"I have no desire to pun, but since you speak of La Sûreté,[4] I cannot help noticing that they are blundering terribly over these very affairs. Confound those clumsy fools and their meddling! They will interfere with things which are no concern of theirs—not in the slightest!"
[4] La Sûreté-Scotland Yard detective service.
"Are they still investigating?"
"No. The warning I myself administered to their famous Juve has taught them a lesson. They are keeping quiet at present. Plague take the lot of them!... It makes me furious when I think what happened the other day—creating a scandal about things the public ought to be kept in ignorance of—ought never to hear of—never!... Those confounded meddlers complicate our task abominably."
Colonel Hofferman paused: de Loubersac kept a discreet silence.
The two men were walking down the little path which encircles the principal lawn of the Elysée Gardens, now almost deserted.
The colonel turned to his companion.
"What was that you were saying just now?... You had something fresh to tell me, and you had not.... That is the Norman way of putting it!... Not like you, de Loubersac!"
"It is merely the answer of one who hesitates to speak out," replied de Loubersac, laughing, "... who hesitates to give a definite opinion, who, nevertheless."...
"Who nevertheless what?... De Loubersac, just forget I am your colonel—speak out, man!... Have you an idea of where the document was lost?"