But they had managed it. The door hadn’t been forced or even opened, and the ropes were still secure and tightly knotted, so they must have escaped by hauling themselves four metres to the top of the cage. There was no one and nothing there any more. Apart from the contracts, which had been thrown on the ground, three bundles of paper, still not signed. Franck picked them up and stuffed them in his pocket.

Then he called the dog; he whistled; he made his name echo off the sides of the great limestone crater.

‘Alpha … Alpha …! Al-pha …!’

He was seized by a feeling of total powerlessness that made his legs buckle. He sat down on a tree trunk and scratched his head, massaging it with his hands. Finding the hunters’ business card was the only thing he could think of: ‘Tracking injured quarry, battues, finding lost dogs,’ it read.

But he needed to climb all the way back to the top to get a signal; the hunters had told him there was some reception up towards the east, the same direction the storm was coming from. He set out on the path the hunters had come down the other day in their 4×4.

The thunder was becoming more and more insistent, rumbling closer and closer. The slope wasn’t as steep on this side, but it was long, and he walked for a long time. The rain began to fall harder and harder. He was worn out. He still couldn’t get a signal. He felt as if he really was sinking into the wild countryside, plunging so deep into it that he would never be able to get out, unless perhaps the trees were closing in on him. The eastern side was higher up than the others. When he got to the top of the igue, the horizon opened out in front of him and he could see all the way to the Mounts of Cantal. The clouds were no longer white and fluffy but black, and heavy with mineral dust. The torrent rushed towards him; there was a howling wind and pouring rain. Franck got his phone out of his bag. He had one bar; one miraculous bar probably brought back to life by the electric fields. He rang the number and the man on the other end picked up immediately.

‘Yes?’

‘I … I need you.’

‘Who is it?’

‘It’s me. You gave me your card the other day, for tracking.’

‘You’ve lost the dog?’

‘Yes, but it’s not just the dog.’

‘Oh really? What are you hunting?’

‘Look, can you meet me at the top of the igue straight away?’

‘All right.’