“Bah!” exclaimed Rouletabille. “It left the marks of the keel in the sand on the bank, and when they anchored, they let fall a little lantern, which I picked up and which the revenue officers recognized as the one used by Tullio when he fishes in the waters on calm nights.”
“Larsan certainly landed!” repeated M. Darzac. “He is at Rochers Rouges.”
“In any case, if the boat has been left at Rochers Rouges, he has not come back here,” exclaimed Rouletabille. “The two revenue posts are situated upon the narrow road which leads from Rochers Rouges to France, and are placed in such a manner that no one can pass by whether by day or by night without being seen. You know besides that the Red Rocks from which the village takes its name form a cul de sac, and that a sentinel is on guard in front of these rocks every hundred meters around the frontier. The sentinel passes between the rocks and the sea. The rocks are steep and form a terrace sixty meters high.”
“That is true,” said Arthur Rance, who had not recently spoken, and who seemed greatly interested. “It is not easy to scale the rocks.”
“He will have hidden himself in the grottoes,” said Darzac. “There are some deep pockets in the terrace.”
“I thought of that,” said Rouletabille. “And I went back alone to Rochers Rouges, after I left Pere Bernier.”
“That was very imprudent!” I said.
“It was very prudent,” corrected Rouletabille. “I had some things to say to Larsan which I did not wish a third party to hear. Well, I went back to Rochers Rouges and called Larsan’s name through all the caves.”
“You called him?” cried Arthur Rance.
“Yes, I shouted into the gathering night; I waved my handkerchief as the soldiers wave their flag of truce. But whether it was that he heard me and saw my white flag or not, he did not answer.”