For all reply, Juve turned his back on him.
"Look here," he said, "I will take a step or two forward as if I meant to run away; then you must put your hand on my shoulder roughly, and I will stumble; when I do, slip the bracelets on."
From the mouth of the tunnel the plate-layer, the foreman and the navvies all followed with their eyes the unintelligible conversation passing between the gendarme and the tramp a hundred yards away. Suddenly they saw the man try to get off and the sergeant seize him almost simultaneously. A few minutes later the individual, with his hands linked together in front of him, was obediently descending the steep slope of the embankment, by the gendarme's side, and then the two men disappeared behind a clump of trees.
"I understand why that chap was not very keen on getting taken on here," said the foreman. "His conscience was none too easy!"
As they walked briskly in the direction of Beaulieu Juve asked the sergeant:
"What has happened at the château, then?"
"They know who the murderer is, Inspector," the sergeant answered. "Little Mlle. Thérèse——"