“Yes, I hear M. Masseron. Go to him, will you, and have the kindness to bring him here?”
Patrice hesitated. Why was Don Luis sending him to meet M. Masseron? Was it so that he, Patrice, might intervene in his favor?
The idea appealed to him; and he ran up the companion-way.
Then a thing happened which Patrice was destined never to understand, something very quick and quite inexplicable. It was as though a long and gloomy adventure were to finish suddenly with melodramatic unexpectedness.
Patrice met M. Masseron on the deck of the barge.
“Is your friend here?” asked the magistrate.
“Yes. But one word first: you don’t mean to . . . ?”
“Have no fear. We shall do him no harm, on the contrary.”
The answer was so definite that the officer could find nothing more to say. M. Masseron went down first, with Patrice following him.
“Hullo!” said Patrice. “I left the cabin-door open!”