Page:Rowland--The closing net.djvu/221

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THE COUNTESS ROSALIE
203

then you say that the affair is all over and done with and that you are pushed along by a desire for revenge. That is easy to understand. It is not difficult to believe, also, that you have become a missionary and a prédicateur on her account. Then, while we are following her you step suddenly out of my taxi as a comme iI faut English milord, telling me that you are an officer of the secret service and that the driver of the taxi we are following is Chu-Chu le Tondeur. That is startling to hear, but possible to believe. But now what I do not understand is, if you are an officer of the secret service and the driver of that taxi is Chu-Chu, why don't you go in and arrest him? If you do not care to attempt it alone there is a station of the gendarmerie nationale not very far away."

"Madame Rosalie," I answered, "there is but one way to arrest Chu-Chu, and that way requires but one person and no assistants. Such a person as our friend Chu-Chu should be shot first and arrested afterward. But this is something that one dislikes to undertake in a crowd."

She gave me that peculiar look that had already puzzled me.

"And is it for that that you are following him?" she asked.

"I wish to take him single-handed," I answered. "Of course, if he resists——" I shrugged. "But," I added, "I want to do it as quietly as possible. It is a very bad thing for everybody when the taking of a notorious criminal is attended with a lot of noise."

"And makes it necessary to divide the credit of