After thanking him, he turned again to the taxi, but he was too late, for it was already engaged and starting off. Fortunately two cabs stood on the rank.
"Drive to the corner of the Rue Saint Roch and the Rue d'Argenteuil," he said, not wishing to give the exact address to which he was proceeding.
The cab turned down the Boulevard de Strasbourg at a smart pace, went along the principal boulevards, and after passing through the Avenue de l'Opéra plunged into the smaller streets. In another five minutes the Nut would be in sight of his goal.
Suddenly there was a terrible shock and Didier and the cab were overturned. He might have been killed on the spot, but he picked himself up without a scratch and could see at a glance what had happened. A motor-car had collided so violently with the cab that the latter was shattered to pieces, the horse was ripped open and lay dying, and the driver, who was thrown into the gutter, gave no sign of life.
Half a dozen dark forms sprang from the car and surrounded the wrecked cab. They closed upon Didier with a common impulse which left no doubt as to their intentions. But he made a rush on one side, hurling one of the dark figures to the ground, and darted off down a neighboring passage. The man started to run after him.
Not the least dramatic part of the incident was the silence in which the pursuit was effected. Didier at one moment thought that he had put the villains off the scent, but he did not know exactly where he was. A whistle rang out behind him and other dark forms appeared under a street lamp, blocking his passage from the street.
He retraced his steps, but at this end, too, he caught sight of suspicious figures. This time he could not escape and there would be a fight for it. He was in no sense alarmed, though his "mission" and his life were both in danger.
As he was casting about for a corner in which to await the assault of his adversaries, his eyes encountered a sign and he read by the light of the street lamp: "Rue Saint Roch;" and a little farther away, painted in large letters on the iron shutters which closed the shop: "Hilaire's Up-to-date Grocery Stores. The Old and the New World United." A clock at that moment chimed three.