"The Rue d"Ansin," announced the chauffeur, at last.
"A bad street?" Dave inquired.
"Yes."
"The haunt of criminals?"
"Criminals are seen here," the chauffeur explained, "but their real lurking places are in some of the alleys, farther along, that lead off from the Rue d"Ansin. Late at night, monsieur, it is better to ride through this street than to be afoot on the sidewalk!"
"Is it the part of Paris where one would come to meet or to confer with desperate criminals?" Dave asked.
"Many of the Apaches live hereabouts," replied the chauffeur, with another shrug.
Dave had read of these dangerous thugs, the so-called "Apaches,"
native toughs of Paris, who commit many bold robberies on the streets by night, and even, sometimes, by day, and who seldom hesitate to kill a victim or a policeman if murder will render their own escape sure.
To an observer the Apache appears to be equally without fear and without conscience. The Apache is many degrees more dangerous than his more cowardly cousin, the "gun-man" of New York.
"I hope you will not have to take to the streets here, Monsieur," said the chauffeur.
"If I have to do that, I am not afraid to take a chance," Darrin answered, imitating the Frenchman"s shrug with his own broad shoulders.
Ahead, Gortchky"s taxicab was slowing down, and the pursuing vehicle did the same. Dave peered about to see if some one were waiting to be taken up by Gortchky, but, instead, Gortchky descended.
"Drive close to the curb on the other side of the street," whispered Darrin. "Merely slow down so that I may slip to the sidewalk. Then go ahead, waiting for me around the corner two blocks away."
"One block away would be better, Monsieur," urged the chauffeur.
"Make it two," Dave insisted crisply.
Stepping out on the running board, Dave leaned well forward, thus making it possible to close the door of his car as it slowed down.
Then, as Dave stepped to the sidewalk, the taxicab moved forward more rapidly.
Searching in an inner pocket, Emil Gortchky, down the street on the other side, did not look up, and apparently did not observe the maneuver on the part of Dave"s chauffeur. Dave slipped quickly into a darkened doorway, from which he could watch the international spy with little danger of being observed.
Taking out a little packet of papers, and moving toward a street lamp, Gortchky selected one of the papers, thrusting the rest back into his pocket. As he did so, one white bit fluttered to the sidewalk.
Reading under the street lamp the paper he had selected, Gortchky put that particular paper in another pocket. Then he turned abruptly, plunging into the depths of an alley-like street.
Sauntering slowly across the street, in order not to attract too much attention from other pa.s.sers on the badly lighted Rue d"Ansin, Ensign Darrin, his gaze glued to that piece of paper, soon reached it and picked it up.
"For that scoundrel to drop this paper, of all others that he had in his pocket!" gasped Dave Darrin, as, under the street light, he took in its nature.
Then he paled, for this paper seemed to confirm absolutely the young ensign"s suspicion as to the way in which the British battleship was to be destroyed.
All in a twinkling Dave"s pallor vanished, for he had something else to think about.
On the alley-like side street a quick step was heard that Darrin recognized. It was that of Emil Gortchky, hastily returning to find the paper that he had dropped in the heart of Apache Land!
CHAPTER XVI
"SEEING" THE PARIS APACHES
Like a flash Darrin thrust the paper into one of his own pockets. Then he turned, darting into a near-by doorway dark enough to conceal him from Gortchky"s eyes, if he should look in that direction.
"I"ve no reason for fearing an encounter with Gortchky, unless he knows how to summon the murderous Apaches to his aid," Dave told himself as he pressed back as far as he could into his hiding place.
"I don"t want Gortchky, however, to know I"m watching him, and I don"t want to lose this precious paper any more than he does."
Touching the door accidentally with the hand that rested behind his back, Dave was delighted to feel it swing slightly open. In another instant he had backed into a corridor, softly closing the door after him.
"Now Gortchky won"t find me, and I"m all right, unless I am discovered by one of the occupants of this house, and turned over to the police as a burglar!" thought the young naval officer exultantly.
Gortchky"s step, now slower, went by the door, which Dave had left ajar by only the tiniest crack.
"I cannot have lost that paper here, after all," Dave heard the international spy mutter in a low voice. "Certainly it has not been picked up, for I came back almost instantly, and there was no one near. It is not likely that I shall ever see that important little bit of paper again."
Yet for a few moments longer Dave heard the international spy moving about as though still searching. Then the fellow"s footsteps died out as he went around the corner.
"I"ll wait a few minutes before I step out," Darrin decided. "Gortchky may only be laying a trap, and even at this instant he may be peering around the corner to see if any one steps out of one of these doorways."
Waiting for what seemed to be a long time, but what was actually only a few minutes, the young ensign stepped out to the sidewalk again.
There were a few people on his own side of the block, and the sight of any one leaving a house was not likely to arouse curiosity in the minds of the denizens of that neighborhood.
As Dave neared the next corner, however, four rough-looking fellows came out of a little cafe. Their bearing was full of swagger. These young men, in dress half student and half laborer, with caps pulled down over their eyes and gaily-knotted handkerchiefs around their necks, displayed the shifting, cunning look that is found in the hoodlum everywhere.
As they reached the sidewalk, moving with the noiseless step peculiar to the Apache, they heard Darrin briskly coming along. Halting, they regarded him closely as he neared them.
"They look like hard characters," Dave told himself. "However, if I mind my business, I guess they"ll mind theirs."
It was not to be. One of the Apaches, the tallest and slimmest of the lot, regarded Darrin with more curiosity than did any of the others.
"Ho!" he cried. "See how stiffly our little student carries himself!
He must have been to see his sweetheart, and feels proud of himself."
"He has the stride of a banker," jeered another. "I wonder if he has his bank with him."
Dave"s ear, quickly attuned to the French tongue, caught and understood the words.
"Let me see what you look like," urged the slim fellow, reaching out and plucking from Darrin"s nose the blue eye gla.s.ses just as Dave was pa.s.sing the group.
That gesture and the act were so insulting that Ensign Darrin could not keep back the flash that leaped into his eyes. He halted, regarding the Apache steadily.
"Why, bless me! He"s an American!" cried the Apache. "All Americans are rich, you know. My friend, have you a few sous for a group of poor workingmen?"