e
slang of French thieves.

"Of course he is on friendly terms with Mademoiselle of Monte Carlo?"
Hugh remarked. "He may have been at Monte Carlo on the night of the
tragic affair."

"He may have been. He was, no doubt, somewhere on the Riviera, and he
sent Paolo in one of the cars to rescue you from the police."

"In that case, he at least knows that I am innocent."

"Yes. And he probably knows the guilty person. That would account for
the interest he takes in you, though you do not know him," said Lisette.
"I have known Il Passero perform many kindly acts to persons in distress
who have never dreamed that they have received money from a notorious
international thief."

"Well, in my case he has, no doubt, done me signal service," young
Henfrey replied. "But," he added, "why cannot you tell me something
more concerning Mademoiselle? What did you mean by saying that she was
a _marque de ce_? I know it is your slang, but won't you explain what it
means? You have explained most of your other expressions."

But the girl thief was obdurate. She was certainly a _chic_ and engaging
little person, apparently well educated and refined, but she was as sly
as her notorious employer, whom she served so faithfully. She was, she
had already told Hugh, the daughter of a man who had made jewel thefts
his speciality and after many convictions was now serving ten years at
the convict prison at Toulon. She had been bred in the Montmartre, and
trained and educated to a criminal life. Il Passero had found her, and,
after several times successfully "indicating" where coups could be made,
she had been taken into his employment as a decoy, frequently travelling
on the international _wagon-lits_ and restaurants, where she succeeded
in attracting the attention of men and holding them in conversation
with a mild flirtation while other members of the gang investigated the
contents of their valises. From one well-known diamond dealer travelling
between Paris and Amsterdam, she and the man working with her had
stolen a packet containing diamonds of the value of two hundred thousand
francs, while from an English business man travelling from Boulogne to
Paris, two days later, she had herself taken a wallet containing nearly
four thousand pounds in English bank-notes. It was her share of the
recent robbery that Il Passero had paid her three days before at the
Concordia Restaurant in the Via Garibaldi, in Genoa.

Hugh pressed her many times to t