"Ah--you know--with a nail--and there is no chain----But I shut everything up again without damaging the lock. I should not like to give you any trouble. I washed the boat, too, where the fish had left it muddy." "You had caught a great deal of fish?" "No. Ten pounds, perhaps. I had only just begun." "I never caught that much fish in my life. How do you do it?" "Oh--they know me. As I was telling you, I was in my--in your boat, when I heard those d----policemen calling me. 'Hey! Grelu, come ashore! We are serving your warrant on you!' Well, I landed, of course. I am used to it. We chatted like friends. They carried away my fish to fry for themselves. You won't tell me there is any justice in that, will you, _monsieur le maire_?" "Is that the trick they played on you?" "Oh, no! When the police had gone, I said to myself: 'Now I'm fined, I may as well go on fishing. I shan't be able to pay the fine, whether I do or not. So I'll stay.' I fished and I fished. I was doing first rate. I was happy. When, suddenly, I hear voices. The police again! Two warrants in one night! I couldn't have that! The boat was giving me away. But they might think I had left it there. So I hide in the water, with nothing out but my head, and I wait. What do you think they do? They stretch out on the grass, they light their pipes, and they begin to talk. They had got lost, the idiots! And finding themselves back at the mill, were looking for me to ask their way. "As for me, I was none too comfortable in the mud. Those loafers wouldn't go away. When one pipe went out, they lighted another. I saw there was going to be nothing for it but to get caught again. Suddenly one of the men says: 'Father Grelu,' says he, 'you must be cold in there. Come and warm yourself at my pipe.' I come out, all covered with mud, and I shake my fist at him. 'If you serve another warrant on me----!' says I to him. 'A second warrant?' says he. 'No danger of that. The law prevents it. We can only serve one warrant in twenty-four hours on the same person for the same offence. What! You didn't know that, Grelu? And that is why you stayed in the water? We were just saying: "I wonder why he does that?" Ah, Father Grelu, we are sorry! We thought you knew better.' And they laughed. And they laughed. I was in no mood for laughing. Did you know that, _monsieur le maire_, that two warrants could not be served at once?" "No." "Well, I know it for another time, you may be sure. And now, may I have my certificate of mendicancy, which releases me from liability to fine?" "Very well. Your bath might have given you pneumonia. How old are you?" "Over seventy. No harm will ever come to me from water." "Nor from wine, eh? It is funny, all the same, to be giving you a certificate of destitution when I see you so often at the tavern." "They give me credit, _monsieur le maire_. I pay them in fish. It is better than stealing, anyway." XI THE GRAY FOX