had wired from Lyons. I
saw clearly what it meant. The next message would disclose the
whereabouts of the Lady Claire, at that time the only lady, as they
thought, in the case, and the lady with the real child. It would soon
be impossible for me to make use of the second with the sham child to
draw the pursuers after her. In this it must be understood that,
although I had no certainty of it, I took it for granted that the
little Lord Aspdale was with his aunt and not with his mother, who, as
I sincerely believed, had already reached Fuentellato.

It was essential now to persuade my Lord Blackadder and his people
that this was the case, and induce them to embark upon a hasty
expedition into Italy.

I therefore concocted a cunning plan with l'Echelle for leading them
astray. It was easy enough to arrange for the despatch of a telegram
from Milan to me at Aix, a despatch to be handed in at the former
place by a friend of l'Echelle's, but purporting to come from Lady
Claire. My man had any number of acquaintances in the railway service,
one or more passed daily through Aix with the express trains going
east or west; and with the payment of a substantial douceur the trick
was done.

The spurious message reached me in Aix early on the third morning, and
the second act in the fraud was that l'Echelle should allow Falfani to
see the telegram. He carried out the deception with consummate skill,
pretending to pick my pocket of the telegram, which he then put under
Falfani's eyes. The third act was to be my immediate exit from Aix. I
made no secret of this, very much the reverse. Notice was given at the
hotel bureau to prepare my bill, and insert my name on the list of
departures by the afternoon express, the 1.41 P.M. for Modane and
Italy. It was quite certain that I should not be allowed to go off
alone.

And suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, came a complete change in the
situation. Not long after I had consumed my morning _cafe au lait_ and
rolls, the conventional _petit dejeuner_ of French custom, a letter
was brought to my bedside, where, again according to rule, I was
resting after my bath.

I expected no letters, no one except the porter of my London club knew
my present address, and the interval was too short since my telegram
to him to allow of letters reaching me in the ordinary course of the
post.

I turned over the strange missive, the address in a lady's hand quite
unknown to me, examining it closely, as