l, monsieur le secretaire-general, I'm thinking that Daubrecq has
many enemies."

"Ah, capital!"

"And that several of those enemies, who are interested in his
disappearance, must have banded themselves against him."

"Capital, capital!" said Prasville, with satirical approval. "Capital!
Everything is becoming clear as daylight. It only remains for you to
furnish us with a little suggestion that will enable us to turn our
search in the right direction."

"Don't you think, monsieur le secretaire-general, that this broken bit
of ivory which was picked up on the ground..."

"No, M. Nicole, no. That bit of ivory belongs to something which we
do not know and which its owner will at once make it his business to
conceal. In order to trace the owner, we should at least be able to
define the nature of the thing itself."

M. Nicole reflected and then began:

"Monsieur le secretaire-general, when Napoleon I fell from power..."

"Oh, M. Nicole, oh, a lesson in French history!"

"Only a sentence, monsieur le secretaire-general, just one sentence
which I will ask your leave to complete. When Napoleon I fell from
power, the Restoration placed a certain number of officers on half-pay.
These officers were suspected by the authorities and kept under
observation by the police. They remained faithful to the emperor's
memory; and they contrived to reproduce the features of their idol on
all sorts of objects of everyday use; snuff-boxes, rings, breast-pins,
pen-knives and so on."

"Well?"

"Well, this bit comes from a walking-stick, or rather a sort of loaded
cane, or life-preserver, the knob of which is formed of a piece of
carved ivory. When you look at the knob in a certain way, you end by
seeing that the outline represents the profile of the Little Corporal.
What you have in your hand, monsieur le secretaire-general, is a bit of
the ivory knob at the top of a half-pay officer's life-preserver."

"Yes," said Prasville, examining the exhibit, "yes, I can make out a
profile... but I don't see the inference..."

"The inference is very simple. Among Daubrecq's victims, among those
whose names are inscribed on the famous list, is the descendant of a
Corsican family in Napoleon's service, which derived its wealth and
title from the emperor and was afterward ruined under the Restoration.
It is ten to one that this descendant, who was the leader of the
Bonapartist party a few years ago, was the fifth person hiding in the
motor-ca