midnight
Not expensive , eh , when purchased with these ? '' and he spread out the identical bank-notes with which his prisoner had paid for them in the Government store on the boulevard . `` As for you , monsieur , it is only necessary that one of my men take your statement at your house ; after that you are free . `` Come , Maceiö , '' and he shook the prisoner by the shoulder , `` you take the midnight train with me back to Paris -- you too , madame . '' * * * * * And so I say again , and this time you must agree with me , that strange happenings , often with a note of terror in them , occur now and then in my lost village by the sea . -LSB- Illustration : cigar -RSB- * * * * * -LSB- Illustration : soldiers -RSB- At the very beginning of the straggling fishing-village of Pont du Sable and close by the tawny marsh stands the little stone house of the mayor .