A slightly bewildered frown clouded his face as he approached the _Diomède_. The yacht had anchored with the lateen alongside her, and a boat was pulling from her towards the warship. The lieutenant considered that for yachtsmen he had never seen a boat's crew pull faster. CHAPTER XI RATTIER LOSES HIS CALM Major D'Hubert, Provost Marshal of the French forces occupying Casablanca, grinned widely. "So you suffered him to escape?" he said. Commandant Rattier drummed fiercely on the office table. "Suffered?" he roared. "I entertained him--the _escroc_! I nourished him; I sent him ashore!" The soldier smiled and looked at Rattier's companion--Aylmer. "What open-hearted ingenuousness!" he chuckled. "You and I now, my Captain! When one has been officer of the day a few thousand times, or sat upon a few hundred courts-martial, or acted as _maître de logis_, one learns to sift a story then. And this one had its weak points, even for a sailor. Would any one not mentally deranged hire a lateen to take him aboard his own yacht? No, I should have required something better imagined than that--I." Aylmer shrugged his shoulders. "The man can make himself of an engaging personality, Major. Our friend acted according to the impulses of his generous soul. But the point is that our man is hidden in the town. We come to you for expert knowledge. Who would be likely to shelter him, and where? You will pardon our insistence and intrusion, but our need is very pressing. It is the child who is our concern, the child." D'Hubert made a gesture of assent. "Apart from my sincere affection for our simpleminded commandant, Monsieur, your tale is good enough for any honest man and a father of babes like myself. But this town of Casablanca is, in effect, a haystack. Your quarry has the best of chances to act the needle." He opened a door into an outer office and shouted a name. "Sergeant Perinaud!" A body filled the doorway and entered, bending the last few inches of its stature. The sergeant saluted and unfolded himself, his eyes reviewing the company with affable respect about two metres above the floor. "Visit the guardroom at each gate, see the lieutenants of the Spanish police and bring me back a list of parties which have left the town since morning. This is a matter of haste." The sergeant saluted again and then hesitated. "Is it permitted first to speak?" he asked. The major nodded jerkily. "It is, by chance, the movements of two men and a woman which are in question?" speculated Perinaud. Major d'Hubert opened his lips, shut them tight, meditated a moment, and then spoke. He turned and looked at his visitors. "The child? Is it of a stature to be disguised as a woman?" he asked. The sergeant interrupted with an apologetic gesture.