"Then I shan't stir."
"What! You give up...!"
"I give up the impossible. I am tired of this unequal contest of which we are certain to have the worst. It's cowardly, it's ridiculous, it's anything you please.... I don't care! Lupin is stronger than we are. Consequently, there's nothing to do but give in."
"I'm not giving in!"
"He'll make you give in like the rest of us."
"Well, it's a sight that can't fail to please you."
"That's true enough," said Ganimard, innocently. "And, as you seem to want another beating, come along!"
Ganimard and Shears stepped into the cab. They told the driver to stop a little way before he came to the house and on the other side of the avenue, in front of a small café. They sat down outside it, among tubs of laurels and spindle-trees. The light was beginning to wane.
"Waiter!" said Shears. "Pen and ink!"
He wrote a note and, calling the waiter again, said: