"

Crochard bowed and left the room with the two detectives.

Delcasse sat for a moment deep in thought; then he summoned his
secretary, gave the necessary order about the photographs and dictated a
cipher telegram to the chief of his secret service at Berlin. That done,
he bade his secretary good night, dismissed him and went to bed.

But not to sleep. Turning at full length upon his back, his arms above
his head, he stared steadily up into the darkness until his brain, freed
of all lesser problems, all vagrant thoughts, was concentrated upon the
great problem which now confronted it:

How had the destruction of _La Liberte_ been accomplished?

It was, of course, the work of Germany. Those two strangers, who spoke
German in a moment of great excitement, who had arrived five minutes
before the disaster, who had hastened away immediately afterwards, who
had lied about their destination, and for whom a steam-yacht had been
waiting--all this, as Crochard said, could have but one meaning.

And then Delcasse fairly bounded in the bed. Fool that he had been not
to think of it! There was another proof! The telegram from the Emperor!

He lay a moment trembling, then calmed himself by a mighty effort. How
was it the Emperor had learned so promptly of the disaster? There was
only one possible answer: an emissary had hastened to flash the news to
him--an emissary dressed, prepared, who needed to delay for no
investigation, since the roar of the explosion told him everything--one
of the men, perhaps, who had waited on the quay. And Delcasse, biting
his nails, his face wet with perspiration, pictured to himself the
Emperor also waiting, pacing restlessly back and forth, until the word
should come! He gnashed his teeth with rage, this good Frenchman, and
shook trembling fists up into the darkness. Ah, Germany should pay!
Germany should pay!

But again he calmed himself, wiped his forehead, and composed himself
for thought.

How had _La Liberte_ been destroyed? There was the question which must
be answered, and at once.

By a mine, set to explode at a certain hour? Delcasse shook his head. It
was absurd to suppose that a mine could be planted in a harbour as
strictly guarded and policed as that of Toulon. By a torpedo, then,
which could be launched some distance away? But that was even more
absurd. The launching of a torpedo required a complex mechanism; as well
suppose that an enemy would be able to install a cannon on the