n Rigal?"

"Very unlikely. Gandelu is the drawer, Rigal merely the endorser.
Bills, when due, are always presented to the drawer," returned Verminet
laconically.

Evidently a trap had been laid for Gaston, but the reason was still
buried in obscurity.

"Then," remarked Andre, "we have but one course to pursue: we must trace
those notes to the hands in which they now are, and take them up."

"Quite right."

"But to enable us to do so, you must first let us know the name of the
party who discounted them."

"I don't know; I have forgotten," answered Verminet, with a careless
wave of his hand.

"Then," returned Andre, in a low, deep voice of concentrated fury, "let
me advise you, for your own sake, to make an immediate call upon your
powers of memory."

"Do you threaten me?"

"And if you do not succeed in remembering the name or names, the
consequences may be more serious than you seem to anticipate."

Verminet saw that the young painter was in dangerous earnest, and rose
from his chair, but Andre was too quick for him.

"No," said he, placing his back against the door; "you will not leave
this room until you have done what I require."

For fully ten minutes the men stood gazing at each other. Verminet
was green with terror, while Andre's face, though pale, was firm and
determined.

"If the scoundrel makes any resistance," said he to himself, "I will
fling him out of the window."

"The man is a perfect athlete," thought Verminet, "and looks as if he
would stick at nothing."

Seeing that he had better give in, the managing director took up a bulky
ledger, and began to turn over the leaves with trembling fingers.

Andre saw that he was holding it upside-down.

"There it is," cried Verminet at last.

"Bills for five thousand francs. Gandelu and Rigal, booked for discount
to Van Klopen, ladies' tailor."

Andre was silent.

Why was it that Verminet had suggested Rigal's signature as the one he
ought to imitate? And why had he handed the bills over to Van Klopen?
Was it mere chance that had arranged it all? He did not believe it, but
felt sure that some secret tie united them all together, Verminet, Van
Klopen, Rigal, and the Marquis de Croisenois.

"Do you want anything more?" asked the manager of the Mutual Loan
Society.

"Are the bills in Van Klopen's hands?"

"I can't say."

"Never mind, he will have to tell me where they are, if he has not got
them," returned Andre.

They left the house, a