Ralph gave him a minute or two’s grace, then drew the bolts of the front door, opened it, breaking the seals, and started in pursuit.
Jodot was walking briskly along two hundred yards ahead, carrying the confederate who had first explored for him the basement of Bregeac’s house, and then the cellar of the villa of the brothers Loubeaux.
Fifty yards behind him Bregeac was winding in and out among the trees which bordered the road.
Fifty yards behind him an angler was rowing along under the bank of the Seine in pursuit of Bregeac. It was Marescal. So Jodot was followed by Bregeac, Bregeac and Jodot by Marescal, and all three of them by Ralph.
And the stake for which all four of them were playing was the possession of a bottle.
“This is growing exciting,” said Ralph to himself. “Jodot is in possession of the bottle it is true. But he does not know that other people are after it. Who will be cleverest of the other three? If there was no Lupin in it, I should back Marescal. But Lupin is in it.”
Jodot stopped. Bregeac stopped also, so did Marescal in his boat. Ralph stopped too.
Jodot laid his sack on the ground, stretched out so [[177]]that the small boy should be comfortable, and sitting on a bench, he began to examine the bottle, shaking it and holding it up to the light.
The time had come for Bregeac to act; at any rate that was his opinion; and he came up very quietly.
He had opened a large parasol and held it before him like a shield behind which he hid his face. On his boat Marescal disappeared beneath a very large straw hat.