Within forty-eight hours they were crossing the Channel; six hours later they had entered Paris, where they took a brief rest, and then continued their journey towards Marseilles.
For just as they were starting Harkaway received a telegram from the consul at Marseilles—
"Come as soon as you possibly can, or you may be too late."
Need it be said that, after such a message, they lost no time in speeding to their destination?
CHAPTER CIII.
MONSIEUR HOCQUART CLERMONT DELAMARRE—THE COINER AT HOME.
But what had the consul and the governor of the gaol been doing all this time?
When the consul first called upon the governor of the gaol, that official tried to laugh off the matter.
"Surely," said the governor, "you don't believe the tale these young fellows tell?"
"I am more than half inclined to do so, if only from the fact that the writer of this appears to have written several other letters which have miscarried. But why, may I ask, was I not informed that some of my countrymen had been arrested?"