Gontran shrugged his shoulders.
"It won't be the first time," he said sententiously, "that those miscreants have added murder to their other crimes."
"Lost one of your passengers, Gontran?" queried Gilles Blaise blandly.
"If those rogues have murdered him——" quoth Gontran with an oath.
"Then you'd have to make a special declaration before the chief commissary of police, and that within an hour. Who was your passenger, Gontran?"
"I don't know. A quiet, well-mannered fellow. Good company he was, too, during the first part of the way."
"What was his name?"
"I can't tell. I picked him up at Argentan. The box-seat was empty. No one wanted it, for it was raining then. He paid me his fare and scrambled up beside me. That's all I know about him."
"What was he like? Young or old?"
"I didn't see him very well. It was already getting dark," rejoined Gontran impatiently. "I couldn't look him under the nose, could I?"