“You want to fasten me with a safety-pin?”

“Yes, to fasten you to the twenty-thousand francs! Then, whether it’s here, or on the drive from here to your place, or at your place, you will feel the hand that pulls at your pocket and you will see if it’s mine! Oh, so you’re suspecting me now, are you? A safety-pin!”

And that was the moment when Moncharmin opened the door on the passage and shouted:

“A safety-pin!⁠ ⁠… Somebody give me a safety-pin!”

And we also know how, at the same moment, Rémy, who had no safety-pin, was received by Moncharmin, while a boy procured the pin so eagerly longed for. And what happened was this: Moncharmin first locked the door again. Then he knelt down behind Richard’s back.

“I hope,” he said, “that the notes are still there?”

“So do I,” said Richard.