lt awfully nervous. I couldn't get to sleep for ages
and ages. Then, when I did, I did not wake till morning. The night had
passed absolutely quietly. Nothing out of the common had happened.
There had not been the slightest noise. I awoke Sonia and my father. We
dressed as quickly as we could, and rushed down to the drawing-room."

She paused dramatically.

"Well?" said the Duke.

"Well, it was done."

"What was done?" said the Duke.

"Everything," said Germaine. "Pictures had gone, tapestries had gone,
cabinets had gone, and the clock had gone."

"And the coronet too?" said the Duke.

"Oh, no. That was at the Bank of France. And it was doubtless to make
up for not getting it that Lupin stole your portrait. At any rate he
didn't say that he was going to steal it in his letter."

"But, come! this is incredible. Had he hypnotized the corporal and the
six soldiers? Or had he murdered them all?" said the Duke.

"Corporal? There wasn't any corporal, and there weren't any soldiers.
The corporal was Lupin, and the soldiers were part of his gang," said
Germaine.

"I don't understand," said the Duke. "The colonel promised your father
a corporal and six men. Didn't they come?"

"They came to the railway station all right," said Germaine. "But you
know the little inn half-way between the railway station and the
chateau? They stopped to drink there, and at eleven o'clock next
morning one of the villagers found all seven of them, along with the
footman who was guiding them to the chateau, sleeping like logs in the
little wood half a mile from the inn. Of course the innkeeper could not
explain when their wine was drugged. He could only tell us that a
motorist, who had stopped at the inn to get some supper, had called the
soldiers in and insisted on standing them drinks. They had seemed a
little fuddled before they left the inn, and the motorist had insisted
on driving them to the chateau in his car. When the drug took effect he
simply carried them out of it one by one, and laid them in the wood to
sleep it off."

"Lupin seems to have made a thorough job of it, anyhow," said the Duke.

"I should think so," said Germaine. "Guerchard was sent down from
Paris; but he could not find a single clue. It was not for want of
trying, for he hates Lupin. It's a regular fight between them, and so
far Lupin has scored every point."

"He must be as clever as they make 'em," said the Duke.

"He is," said Germaine. "And do you know