As a matter of fact, the crisis arose when we came to the end of
our cab journey. The captain did not know which was his true
passenger, and so let us both remain aboard the launch. And now you
have the whole story.'
'An extremely improbable one, sir. Even by your own account you had no
right to interfere in this business at all.'
'I quite agree with you there,' he replied, with great nonchalance,
taking a card from his pocket-book, which he handed to me.
'That is my London address; you may make inquiries, and you will find
I am exactly what I represent myself to be.'
The first train for Paris left Meulan at eleven minutes past four in
the morning. It was now a quarter after two. I left the captain, crew,
and launch in charge of two of my men, with orders to proceed to Paris
as soon as it was daylight. I, supported by the third man, waited at
the station with our English prisoner, and reached Paris at half-past
five in the morning.
The English prisoner, though severely interrogated by the judge, stood
by his story. Inquiry by the police in London proved that what he said
of himself was true. His case, however, began to look very serious
when two of the men from the launch asserted that they had seen him
push the Frenchman overboard, and their statement could not be shaken.
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