"Where can I write it?"
"In the office, if you are warm now."
"I am."
Madame Teutch took a lamp from the table and carried it to a desk placed in a little closet similar to the ones used in aviaries. The boy followed her. There, upon a slip of paper bearing the stamp of the hotel, he wrote as follows: "A fellow-countryman, who knows on good authority that you are in immediate danger of being arrested, begs you to leave for Besançon at once."
Then he folded the note, sealed it and handed it to Madame Teutch.
"But you have not signed it!" exclaimed the hostess.
"That is not necessary. You can tell them who sent it."
"I won't fail to do so."
"If they are still here to-morrow morning, don't let them go until I have seen them."
"Don't worry."