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Rh my taxi-driver, I have volunteered to look after him, and shall take him to a maison de santé that I know of. Don't try to kill him while he's laid up, Frank. That would not be nice."

"All right," I answered. "By-the-way, Léontine, where are your sympathies? Am I to count on your help or not?"

"Neither, mon ami. My position is precisely that of Ivan. Personally I sympathise with you, as there is a great deal about Chu-Chu that I have never liked; but he is one of us, and you are a renegade. So, as the case stands, I am strictly neutral. Fight it out, my little dogs, and may the best pup win! What you did on the road to Calais set my blood on fire. I would have given my jewels to have been in the car with you. And what you have done to-day was daring, too; and I like daring things. No; you've missed again—but perhaps you may catch it on the third coup. I won't help you, Frank; but I'll tell you what I will do—I'll walk to the gate with you and see you into the road, and if necessary say that I know you. They might wonder what you were doing in the park."

"I'll say that I was passing, and came in when I heard the row."

"I don't think that it will be necessary to say anything. The gendarmerie has not yet arrived, and everybody is off his head. It was so funny, Frank, to see the way the party broke up. Some of the men got pale and some got red, and two or three began to arm themselves with empty bottles and some with full ones; and some ran to the house"