various hotels surrounding the Gare du Nord.

"Very well," retorted the magistrate. "Perhaps we will do as you
request. Now, there are two questions I desire to ask. If you arrived
in Paris at four o'clock in the afternoon, how did it happen that by
midnight of the same day you had discovered the Poivriere, which is
merely frequented by suspicious characters, and is situated in such a
lonely spot that it would be impossible to find it at night-time, if one
were not familiar with the surrounding localities? In the second place,
how does it happen, if you possess such clothing as you describe, that
you are so poorly dressed?"

The prisoner smiled at these questions. "I can easily explain that," he
replied. "One's clothes are soon spoiled when one travels third-class,
so on leaving Leipsic I put on the worst things I had. When I arrived
here, and felt my feet on the pavements of Paris, I went literally wild
with delight. I acted like a fool. I had some money in my pocket--it was
Shrove Sunday--and my only thought was to make a night of it. I did not
think of changing my clothes. As I had formerly been in the habit of
amusing myself round about the Barriere d'Italie, I hastened there and
entered a wine-shop. While I was eating a morsel, two men came in and
began talking about spending the night at a ball at the Rainbow. I
asked them to take me with them; they agreed, I paid their bills, and
we started. But soon after our arrival there these young men left me
and joined the dancers. It was not long before I grew weary of merely
looking on. Rather disappointed, I left the inn, and being foolish
enough not to ask my way, I wandered on till I lost myself, while
traversing a tract of unoccupied land. I was about to go back, when I
saw a light in the distance. I walked straight toward it, and reached
that cursed hovel."

"What happened then?"

"Oh! I went in; called for some one. A woman came downstairs, and I
asked her for a glass of brandy. When she brought it, I sat down and
lighted a cigar. Then I looked about me. The interior was almost enough
to frighten one. Three men and two women were drinking and chatting in
low tones at another table. My face did not seem to suit them. One of
them got up, came toward me, and said: 'You are a police agent; you've
come here to play the spy; that's very plain.' I answered that I wasn't
a police agent. He replied that I was. I again declared that I wasn't.
In short, he swore that he wa