The three young men then emptied their cigar-cases, and slipped some money into the hands of the malefactors. The ice was broken.
“Why were you arrested?” asked Paul Buck of a thief who had just been gladdened with three cigars and two francs.
“Oh, I have been jugged by mistake,” replied the bandit, with a voice of sinister tone.
“It was the seventh time that Justice was deceived in your case,” dryly observed a gendarme.
“As for the other times,” rejoined the rogue, “I have nothing to say; but for this, as true as you are an honest man, monsieur, I am innocent. I didn’t do it.”
“If it was not you, it was your brother,” said the gendarme, sententiously.
“By my faith,” said the man, “that’s worth thinking of: it might be so. I will just mention that to the judge.”
“And you,” said Eusebe to a second rogue, “are you also charged with robbery?”
“Yes, monsieur.”
“Who or what could have led you to rob?”