"Get out," he cried. "They're gaining on us. My engine is misfiring. They'll overtake us in a minute. But I'll go on and they'll follow me, thinking that you are still in the car. I'll manage to pull through all right, never fear."
"I shall stay with the Dodger. Let me go," exclaimed Chéri-Bibi.
But the Nut, assisted by the Dodger, took Chéri-Bibi again by his shoulders and darted behind a sloping bank by the roadside. Just then the police car came into view and the Dodger drove off again.
Nevertheless the police stopped their car at the turning to Saint Jean bridge. They held a consultation. Their suspicions must have been aroused, and they must have seen Hilaire's car pull up, for they split into two parties; one half of them continued their way in the car and the other crossed the bridge.
The Nut took advantage of their indecision to go forward a little way under cover of a wall. Chéri-Bibi begged him for the last time to leave him on the road.
"I have recovered my strength," the Nut returned. "It's all right. The headland is a veritable maze. They won't be able to find us in the darkness. In a quarter of an hour we shall reach the villa gardens. Then we shall be safe."
* * * * *
Françoise in the villa was in a state of the utmost moment when her mind, still obsessed by the fright-anxiety owing to Didier's protracted absence at a full vision which she had seen, could not recover its calm. She began to give way to a feeling of despair which might well overpower her, for she was unable to put it into words. Nevertheless, the fierce misgivings which clutched at her heart would have passed unperceived.
She had the strength to get up. She put on a dressing-gown and lay on a sofa in the little sitting-room which adjoined their rooms. She lit a lamp and took up a book, and dismissed her maid for the night. She requested to be left alone until Captain d'Haumont's return.
Outwardly she appeared quite self-possessed. What she had seen was so dreadful and so incapable of explanation that she felt above all that Didier must not suspect her of having seen the thing. And, in order that he might not suspect it, she strove to assume in front of her servants a listless and impassive look, and an appearance of purely physical weakness which would deceive Didier.