n two paving-stones."

"Which?"

"Look for it."

"Which stones?"

Victor made no reply.

"Ah; I see!" exclaimed Grimaudan, "you want me to pay for the
information."

"No.... but....I am afraid I will starve to death."

"So! that is why you hesitate. Well, I'll not be hard on you. How much
do you want?"

"Enough to buy a steerage pass to America."

"All right."

"And a hundred francs to keep me until I get work there."

"You shall have two hundred. Now, speak."

"Count the paving-stones to the right from the sewer-hole. The pearl is
between the twelfth and thirteenth."

"In the gutter?"

"Yes, close to the sidewalk."

Grimaudan glanced around to see if anyone were looking. Some tram-cars
and pedestrians were passing. But, bah, they will not suspect anything.
He opened his pocketknife and thrust it between the twelfth and
thirteenth stones.

"And if it is not there?" he said to Victor.

"It must be there, unless someone saw me stoop down and hide it."

Could it be possible that the back pearl had been cast into the mud
and filth of the gutter to be picked up by the first comer? The black
pearl--a fortune!

"How far down?" he asked.

"About ten centimetres."

He dug up the wet earth. The point of his knife struck something. He
enlarged the hole with his finger. Then he abstracted the black pearl
from its filthy hiding-place.

"Good! Here are your two hundred francs. I will send you the ticket for
America."

On the following day, this article was published in the `Echo de
France,' and was copied by the leading newspapers throughout the world:

"Yesterday, the famous black pearl came into the possession of
Arsene Lupin, who recovered it from the murderer of the Countess
d'Andillot. In a short time, fac-similes of that precious jewel
will be exhibited in London, St. Petersburg, Calcutta, Buenos Ayres
and New York.

"Arsene Lupin will be pleased to consider all propositions
submitted to him through his agents."

* * * * *

"And that is how crime is always punished and virtue rewarded," said
Arsene Lupin, after he had told me the foregoing history of the black
pearl.

"And that is how you, under the assumed name of Grimaudan, ex-inspector
of detectives, were chosen by fate to deprive the criminal of the
benefit of his crime."

"Exactly. And I confess that the affair gives me infinite satisfaction
and pride. The forty minutes that I passed in the apartment of the
Countes