im did not follow. He took train for
Berlin, and has been absent until now."

"We ought to know where he's been, Goslin," declared the elder man.
"What fool was it who, keeping him under surveillance, allowed him to
slip from Paris?"

"The Russian Tchernine."

"I thought him a clever fellow, but it seems that he's a bungler after
all."

"But while we keep Krail at arm's length, as we are doing, what have we
to fear?" asked Goslin.

"Yes, but how long can we keep him at arm's length?" queried Sir Henry.
"You know the kind of man--one of the most extraordinarily inventive in
Europe. No secret is safe from him. Do you know, Goslin," he added, in a
changed voice, "I live nowadays somehow in constant apprehension."

"You've never possessed the same self-confidence since you found
Mademoiselle Gabrielle with the safe open," he remarked.

"No. Murie, or some other man she knows, must have induced her to do
that, and take copies of those documents. Fortunately, I suspected an
attempt, and baited the trap accordingly."

"What caused you to suspect?"

"Because more than once both Murie and the girl seemed to be seized by
an unusual desire to pry into my business."

"You don't think that our friend Flockart had anything to do with the
affair?" the Frenchman suggested.

"No, no. Not in the least. I know Flockart too well," declared the old
man. "Once I looked upon him as my enemy, but I have now come to the
conclusion that he is a friend--a very good friend."

The Frenchman pulled a rather wry face, and remained silent.

"I know," Sir Henry went on, "I know quite well that his constant
association with my wife has caused a good deal of gossip; but I have
dismissed it all with the contempt that such attempted scandal deserves.
It has been put about by a pack of women who are jealous of my wife's
good looks and her _chic_ in dress."

"Are not Flockart and mademoiselle also good friends?" inquired Goslin.

"No. I happen to know that they are not, and that very fact in itself
shows me that Gabrielle, in trying to get at the secret of my business,
was not aided by Flockart, for it was he who exposed her."

"Yes," remarked the Frenchman, "so you've told me before. Have you heard
from mademoiselle lately?"

"Only twice since she has left here," was the old man's bitter reply,
"and that was twice too frequently. I've done with her, Goslin--done
with her entirely. Never in all my life did I receive such a crushing
blow