“Tom Bob tied up? What next! I have this moment run away from him; he was at the Grand Duchess Alexandra’s! he is there now!”
“Tom Bob is at the Grand Duchess Alexandra’s?”
M. Landais sprang to his feet once more; he clapped both hands to his head and vociferated in tones of desperation:
“Oh! I am going mad! I am going mad! They are all dead! they are all tied up! they are all free and at large! and there are twelve apaches arrested and the Grand Duchess Alexandra is Tom Bob’s mistress. Don’t, don’t! it is too much! let me be, give me a moment’s peace!”
Once more the door opened. Calm, cool, collected, M. Havard entered the room.
“You sent for me, sir?” he asked. “Whatever is going on? I can’t see one of your secretaries, the doors stand open for anyone to walk into your working room. Your trusty servant even refuses to show me in, simply telling me to march straight into your private room! Is it a revolution?”
M. Landais cut short M. Havard’s exclamations:
“A revolution? I can’t say! It’s just a story for a madhouse—the Grand Duchess Alexandra is a swindler! Juve is dead! Juve has arrested a dozen apaches! Tom Bob is tied up at the Palais! Tom Bob is running away! he’s free and at large: he’s at the grand duchess’s! I tell you I’ve lost count of everything. I don’t understand one word of it all!”
But seeing M. Havard’s amazed look as he listened to the Minister’s wild words, the latter realized he would do well to cultivate a little more calm of manner.
“Listen, Havard,” he said, “I have really lost touch with things. Since waking this morning I have received twenty contradictory reports. It will be another dreadful panic in town unless we can clear all this up”—and the Minister told M. Havard the story of his morning as intelligibly as he found possible. All the time he was speaking, the Head of the Criminal Bureau listened quietly, nodding his head at intervals in silent assent. Where the Minister was all at sea, he, M. Havard, accustomed to matters of police, could make a shrewd guess at the truth, and it was in an unruffled voice that the police official finally proposed: