"Ah! how so?"
"Had not I been there to give you protection you would now be under lock and key in the depôt of the Prefecture."
Hyde, in spite of himself, shuddered as he thought of his last detention in that unsavoury prison.
"What, then, have you done, my English friend?" went on Anatole, with drunken solemnity. "Why should the police seek your arrest?"
"But do they? I cannot believe it."
"It is as I tell you. I myself am in the 'cuisine' (the Prefecture). Since my return from the war my illustrious services have been rewarded by an appointment of great trust."
"In other words, you are now a police-agent, and you were set to watch for some one like me."
"Why not you?" asked Anatole, trying, but in vain, to fix him with his watery eyes. "In any case," he went on, "I wish to serve a comrade—at risk to myself, perhaps."
"You shall not suffer for it, never fear, in the long run. Count always upon me."
"They may say that I have betrayed my trust; that I put friendship before duty. That has always been my error; I have too soft a heart."