"Let her keep it. I would not touch that money."
When Rénine had given Thérèse d'Ormeval precise instructions as to how she was to behave at the enquiry and to answer the questions put to her, he left the chalet, accompanied by Hortense Daniel.
On the beach below, the magistrate and the public prosecutor were continuing their investigations, taking measurements, examining the witnesses and generally laying their heads together.
"When I think," said Hortense, "that you have the dagger and M. d'Ormeval's pocket-book on you!"
"And it strikes you as awfully dangerous, I suppose?" he said, laughing. "It strikes me as awfully comic."
"Aren't you afraid?"
"Of what?"
"That they may suspect something?"
"Lord, they won't suspect a thing! We shall tell those good people what we saw and our evidence will only increase their perplexity, for we saw nothing at all. For prudence sake we will stay a day or two, to see which way the wind is blowing. But it's quite settled: they will never be able to make head or tail of the matter."