shot aimed full
at me, but which, fortunately, only grazed my arm."

"Why, to be sure, M. Narcisse, in your profession you must be
occasionally exposed to such mistakes!"

"Ah, you call these mistakes, eh?"

"Certainly; for, no doubt, the wicked fellow intended to lodge the ball
in your body."

"In the arm, body, or head, no matter, I don't complain of that; every
profession has its disagreeables."

"And its pleasures, too, M. Narcisse, and its pleasures. For instance,
when a man as cunning, as skilful, and as courageous as you, has been
for a long time on the track of a gang of villains, whom he follows from
quarter to quarter, from lurking-place to lurking-place, with a good
bloodhound like your poor servant to command, Bras-Rouge, and, finally,
marks them down and comes upon them in a trap from which not one of them
can escape, why, then, you must say, M. Narcisse, that there is great
pleasure in it,--the joy of a sportsman,--not including the service he
renders to justice!" added the host of the Bleeding Heart, with a grave
air.

"I should fully agree with you if the bloodhound were faithful, but I
fear it is not."

"Ah, M. Narcisse, you think--"

"I think that, instead of putting us on the track, you amuse yourself
with setting us on a false scent, and abuse the confidence placed in
you. Every day you promise to aid us to lay hands on the gang, and that
day never arrives."

"What if the day arrives to-day, M. Narcisse, as I am sure it will? What
if I bring together in a parcel Barbillon, Nicholas Martial, the widow,
her daughter, and the Chouette? Will that or will it not be a good sweep
of the net? Will you then mistrust me any longer?"

"No; and you will have rendered a real service; for there are very
strong presumptive facts against this gang,--suspicions almost assured,
but, unfortunately, no proofs."

"So, then, a small fag-end of actual crime, which would allow of their
being apprehended, would help amazingly to unravel the difficult
skein,--eh, M. Narcisse?"

"Most decidedly. And you assure me that there has not been the
slightest incitement on your part towards the _coup_ which they are now
going to attempt?"

"No, on my honour! It is the Chouette, who came to me to propose
inveigling the diamond-matcher here when that infernal hag learned from
my son that Morel, the lapidary, who lives in the Rue du Temple, was a
workman in real stones, and not in false, and that Mother Mathieu had
freq