no questions, for the sake of the money which this aristo in disguise
dispensed with a lavish hand.

Having taken possession of his new quarters and snatched a few hours of
sound, well-deserved rest, until the time when the shades of evening
and the darkness of the streets would make progress through the city
somewhat more safe, Blakeney sallied forth at about six o'clock having a
threefold object in view.

Primarily, of course, the threefold object was concentrated on Armand.
There was the possibility of finding out at the young man's lodgings in
Montmartre what had become of him; then there were the usual inquiries
that could be made from the registers of the various prisons; and,
thirdly, there was the chance that Armand had succeeded in sending some
kind of message to Blakeney's former lodgings in the Rue St. Germain
l'Auxerrois.

On the whole, Sir Percy decided to leave the prison registers alone
for the present. If Armand had been actually arrested, he would almost
certainly be confined in the Chatelet prison, where he would be closer
to hand for all the interrogatories to which, no doubt, he would be
subjected.

Blakeney set his teeth and murmured a good, sound, British oath when
he thought of those interrogatories. Armand St. Just, highly strung,
a dreamer and a bundle of nerves--how he would suffer under the mental
rack of questions and cross-questions, cleverly-laid traps to catch
information from him unawares!

His next objective, then, was Armand's former lodging, and from
six o'clock until close upon eight Sir Percy haunted the slopes of
Montmartre, and more especially the neighbourhood of the Rue de la Croix
Blanche, where Armand had lodged these former days. At the house itself
he could not inquire as yet; obviously it would not have been safe;
tomorrow, perhaps, when he knew more, but not tonight. His keen eyes had
already spied at least two figures clothed in the rags of out-of-work
labourers like himself, who had hung with suspicious persistence in this
same neighbourhood, and who during the two hours that he had been in
observation had never strayed out of sight of the house in the Rue de la
Croix Blanche.

That these were two spies on the watch was, of course, obvious;
but whether they were on the watch for St. Just or for some other
unfortunate wretch it was at this stage impossible to conjecture.

Then, as from the Tour des Dames close by the clock solemnly struck the
hour of eight, and B