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Juve was purposely exaggerating Vagualame's attitude: it enabled him to conceal his face better. "I stoop so much because my age weighs me down.... When you grow old."... Bobinette burst into peals of laughter. "You don't think, do you, Vagualame, that I take you for an old man? Ha, ha!
Our detective had just re-entered the journalist's study. There, on the floor, lay the bundle which had excited his curiosity when Vagualame was present. "The enemy," thought he, "has retired, but has abandoned his baggage!" Juve relighted the lamp, and undid the black serge covering of the bundle. "Ah! I might have guessed as much, it is an accordion, Vagualame's accordion!"
"You are going to give me something for Roubaix again?" Nichoune did not look as if Vagualame's assertion had relieved her fears. Vagualame evaded a direct answer. "You have not seen him for a week?" "Roubaix? No."... "And Nancy?" "Nor Nancy." "Well," said he, after a moment's reflection, "that does not matter in the least!
We shall be undisturbed there!" De Loubersac acquiesced. So the smart young officer and the old beggar in his ragged coat, with the accordion hanging over his shoulder, who might have been mistaken for Quasimodo himself, descended the steps in company. Vagualame's eyes gleamed with joy.
Enlightenment came through Vagualame's telegram. She only then realised that the traitor Vinson and the soldier in her company were two distinct persons. "And," cried she, "who killed the real Corporal Vinson but a few days ago in the rue du Cherche-Midi? I know. It was the murderer of Captain Brocq, the murderer of the singer, Nichoune it was Vagualame ... Vagualame!"
Assuredly, that handsome fellow, that dashing soldier, Henri de Loubersac, knew nothing of this same Vagualame's relations with Bobinette, nor his attitude towards that mysterious accomplice of his whom he had just assassinated, or pretended to have assassinated, Captain Brocq.
"That is my business!" he declared: "What I want to know I get to know you must have seen that by this time!" "How is it, then, you called at The Crying Calf to-day?... Geoffrey did not know you: he alone knew I was coming to see him!... You followed me?" "Suppose I did follow you?"... Vagualame's tone changed: it became imperious.
The discovery, I may tell you, did not take de Loreuil altogether by surprise. He had observed Vagualame's attitude towards the girl, and had considered it queer suspiciously so." "This is serious, but it is not sufficiently definite," pronounced Colonel Hofferman.... "Let us admit that Vagualame has played a double game, has been at once traitor and spy.
Twice he cried, in an irritated voice: "What is the matter with you? I cannot understand what you say. I can hardly hear you." "I have a severe cold on the chest, lieutenant." Certainly Vagualame's voice was remarkably hoarse. "If the Government does not give me something regular to live on, I shall die in hospital." De Loubersac looked about him anxiously.
"Did you hear?" she gasped. "I heard the bellowing of the wind," laughed Vagualame: "I heard the sound of sleety rain, I heard the noise of trees writhing and creaking in the wind nothing more!" "Someone or something cried out!" "Who could?... We are alone here!... Bobinette you are alone here with me!" There was a pause. Vagualame's voice was once more mocking. "Am I to think you are afraid?"
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