g, until they reached an imposing entrance with stately palms on
the white stone floor and the glimpse of an imposing stairway.

"Of course, of course," muttered M. Paul. "To think that I had forgotten
it! After all, one loses some of the old tricks in two years."

"Remember that blackmail case," whispered Tignol, "when we sneaked the
countess out by the Rue de l'Arcade? Eh, eh, eh, what a close shave!"

Coquenil nodded. "Here's one of the same kind." He glanced at a sober
_coupe_ from which a lady, thickly veiled, was descending, and he followed
her with a shrug as she entered the house.

"To think that some of the smartest women in Paris come here!" he mused.
Then to Tignol: "How about that telegram?"

The old man stroked his rough chin. "The clerk gave me a copy of it, all
right, when I showed my papers. Here it is and--much good it will do us."

He handed M. Paul a telegraph blank on which was written:

DUBOIS, 20 Rue Chalgrin.

Special bivouac amateur bouillon danger must have Sahara easily
Groener arms impossible.

FELIX.

"I see," nodded Coquenil; "it ought to be an easy cipher. We must look up
Dubois," and he put the paper in his pocket. "Better go in now and locate
this fellow. Look over the two courtyards, have a word with the
doorkeepers, see if he really went into the hairdresser's; if not, find out
where he did go. Tell our men at the other exits not to let a yellow dog
slip past without sizing it up for Groener."

"I'll tell 'em," grinned the old man, and he slouched away.

For five minutes Coquenil waited at the Place de la Madeleine exit and it
seemed a long time. Two ladies arrived in carriages and passed inside
quickly with exaggerated self-possession. A couple came down the stairs
smiling and separated coldly at the door. Then a man came out alone, and
the detective's eyes bored into him. It wasn't Groener.

Finally, Tignol returned and reported all well at the other exits; no one
had gone out who could possibly be the wood carver. Groener had not been
near the hairdresser; he had gone straight through into the second
courtyard, and from there he had hurried up the main stairway.

"The one that leads to Madam Cecile's?" questioned M. Paul.

"Yes, but Cecile has only two floors. There are two more above hers."

"You think he went higher up?"

"I'm sure he did, for I spoke to Cecile herself. She wouldn't dare lie to
me, and she says she has seen no such man as Groener."