A ring at the bell followed, at once, by two others, sharp ones.
“Hullo!” said Lupin to the child. “Here’s mummy come to fetch you. Don’t move.”
He ran and opened the door.
A woman entered, wildly:
“My son!” she screamed. “My son! Where is he?”
“In my room,” said Lupin.
Without asking more, thus proving that she knew the way, she rushed to the bedroom.
“As I thought,” muttered Lupin. “The youngish woman with the gray hair: Daubrecq’s friend and enemy.”
He walked to the window and looked through the curtains. Two men were striding up and down the opposite pavement: the Growler and the Masher.
“And they’re not even hiding themselves,” he said to himself. “That’s a good sign. They consider that they can’t do without me any longer and that they’ve got to obey the governor. There remains the pretty lady with the gray hair. That will be more difficult. It’s you and I now, mummy.”