by. The detective had requested the concierge to ask the
Madame Aurore to whom she had previously appealed so loudly for help, to
take her place temporarily in the lodge. Juve kept Mme. Doulenques
upstairs with him partly to get information from her, and partly to
prevent her from gossiping downstairs.

While he was opening drawers and ransacking furniture, and plunging his
hand into presses and cupboards, Juve asked the concierge to describe
this tenant of hers, M. Gurn, in whom he appeared to be so deeply
interested.

"He is a rather fair man," the concierge told him, "medium height, stout
build, and clean shaven like an Englishman; there is nothing particular
about him: he is like lots of other people."

This very vague description was hardly satisfactory. The detective told
the policeman to unscrew the lock on a locked trunk, and gave him a
small screw-driver which he had found in the kitchen. Then he turned
again to Mme. Doulenques who was standing stiffly against the wall,
severely silent.

"You told me that M. Gurn had a lady friend. When used he to see her?"

"Pretty often, when he was in Paris; and always in the afternoon.
Sometimes they were together till six or seven o'clock, and once or
twice the lady did not come down before half-past seven."

"Used they to leave the house together?"

"No, sir."

"Did the lady ever stay the night here?"

"Never, sir."

"Yes: evidently a married woman," murmured the detective as if speaking
to himself.

Mme. Doulenques made a vague gesture to show her ignorance on the point.

"I can't tell you anything about that, sir."

"Very well," said the detective; "kindly pass me that coat behind you."

The concierge obediently took down a coat from a hook and handed it to
Juve who searched it quickly, looked it all over and then found a label
sewn on the inside of the collar: it bore the one word _Pretoria_.

"Good!" said he, in an undertone; "I thought as much."

Then he looked at the buttons; these were stamped on the under side with
the name _Smith_.

The gendarme understood what the detective was about, and he too
examined the clothes in the first trunk which he had just opened.

"There is nothing to show where these things came from, sir," he
remarked. "The name of the maker is not on them."

"That's all right," said Juve. "Open the other trunk."

While the gendarme was busy forcing this second lock Juve went for a
moment into the kitchen and came back h