The little girl held out the valise.
"There it is."
And she added:
"Oh! But I knew you at once!"
"What were you waiting for then?"
"I was waiting for you to tell me that it was you."
"And Lorchen?" asked Christophe. "Why didn't she come?"
The girl did not reply. Christophe understood that she did not want to say anything among all the people. They had first to pass through the customs. When that was done Christophe took the girl to the end of the platform:
"The police came," said the girl, now very talkative. "They came almost as soon as you had gone. They went into all the houses. They questioned everybody, and they arrested big Sami and Christian and old Kaspar. And also Mélanie and Gertrude, though they declared they had done nothing, and they wept; and Gertrude scratched the gendarmes. It was not any good then saying that you had done it all."
"I?" exclaimed Christophe.