Page:Rowland--The closing net.djvu/35

Rh, but at the foot of the stairs she stopped and looked back.

"Come!" she cried, her heart in her voice. "Come!" I scrambled to my feet, and together we rushed through the drawing-room, through the dining-room, and across the garden to the gate. The car was on the other side of the street, the motor running. Léontine darted for it, but at the same moment a policeman came running around the corner of the wall.

"Here's a sacrifice play," said I to myself. You see, the cop could have caught the car before it got under way, and it seemed better for one to get nabbed than for all. So as he came I tackled him, football fashion, and down we went in a heap. As we were struggling there in the street I saw Jeff jump out and haul Léontine into the limousine; then the car shot ahead and disappeared in the grey dawn across the Place Vauban. Well, I lay there in the middle of the street hugging my French cop as if I loved him until I was sure that the car was well clear. One arm was out of action but even then I could have wrenched loose and handed him a jolt on the side of the jaw that would have kept him quiet while I did my getaway if it hadn't been for a bunch of soldier boys who had been out on leave from the garrison at the Invalides and happened to come along at just that moment. Seeing the agent struggling with a man in the street, they hopped in to help and a moment later I was stretched out with a big dragoon sitting on my chest and the horse's tail in his helmet tickling my face