"They have a warrant."
He folded his arms:
"Shut up with your piffle! A warrant! What's that to me?"
"Listen," said Rénine, "and let us waste no time. It's urgent. Your name's Dalbrèque, or, at least, that's the name under which you acted in The Happy Princess and under which the police are looking for you as being the murderer of Bourguet the jeweller, the man who stole a motor-car and forty thousand francs from the World's Cinema Company and the man who abducted a woman at Le Havre. All this is known and proved ... and here's the upshot. Four men downstairs. Myself here, my chauffeur in the next room. You're done for. Do you want me to save you?"
Dalbrèque gave his adversary a long look:
"Who are you?"
"A friend of Rose Andrée's," said Rénine.
The other started and, to some extent dropping his mask, retorted:
"What are your conditions?"
"Rose Andrée, whom you have abducted and tormented, is dying in some hole or corner. Where is she?"