d bought d'Auvergne Cigarettes since
Wednesday; but I was on his doorstep well within twenty-four hours of
hearing that your son was missing; and you may chalk that up to A. V. M.!
I might have been with him some hours sooner still, but I preferred to
spend them getting to know something about my man. I tried his nearest
shops; perfect mines! One was a chemist, who didn't know him by sight,
and had never heard of the cigarettes, but remembered being asked for them
by an elderly gentleman last Thursday morning! That absolutely confirmed
my first suspicion that Baumgartner himself was not the asthmatic; if he
had been, the nearest chemist would have known all about him. Yet he had
gone to the nearest chemist first!"

"The nearest butcher was next door; but he was so short about Baumgartner
that I scented a true-green vegetarian. It was a false scent, Mr. Upton;
not to mention the baker and the candlestick-maker, there's a little
restaurant in the same row, which was about the fifth place where I began
by asking if they knew where a Dr. Baumgartner lived in that
neighbourhood. The little Italian boss was all over me on the spot! The
worthy doctor proved to be his most regular customer, having all his meals
sent in hot from the restaurant in quite the Italian manner. I don't
suppose you see how very valuable this was to me. Germans love Italy, the
little man explained; but I said that was the one point on which I should
never yield to Germany--and I thought I was going to be kissed across the
counter! It seems the good doctor lives alone with his niece (not always
even her), and keeps no servants and never entertains. Yet on Friday, for
the first time since the arrangement was made, the old chap went to the
restaurant himself to complain of short commons; there had not been enough
for them to eat on the Thursday night!"

"Had they been alone?" asked Mr. Upton, with a puzzled face.

"That's the whole point! My little Florentine understood they were, but I
deduced one extra, and then conceived a course that may astonish you. It
was the bold course; but it nearly always pays. I lunched at my leisure
(an excellent Chianti my little friend keeps) and afterwards went round
and saw the doctor himself. The niece opened the door--I wish I'd seen
more of her--but she fetched her uncle at once and I begged for an
interview on an urgent matter. He consented in a way that, I must say,
impressed me very favourably; and th