“Pay no attention to the man with the pike,” said he. “If he sees you again and starts to follow you, look him straight in the eye, and say to him firmly: ‘I have the key.’ It is the magic word. As soon as he hears it, he will go away.”
“Why?”
“Ah! That is a secret.”
“How strange! One says to him, ‘I have the key,’ and he goes?”
“Yes.”
“It is marvellous. Something else happened to me.”
“What?”
“Last night we went to a café, and I left my stick upon a chair. When I went back after it, it was no longer there.”
“Naturally! Some one carried it off.”
“But that is not moral!” declared M. Matignon indignantly.