o'clock in the morning, by motor-car. The
Growler went with them.

So as not to arouse suspicion, Lupin chose a large town as his
headquarters. At Amiens, where he installed Clarisse, he was only
eighteen miles from Montmaur.

At eight o'clock he met the Masher not far from the old fortress,
which was known in the neighbourhood by the name of Mortepierre, and he
examined the locality under his guidance.

On the confines of the forest, the little river Ligier, which has dug
itself a deep valley at this spot, forms a loop which is overhung by the
enormous cliff of Mortepierre.

"Nothing to be done on this side," said Lupin. "The cliff is steep, over
two hundred feet high, and the river hugs it all round."

Not far away they found a bridge that led to the foot of a path which
wound, through the oaks and pines, up to a little esplanade, where stood
a massive, iron-bound gate, studded with nails and flanked on either
side by a large tower.

"Is this where Sebastiani the huntsman lives?" asked Lupin.

"Yes," said the Masher, "with his wife, in a lodge standing in the midst
of the ruins. I also learnt that he has three tall sons and that all the
four were supposed to be away for a holiday on the day when Daubrecq was
carried off."

"Oho!" said Lupin. "The coincidence is worth remembering. It seems
likely enough that the business was done by those chaps and their
father."

Toward the end of the afternoon Lupin availed himself of a breach to the
right of the towers to scale the curtain. From there he was able to see
the huntsman's lodge and the few remains of the old fortress: here,
a bit of wall, suggesting the mantel of a chimney; further away, a
water-tank; on this side, the arches of a chapel; on the other, a heap
of fallen stones.

A patrol-path edged the cliff in front; and, at one of the ends of this
patrol-path, there were the remains of a formidable donjon-keep razed
almost level with the ground.

Lupin returned to Clarisse Mergy in the evening. And from that time he
went backward and forward between Amiens and Mortepierre, leaving the
Growler and the Masher permanently on the watch.

And six days passed. Sebastiani's habits seemed to be subject solely
to the duties of his post. He used to go up to the Chateau de Montmaur,
walk about in the forest, note the tracks of the game and go his rounds
at night.

But, on the seventh day, learning that there was to be a meet and that
a carriage had been sent to