aculous escape you have had!"

CHAPTER THE SEVENTEENTH

WHAT THE PROFESSOR FOUND

When I met my friend Hambledon in secret at two o'clock that day under
the trees at a spot in the Retiro, not far from the great Plaza de la
Independencia, we sat down and I described to him my strange midnight
adventure.

He listened in amazement, which was increased when I told him how the
police had recognized in the inoffensive lawyer of Burgos the
notorious bandit Despujol, who was wanted not only by Scotland Yard,
but by the police of Europe.

"But those carpet pins are a curious feature of the affair, Hughie,"
he remarked.

"Yes. The police seem to attach no importance to them--but I do."

"So do I. The opinion of Professor Vega may throw some light upon the
affair."

"I shall call at the Princesa Hospital to-morrow," I said, and then I
inquired the latest information concerning De Gex and his French
friend.

There was little to report. De Gex had not been out of the hotel,
though Suzor had gone to purchase some cigars at eleven o'clock that
morning. While Suzor was absent De Gex had, according to the friendly
concierge, received a visitor, a middle-aged Spanish woman of the
middle-class. She had asked to see him, and on her name being sent up
the great one at once gave orders for her to be admitted.

Again the floor waiter became inquisitive, and heard the financier
speaking in English with his visitor.

"Unfortunate! Most unfortunate!" he heard De Gex say. "I am very glad,
however, that you have come to me so quickly. You had a telegram from
Siguenza--eh?"

"I received it only a quarter of an hour ago, sir," the woman had
replied in broken English.

Then De Gex had apparently given her something for her services, and
dismissed her.

"A telegram from Siguenza!" I exclaimed, when my friend Harry had told
me this. "Now Siguenza is on the direct line from here to the Pyrenees
and the French frontier! That telegram may be from Despujol while in
flight. If so, the police have set a trap for him at his journey's
end, either at Jaca beneath Mont Perdu, or at Pamplona. I wonder if
he'll be caught?"

"He might go on to Zaragoza and then turn to Barcelona and
Marseilles," Hambledon remarked.

"All the frontiers are watched, so it seems almost impossible for him
to escape. But," I added, "I wonder if this information conveyed by
the Spanish woman really concerned the fugitive?"

"I wonder. A man like De Gex, w