ld never have
thought of that. That is worthy of Monsieur Lecoq. And so you follow
them to France--but, surely, you have some more--what you
call--definite address than that, Mistair Lester!"

I could feel his eyes burning out from the shadows; I was thankful for
the cigarette--it helped me to preserve an indifferent countenance.

"No," I said. "It seems rather a wild-goose chase, doesn't it? But you
could advise me, Mr. Martigny. Where would it be best for me to search
for them?"

He did not answer for a moment, and I took advantage of the
opportunity to select a second cigarette and light it. I dared not
remain unoccupied; I dared not meet his eyes; I trembled to see that
my hand was not wholly steady.

"That," he began slowly, at last, "seems to me a most--ah!--deeficult
affair, Mistair Lester. To search for three people through all
France--there seems little hope of success. Yet I should think it most
likely that they have gone to Paris."

I nodded. "That was my own theory," I agreed. "But to find them in
Paris, seems also impossible."

"Not if one uses the police," he said. "It could, most probably, be
soon achieved, if you requested the police to assist you."

"But, my dear sir," I protested. "I can't use the police. Miss
Holladay, at least, has committed no crime; she has simply chosen to
go away without informing us."

"You will permit me to say, then, Mistair Lester," he observed, with
just a touch of irony, "that I fail to comprehend your anxiety
concerning her."

I felt that I had made a mis-step; that I had need to go carefully.

"It is not quite so simple as that," I explained. "The last time we
saw Miss Holladay, she told us that she was ill, and intended to go to
her country home for a rest. Instead of going there, she sailed for
France, without informing anyone--indeed, doing everything she could
to escape detection. That conduct seems so eccentric that we feel in
duty bound to investigate it. Besides, two days before she left she
received from us a hundred thousand dollars in cash."

I saw him move uneasily on his bed; after all, this advantage of mine
was no small one. No wonder he grew restless under this revelation of
secrets which were not secrets!

"Ah!" he said softly; and again, "Ah! Yes, that seems peculiar. Yet,
perhaps, if you had waited for a letter----"

"Suppose we had waited, and there had been no letter--suppose, in
consequence of waiting, we should be too late?"

"Too