Seine, as Hector wished, but
I forgot it; you see, I had drunk almost as much as the gardener
--so I carried it back home with me, and it is in my room now."

"Have you opened it?"

"Well--what do you think?"

"What did it contain?"

"A hammer, two other tools and a large knife."

Guespin's innocence was now evident, and the detective's foresight
was realized.

"Guespin's all right," said M. Plantat. "But we must know--"

M. Lecoq interrupted him; he knew now all he wished. Jenny could
tell him nothing more, so he suddenly changed his tone from a
wheedling one to abrupt severity.

"My fine young woman," said he, "you have saved an innocent man,
but you must repeat what you have just said to the judge of
instruction at Corbeil. And as you might lose yourself on the way,
I'll give you a guide."

He went to the window and opened it; perceiving Goulard on the
sidewalk, he cried out to him:

"Goulard, come up here."

He turned to the astonished Jenny, who was so frightened that she
dared not either question him or get angry, and said:

"Tell me how much Tremorel paid you for the service you rendered
him."

"Ten thousand francs; but it is my due, I swear to you; for he
promised it to me long ago, and owed it to me."

"Very good; it can't be taken away from you." He added, pointing
out Goulard who entered just then: "Go with this man to your room,
take the package which Guespin brought you, and set out at once for
Corbeil. Above all, no tricks, Miss--or beware of me!"

Mme. Charman came in just in time to see Jenny leave the room with
Goulard.

"Lord, what's the matter?" she asked M. Lecoq.

"Nothing, my dear Madame, nothing that concerns you in the least.
And so, thank you and good-evening; we are in a great hurry."

XXVI

When M. Lecoq was in a hurry he walked fast. He almost ran down
the Rue Notre Dame de Lorette, so that Plantat had great
difficulty in keeping up with him; and as he went along he pursued
his train of reflection, half aloud, so that his companion caught
here and there a snatch of it.

"All goes well," he muttered, "and we shall succeed. It's seldom
that a campaign which commences so well ends badly. If Job is at
the wine merchant's, and if one of my men has succeeded in his
search, the crime of Valfeuillu is solved, and in a week people
will have forgotten it."

He stopped short on reaching the foot of the street opposite the
church.

"I m