"But you had him in your power," said Corentin.
"Very likely."
"Why did you stop me when I had him?" asked Hulot.
"I did not know what he would prove to be," she cried. Then, suddenly,
the excited woman, who was walking up and down with hurried steps and
casting savage glances at the spectators of the storm, calmed down. "I
do not know myself," she said, in a man's tone. "Why talk? I must go
and find him."
"Go and find him?" said Hulot. "My dear woman, take care; we are not
yet masters of this part of the country; if you venture outside of the
town you will be taken or killed before you've gone a hundred yards."
"There's never any danger for those who seek vengeance," she said,
driving from her presence with a disdainful gesture the two men whom
she was ashamed to face.
"What a woman!" cried Hulot as he walked away with Corentin. "A queer
idea of those police fellows in Paris to send her here; but she'll
never deliver him up to us," he added, shaking his head.
"Oh yes, she will," replied Corentin.
"Don't you see she loves him?" said Hulot.
"That's just why she will. Besides," looking at the amazed commandant,
"I am here to see that she doesn't commit any folly. In my opinion,
comrade, there is no love in the world worth the three hundred
thousand francs she'll make out of this."
When the police diplomatist left the soldier the latter stood looking
after him, and as the sound of the man's steps died away he gave a
sigh, muttering to himself, "It may be a good thing after all to be
such a dullard as I am.
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