iding-place."

"Well?"

"I believe my husband discovered that hiding-place."

"Well?"

"I believe my husband has discovered that hiding-place."

"Ah! where was it?"

"Here."

"Here!" I cried in alarm.

"Yes. I always had that suspicion. Louis Lacombe was very ingenious
and amused himself in his leisure hours, by making safes and locks. No
doubt, the Varin brothers were aware of that fact and utilized one of
Lacombe's safes in which to conceal the letters.... and other things,
perhaps."

"But they did not live here," I said.

"Before you came, four months ago, the house had been vacant for some
time. And they may have thought that your presence here would not
interfere with them when they wanted to get the papers. But they did not
count on my husband, who came here on the night of 22 June, forced the
safe, took what he was seeking, and left his card to inform the two
brothers that he feared them no more, and that their positions were now
reversed. Two days later, after reading the article in the `Gil Blas,'
Etienne Varin came here, remained alone in this room, found the safe
empty, and.... killed himself."

After a moment, Daspry said:

"A very simple theory....Has Mon. Andermatt spoken to you since then?"

"No."

"Has his attitude toward you changed in any way? Does he appear more
gloomy, more anxious?"

"No, I haven't noticed any change."

"And yet you think he has secured the letters. Now, in my opinion, he
has not got those letters, and it was not he who came here on the night
of 22 June."

"Who was it, then?"

"The mysterious individual who is managing this affair, who holds all
the threads in his hands, and whose invisible but far-reaching power we
have felt from the beginning. It was he and his friends who entered
this house on 22 June; it was he who discovered the hiding-place of the
papers; it was he who left Mon. Andermatt's card; it is he who now
holds the correspondence and the evidence of the treachery of the Varin
brothers."

"Who is he?" I asked, impatiently.

"The man who writes letters to the `Echo de France'.... Salvator! Have
we not convincing evidence of that fact? Does he not mention in his
letters certain details that no one could know, except the man who had
thus discovered the secrets of the two brothers?"

"Well, then," stammered Madame Andermatt, in great alarm, "he has my
letters also, and it is he who now threatens my husband. Mon Dieu! What
am I to do?"

"Writ