aware he
had a tenant."

"We will do so," said Delcasse. "But who was this tenant?"

"There is some doubt on that point," answered Crochard slowly. "That
little road is used but seldom, for a better one now leads around the
base of the hill; and few people ever have occasion to enter the grove.
It was, of course, for this very reason that the hut was chosen for this
installation. I have found no one who saw any man at work there. On the
other hand, a friend of mine, who has a cabaret on the main road just
outside the city gate, has seen pass a number of times within the past
week a man who, from his face and dress, was evidently not a Frenchman,
and whose actions appeared to my friend to be suspicious."

Delcasse smiled.

"You seem to have many friends," he remarked; "and unusually observant
ones."

"Yes," agreed Crochard; "I am fortunate in my friends; and they find it
greatly to their interest to keep their eyes open."

"Did you secure a description of this stranger?"

"Yes; but there should have been much more than a mere description. Some
of my friends are more intelligent than others. Still, it may be of
service. This stranger was a small man, slightly built, with grey hair
and bright, dark eyes. His complexion was also rather dark, and my
friend hazarded the guess that he was a Spaniard. He was dressed in dark
clothes, cut after a fashion not French, and wore a soft, dark hat."

"But that is a splendid description!" cried Delcasse. "What more did you
want?"

"Ah, sir," replied Crochard, "if it had been some of my friends, they
would have managed to meet this man; they would have engaged him in
conversation, have discovered his business and place of abode; instead
of which, this friend in question merely sits at the door of his cabaret
and watches the man pass! He was not doing his duty--but he will not
make such a mistake again!"

"His duty?" echoed Delcasse. "His duty to whom?"

"His duty to me," replied Crochard.

"But I do not understand," said the Minister, more and more amazed. "Why
should your friends have any such duty to you?"

Crochard hesitated. Lepine's face was fairly saturnine.

"I cannot explain that to you now, sir," said Crochard, finally. "I can
only say that it is part of a system which has existed for a very long
time, and of which I now happen to be the head."

Delcasse pondered this for a moment, his eyes on Crochard's face. Then
he turned to Lepine.

"You must learn more