"Perhaps they will not recognize me. I will tell them that I am a gardener. Save me, little lady! Perhaps they will not recognize. I am out of breath!" She wanted to run farther but he restrained her. In the meantime, from among the chaos of hacks, a dozen or more policemen and civil agents emerged. The majority of the mob moved at a running pace in a direction opposite to the one in which Laskowicz and the girl were going, and undoubtedly they intentionally moved that way in order to deceive the pursuers. To better hoodwink the police, cries of "Catch him!" resounded among the laborers. Some workingman began to whistle shrilly on his fingers, imitating the sound of a police whistle. Accordingly the policemen and agents plunged headlong after the dense mob. At the intersection of the streets only a few stood still, and these, after a moment's irresolution, set off in the other direction, but they ran at full speed by the girl and the man with the light hat, carrying flowers. Rushing ahead they seized a few workingmen, but other workingmen rescued them in a moment. Pauly and Laskowicz walked farther. "They missed me," said the student. "Here no one would betray. They missed! Those flowers and another's hat fooled them. I thank you, little lady; I thank you from my whole soul, and until my death I will never be able to sufficiently repay you." But she, not having yet entirely recovered from her amazement, began to ask: "What happened? Where did you come from?" "From the roof; they pounced upon us in a printing plant. The others will get a year or two and nothing more will happen to them--but for me, there would be the halter." "How did you manage to escape?" "When we got on the roof, I slid down the gutter-pipe. I might have broken my neck. It was not until I reached the street that they observed me. They fired shots at me, but luckily I was not hit, for the blood would have betrayed me. Whoever was alive helped me, and I was hidden by the hacks. They did not see how I changed a cap for a hat. But if it was not for my female associate it would have been all over with me." "What female associate?" "I speak of you, little lady, thus. Amongst us such is the custom." "Then do not call me that, for I am no female associate." "That is a pity. But this is not the time to speak of that. Once more I thank you for the rescue, though it is for a short time." "Why for a short time?" "Because I do not know what to do with myself, where to go, and where to hide. Every night I sleep in a different place but they are seeking for me everywhere." "That is true. They were searching for you in Jastrzeb. Do you know that there was a police-search there?" "Was there?" "Yes. Gendarmes, police, and soldiers came. They almost put everybody under arrest." "Oh, they would not arrest them--"