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I will telephone to him an explanation as soon as we arrive in Verdun. We may as well enter the car as stand here." Paul Le Pontois was about to protest, but what could he say? The Minister in Paris had apparently committed some grave error in thus ordering his arrest. No doubt there would be confusion, apologies and laughter.
For a second Bézard paused, then, rubbing his gold pince-nez and adjusting them, he read in a cold, hard voice the following: "The charge alleged against you, Paul Robert Le Pontois, is that upon four separate occasions you have placed in circulation forged Bank of England and Treasury notes of England to the extent of nearly a million francs."
Others were coming to water and sweep out the place. Therefore Le Pontois remained outside in the square, waiting in patience. He was reflecting. That evening, as he had sat with his wife watching the play, he had been seized by a curious feeling for which he entirely failed to account. Behind him there had sat a man and a woman, French without a doubt, but entire strangers.
"You always speak in enigmas nowadays," said the girl, again standing near the fireplace, dainty in her dark skirt and cream silk jumper. "Why did you send me that extraordinary note?" "In your own interests," was his vague reply. "I became aware that your further presence in the house of Monsieur Le Pontois was well undesirable that's all."
The story told by the man Gallet was that Le Pontois had been met by two gentlemen and given a message that he was required urgently in Paris, and they had driven at once over to Verdun, where they had just caught the train. "Did Monsieur Le Pontois leave any other message for madame?" asked Sir Hugh in French. "No, m'sieur."
He knew that she was staying in the vicinity, but had never expected to see her so quickly. The lady who accompanied her he guessed to be her stepsister; indeed, he had seen a photograph of her at Hill Street. Had Enid been alone, he would have rushed forth to greet her; but he had no desire at the moment that his presence should be known to Madame Le Pontois.
"Paul Le Pontois has been arrested on some mysterious charge false, without a doubt!" "Yes," replied Weirmarsh; "it is most unfortunate. I heard it an hour ago, and the real reason of my visit was to tell you of the contretemps." "Someone must have made a false charge against him," cried the general excitedly. "The poor fellow is innocent entirely innocent!
He was thinking of the grip in which he was held by the doctor of Pimlico. At any moment, if he cared to collapse, he could make ten thousand pounds in a single day. The career of many a man has been blasted for ever by the utterance of cruel untruths or the repetition of vague suspicions. Was his son-in-law, Le Pontois, in jeopardy? He could not think that he was. How could the truth come out?
Madame Le Pontois, a slim, dark-eyed, good-looking woman of thirty, was still at table in the salle-
Her husband and her father had gone out upon the terrasse to have their cigarettes prior to their walk up the steep hillside to the fortress. Life in that rural district possessed few amusements outside the military circle, though Paul Le Pontois was a civilian and lived upon the product of the wine-lands of his estate.
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