“On second thoughts, no. It’s not to our interest to compromise Essarès any further. What we must do, Essarès as well as ourselves, is to make ourselves scarce as fast as we can, before that damned letter of the colonel’s is delivered at headquarters, say before twelve o’clock in the day.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“We’ll take the colonel with us in the motor and drop him anywhere. The police must make what they can of it.”
“And his papers?”
“We’ll look through his pockets as we go. Lend me a hand.”
They bandaged the wound to stop the flow of blood, took up the body, each holding it by an arm or leg, and walked out without any one of them letting go his pocket-book for a second.
Patrice Belval heard them pass through another room and then tramp heavily over the echoing flags of a hall.
“This is the moment,” he said. “Essarès or Siméon will press a button and the rogues will be nabbed.”
Essarès did not budge.
Siméon did not budge.