The two gentlemen reappeared.
"And, suppose I were to take you at your word, M. Lupin...?" said Shears, rising.
He had seized Arsène Lupin's wrist and held it in a grip of steel.
"Why grip me so hard, maître? I am quite ready to go with you."
He allowed himself, in fact, to be dragged along, without the least resistance. The two gentlemen were walking away from them.
Shears increased his pace. His nails dug into Lupin's very flesh.
"Come along, come along!" he said, under his breath, in a sort of fevered haste to settle everything as quickly as possible. "Come along! Quick!"
But he stopped short: Alice Demun had followed them.
"What are you doing, mademoiselle? You need not trouble to come!"
It was Lupin who replied: