rridor, and
so he naturally made up his mind to get into the Princess's suite, which
he did by the simple process of stepping over the railing on the balcony
and walking in through the open window of the dressing-room."

"And then Nadine came in, and he had to hide?"

"No, no!" said Juve, "you are getting on too fast. If that had been so,
there would have been no need for all the bath business; besides, the
Princess was robbed, too, you know. That was not just chance, it was
planned; and so if the thief hid in the shower bath he did so on purpose
to wait for the Princess."

"But he did not want her!" Fuselier retorted: "very much the reverse. If
he was in the room before anybody else, all he had to do was, take the
pocket-book and go!"

"Not a bit of it!" said Juve. "This robbery took place at the end of the
month, when the Princess would have big monthly bills to meet, as the
thief must have known. He must have found out that she had withdrawn her
portfolio and money from the custody of the hotel. But he must have been
ignorant of where she had placed the portfolio; and he waited for her to
ask her--and she told him!"

"That's a pretty tall yarn!" M. Fuselier protested. "What on earth do
you base it all upon? The Princess would never have shown the man the
drawer where the money was taken from!"

"Yes, she did!" said Juve. "Look here: this is what happened: the fellow
wanted to steal this pocket-book, and did not know where it was. He hid
in the shower bath and waited, either for the Princess to go to bed or
take a bath, either of which would place her at his mercy. When the lady
was in the bath he appeared, threatened her, until she was terrified,
and then bucked her up a bit again and hit on the dodge of putting out
the electric light--not out of respect for her wounded feelings, but
simply in order to get a chance to search through her clothes and make
sure that the pocket-book was not there. I am convinced that if he had
found it then he would have bolted at once. But he didn't find it. So he
went to the end of the next room and waited for the Princess to come to
him there, which is precisely what she did. He did not know where the
money was, so he watched every movement of her eyes and saw them go
automatically towards the drawer and stay there; then he slipped his
card into the drawer, abstracted the pocket-book, and took his leave,
driving his impudence and skill to the length of making her see him to
the