VI

Now, while Mr. Planchet was struggling unsuccessfully to open the car door, Mr. Célestin, having finished his lunch, was coming out of the inn…

And that is why Mr. Planchet, still busy trying to open the door, found himself staring, for the second time in twenty-four hours, into the dark little muzzle of a Browning pistol.

That Browning, in someone else’s hands, seemed infinitely more dangerous than his own.

Fortunately, Mr. Planchet knew that half-movement of Swedish gymnastics: raising one’s arms as high as possible, an excellent exercise, in certain tragic circumstances, for preserving one’s life and health.