"Well," said I, "shall we go?"
"No ... no...."
"What do you propose to do?"
"The best thing will be to act frankly ... to trust him."
"You can't be serious?"
"Oh, but I am.... Besides, it would be a good thing to question him, to know what he knows.... Ah, there, I feel that his eyes are fixed on my neck, on my shoulders.... He's trying to think ... to remember...."
He reflected. I noticed a mischievous smile on his lips; and then, obeying, I believe, some whim of his frivolous nature rather than the needs of the position itself, he rose abruptly, spun round on his heels and, with a bow, said, gaily:
"What a stroke of luck! Who would have thought it?... Allow me to introduce my friend."
For a second or two, the Englishman was taken aback. Then he made an instinctive movement, as though he were ready to fling himself upon Arsène Lupin. Lupin shook his head:
"That would be a mistake ... to say nothing of the bad taste of it ... and the uselessness!"