. “What reason have you for thinking so?” I demanded. “Bah!” exclaimed Rouletabille. “It left the marks of the keel in the sand on the bank, and when they anchored, they let fall a little lantern, which I picked up and which the revenue officers recognized as the one used by Tullio when he fishes in the waters on calm nights.” “Larsan certainly landed!” repeated M. Darzac. “He is at Rochers Rouges.” “In any case, if the boat has been left at Rochers Rouges, he has not come back here,” exclaimed Rouletabille. “The two revenue posts are situated upon the narrow road which leads from Rochers Rouges to France, and are placed in such a manner that no one can pass by whether by day or by night without being seen. You know besides that the Red Rocks from which the village takes its name form a cul de sac, and that a sentinel is on guard in front of these rocks every hundred meters around the frontier. The sentinel passes between the rocks and the sea. The rocks are steep and form a terrace sixty meters high.” “That is true,” said Arthur Rance, who had not recently spoken, and who seemed greatly interested. “It is not easy to scale the rocks.” “He will have hidden himself in the grottoes,” said Darzac. “There are some deep pockets in the terrace.”