scorval's," ejaculated Lecoq, "the magistrate who--"

"Precisely. He sent his man to me two or three days ago to ascertain
what we were doing with our mysterious May."

"Then M. d'Escorval is interested in the case?"

"Prodigiously! I conclude it is because he opened the prosecution, and
because the case rightfully belongs to him. Perhaps he regrets that
it passed out of his hands, and thinks that he could have managed the
investigation better himself. We would have done better with it if we
could. I would give a good deal to see him in my place."

But this change would not have been at all to Lecoq's taste. "Ah,"
thought he, "such a fellow as D'Escorval would never have shown me such
confidence as M. Segmuller." He had, indeed, good reason to congratulate
himself: for that very day M. Segmuller, who was a man of his word,
a man who never rested until he had carried his plan into execution,
actually induced the authorities to allow May to be set at liberty; and
the details of this measure only remained to be decided upon. As regards
the proposed transfer of the suspected murderer to another prison, this
was immediately carried into effect, and May was removed to Mazas, where
Lecoq had no fear of Gevrol's interference.

That same afternoon, moreover, the Widow Chupin received her conditional
release. There was no difficulty as regards her son, Polyte. He had, in
the mean time, been brought before the correctional court on a charge
of theft; and, to his great astonishment, had heard himself sentenced to
thirteen months' imprisonment. After this, M. Segmuller had nothing
to do but to wait, and this was the easier as the advent of the Easter
holidays gave him an opportunity to seek a little rest and recreation
with his family in the provinces.

On the day he returned to Paris--the last of the recess, and by chance
a Sunday--he was sitting alone in his library when his cook came to
tell him that there was a man in the vestibule who had been sent from
a neighboring register office to take the place of a servant he had
recently dismissed. The newcomer was ushered into the magistrate's
presence and proved to be a man of forty or thereabouts, very red in
the face and with carroty hair and whiskers. He was, moreover, strongly
inclined to corpulence, and was clad in clumsy, ill-fitting garments.
In a complacent tone, and with a strong Norman accent, he informed
the magistrate that during the past twenty years he had been in t