or he suddenly seized the four bottles in a liqueur-stand, took out the
four stoppers and inspected them.

"Hullo!" thought Lupin. "Now he's going for decanter-stoppers! Then it's
not a question of a paper? Well, I give it up."

Prasville next lifted and examined different objects; and he asked:

"How often have you been here?"

"Six times last winter," was the reply.

"And you have searched the house thoroughly?"

"Every one of the rooms, for days at a time, while he was visiting his
constituency."

"Still... still..." And he added, "Has he no servant at present?"

"No, he is looking for one. He has his meals out and the portress keeps
the house as best she can. The woman is devoted to us..."

Prasville persisted in his investigations for nearly an hour and a half,
shifting and fingering all the knick-knacks, but taking care to put
everything back exactly where he found it. At nine o'clock, however, the
two detectives who had followed Daubrecq burst into the study:

"He's coming back!"

"On foot?"

"Yes."

"Have we time?"

"Oh, dear, yes!"

Prasville and the men from the police-office withdrew, without undue
haste, after taking a last glance round the room to make sure that there
was nothing to betray their visit.

The position was becoming critical for Lupin. He ran the risk of
knocking up against Daubrecq, if he went away, or of not being able
to get out, if he remained. But, on ascertaining that the dining-room
windows afforded a direct means of exit to the square, he resolved to
stay. Besides, the opportunity of obtaining a close view of Daubrecq was
too good to refuse; and, as Daubrecq had been out to dinner, there was
not much chance of his entering the dining-room.

Lupin, therefore, waited, holding himself ready to hide behind a velvet
curtain that could be drawn across the glazed partition in case of need.

He heard the sound of doors opening and shutting. Some one walked into
the study and switched on the light. He recognized Daubrecq.

The deputy was a stout, thickset, bull-necked man, very nearly bald,
with a fringe of gray whiskers round his chin and wearing a pair of
black eye-glasses under his spectacles, for his eyes were weak and
strained. Lupin noticed the powerful features, the square chin, the
prominent cheek-bones. The hands were brawny and covered with hair, the
legs bowed; and he walked with a stoop, bearing first on one hip and
then on the other, which gave him something