He had been on guard about half an hour when Juve, livid, frantic, rushed towards him.
"You have let them go out, Michel!" he shouted: "They are not here!"
"No one has gone out at this door, Chief! I give you my word on it!... But, may I ask how you managed to slip back again without my having noticed you! Deuced clever, I call it!... No one, I say, has left these premises either before or after you!"
"What's that you say?" Juve stared at Michel as if he had taken leave of his senses.
"What I say, Chief, is—the only individuals whom I have allowed to pass out are you and your woman prisoner."
"I and my woman prisoner?" Juve could have howled with rage. He caught the calm, collected Michel by the coat collar, and dragged him outside the shop. Juve looked so desperate, so at his wit's end, that Michel wondered.
"Come now, Chief!" he remonstrated; "I am not dreaming, am I?... Ten minutes ago you came to me here, and you said:
"'Don't move, Michel! Let me pass. I am Juve! I take a prisoner to the station and will return.'"
Juve had grown deadly calm.
"I was disguised, Michel, was I not?"