"There were two of them then?"
"Yes, a little one, who went up, and another, who took me unawares while I was watching."
"And the Doudevilles?"
"Haven't seen them."
One of them, Jacques, was found near the gate, bleeding from a punch in the jaw; the other a little farther, gasping for breath from a blow full on the chest.
"What is it? What happened?" asked M. Lenormand.
Jacques said that his brother and he had knocked up against an individual who had crippled them before they had time to defend themselves.
"Was he alone?"
"No; when he passed near us, he had a pal with him, shorter than himself."
"Did you recognize the man who struck you?"
"Judging by the breadth of his shoulders, I thought he might be the Englishman of the Palace Hotel, the one who left the hotel and whose traces
