The detective laughed and answered:
"And you are a very strangely acting lady. It is indeed a strange thing for a lady who expects robbers to visit her house to ask that they be permitted to escape. I must do my duty, miss, I cannot grant your request unless you ask that I let Alphonse go and arrest the others."
"No, that will not do," she exclaimed, "for the others would betray him."
"Aha!" ejaculated the detective, "human-like you have given yourself away. Do not again deny your real motive for making the request."
The girl recognized that indeed she had betrayed herself, and in a tone of distress she muttered:
"Oh, what shall I do?"
"I can tell you."
"Please do."
"Make a full confidant of me."
"Will you believe me?"