"Go to Gaillard, 15 Rue des Mathurins, wait until he comes. Tell him I am arrested. That is all."
With a nod of intelligence, La Liberte left his side and disappeared in the darkness.
CHAPTER XVII
PIERRE AND JEAN
As Gaillard stepped out from the theatre into a dark side street a hand fell upon his right shoulder. He looked around and saw a tall gendarme standing by his side. The prospect did not please him, so he turned to the left and saw another gendarme standing there. This one was short, and stout with a smile on his red face. Then Gaillard stopped.
"Well, citizens of the police," he exclaimed, "I don"t need any escort.
I can find my way home alone."
"Is your name Gaillard?" asked one.
"I have every reason to believe so," was the reply.
"Actor?" demanded the other.
"Ah, there I am not so certain," he answered.
"How? You do not know your own vocation?"
"My friends say I am an actor, and my enemies dispute it. What is your opinion?"
"I can say you are an actor, for I have seen you act," said the stout gendarme. "And a very good actor you were. You made me laugh heartily."
"Then I shall count you among my friends!" exclaimed Gaillard. "And between friends now, what is it that you want of me?"
"We are going to take you to the Luxembourg."
"What for?"
"I will read you the warrant," said the tall gendarme. "Come under the light of the lantern yonder."
Gaillard accompanied the two police officers to the other side of the street.
One of them took a large paper from his breast-pocket:--
"Warrant of arrest for the Citizen Gaillard, actor of the theatre of the Republic. Cause: Friend of the Suspect Tournay, and, therefore, to be apprehended."
Gaillard repressed the start that the sight of his friend"s name gave him. ""The Suspect Tournay." My colonel has been arrested," he said to himself. Then heaving a deep sigh he exclaimed aloud in a pathetic tone of voice:--
"It is very sad to think I should be arrested just as I was going to have such a good part in the new piece at the theatre."
"Was it a funny one?" inquired the short gendarme.
"Funny! why if you should hear it, you"d laugh those big bra.s.s b.u.t.tons off your coat."
"It"s a shame you can"t play it," was the sympathetic rejoinder.
"I"ll tell you what you can do," said Gaillard. "Go with me to my house, 15 Rue des Mathurins, and let me fetch the part so that I can study it while in prison; then, if I should be released soon I shall be prepared to play the part."
"It"s against our orders," said the tall gendarme. "We must take you at once to the Luxembourg."
"It"s very near here," persisted Gaillard, "and I will read one or two of the funniest speeches while we are there."
"It will not take us more than fifteen minutes," interposed the stout gendarme, looking at his mate.
"And when I am released," said Gaillard persuasively, "and play the part, I"ll send you each an admission."
"Well," said the tall gendarme, "we"ll go."
"You see," explained Gaillard as they walked off in the direction of the Rue des Mathurins, "my arrest is a mistake, that"s clear. Whoever heard of an actor being mixed up in politics!"
"That"s so," remarked the short gendarme.
"Yes," admitted the long one, "I have arrested many a suspect, and you"re the first actor. But I have my duty to perform, and if the warrant calls for an actor, an actor has to come."
"Of course," agreed Gaillard, "you are a man of high principle, as any one can see."
Gaillard knew that as soon as he was arrested his rooms would be searched for any evidence of a suspicious nature. In all the house there was only one doc.u.ment which could possibly compromise either himself or Tournay, and that was the letter his friend had received that same afternoon, and which was now lying upon the chimney-piece.
"Here we are at No. 15; I live on the fourth floor," he said, as they came to the door.
"Whew!" exclaimed the stout gendarme. "You"ll have to give us half a dozen of the best jokes if we go way up there."
"You shall have as many as you can stand," answered Gaillard. "Now, citizen officers, mind the angle in the wall, that"s it. It"s not a hard climb when you"re used to it."
"Whew!" exclaimed the stout man as they entered Gaillard"s apartment, "I could not climb that every day." He sank down in a chair and mopped the perspiration from his brow.
"I wish I was sure of climbing it every day of my life," said Gaillard.
"It"s thirsty work, however, so let us have something to refresh ourselves with;" and he took out from the closet a bottle of the choice Burgundy and three gla.s.ses.
"Here"s to the gendarmerie," he said as he filled the gla.s.ses.
A moment later two pairs of lips smacked approvingly in concert.
"That"s a vintage for you," said the short gendarme approvingly.
"I never drank but one gla.s.s of better wine than this in my life," said the tall gendarme meditatively.
"When was that?" asked Gaillard as he filled the gla.s.ses again.
"That was when the Count de Beaujeu"s house was sacked, and the citizens threw all the contents of his wine cellar into the street."