They gesticulated like mad--so violently, indeed, that I
thought they were quarreling."
"They knew they were being watched, and were endeavoring to divert
suspicion."
"If they would only arrest this woman and question her," suggested
Father Absinthe.
"What good would it do? Hasn't M. Segmuller examined and cross-examined
her a dozen times without drawing anything from her! Ah! she's a cunning
one. She would declare that May met her and insisted that she should
refund the ten francs he paid her for his room. We must do our best,
however. If the accomplice has not been warned already, he will soon
be told; so we must try to keep the two men apart. What ruse they will
employ, I can't divine. But I know that it will be nothing hackneyed."
Lecoq's presumptions made Father Absinthe nervous. "The surest way,
perhaps," ventured the latter, "would be to lock him up again!"
"No!" replied the young detective. "I want his secret, and I'll have it.
What will be said of us if we two allow this man to escape us? He can't
be visible and invisible by turns, like the devil. We'll see what he is
going to do now that he's got some money and a plan--for he has both at
the present moment. I would stake my right hand upon it."
At that same instant, as if May intended to convince Lecoq of the truth
of his suspicion, he entered a tobacconist's shop and emerged an instant
afterward with a cigar in his mouth.
XXI
So the landlady of the Hotel de Mariembourg had given May money.
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