every other inmate of the house, held as a suspect to
await examination at the hands of a magistrate, and in the meantime his
business had gone to the dogs. After that drink got him, and
acquaintances made in the place of detention became associates and pals.
It was only a step from that to the Apaches, and from the Apaches to the
Seine and the trench; and the little fortune in Russia was never
claimed.

And now this Lord St. Ulmer was burning labels that once had been the
property of that man, was he? And burning them at this particular
period, of all others, when somebody, who evidently had some undesirable
knowledge regarding him, had been mysteriously done to death and the
Yard was out on the trail of the crime!

What did that mean? How did Lord St. Ulmer come into possession of those
labels? And having come into possession of them, why had he suddenly
become anxious to get rid of them?

What few paltry effects Lovetski had possessed when he joined the
Apaches were left in the room he hired from old Marise--Madame Serpice's
mother--at the inn of the "Twisted Arm." The Apaches had gone through
them, and voted them not worth ten sous the lot--and very probably they
were not. Still there might have been letters, and there might have been
some unused labels; fellows of that sort would be apt to keep things of
that kind merely to back up maudlin boasts of former standing. And if
there had been, if this Lord St. Ulmer had come into possession of
things that were left in the secret haunts of the Apaches---- Decidedly
it would be an advantage to get a look at his lordship, and that, too,
as expeditiously as possible.

A footman's waistcoat--merely that. He had one, that he knew; but was it
in the kit bag? He went over and reopened the bag, and examined its
contents. Good old Dollops! What strokes of inspiration the chap
sometimes had! There it was, the regulation thing--the stripes, perhaps,
a trifle broader than those the General's servants wore, but quite near
enough to pass muster with a stranger. Now, then, upon what pretext?
How? When? Hullo! What was that? The dinner gong, by Jupiter!

Certainly! The very thing. "Master wishes to know if there is any
especial dish your lordship fancies, or shall I bring up just what cook
has prepared?" That would do the trick to a turn; and he need be only
four or five minutes late in going down to join his host and the ladies.

He whisked off his coat, waistcoat, and necktie, a