me up and brought me here--"

"Oh, enough!" interrupted Lecoq. "Let us keep our eyes open."

May was now walking quite leisurely. He stopped first before one and
then before another of the numerous wine-shops and eating-houses that
abound in this neighborhood. He was apparently looking for some one or
something, which of the two Lecoq could not, of course, divine. However,
after peering through the glass doors of three of these establishments
and then turning away, the fugitive at last entered the fourth. The two
detectives, who were enabled to obtain a good view of the shop inside,
saw the supposed murderer cross the room and seat himself at a table
where a man of unusually stalwart build, ruddy-faced and gray-whiskered,
was already seated.

"The accomplice!" murmured Father Absinthe.

Was this really the redoubtable accomplice? Under other circumstances
Lecoq would have hesitated to place dependence on a vague similarity in
personal appearance; but here probabilities were so strongly in favor
of Father Absinthe's assertion that the young detective at once admitted
its truth. Was not this meeting the logical sequence of May and Madame
Milner's chance interview a few hours before?

"May," thought Lecoq, "began by taking all the money Madame Milner had
about her, and then instructed her to tell his accomplice to come and
wait for him in some cheap restaurant near here. If he hesitated and
looked inside the different establishments, it was only because he
hadn't been able to specify any particular one. Now, if they don't throw
aside the mask, it will be because May is not sure he has eluded pursuit
and because the accomplice fears that Madame Milner may have been
followed."

The accomplice, if this new personage was really the accomplice, had
resorted to a disguise not unlike that which May and Lecoq had both
adopted. He wore a dirty blue blouse and a hideous old slouch hat,
which was well-nigh in tatters. He had, in fact, rather exaggerated his
make-up, for his sinister physiognomy attracted especial attention even
beside the depraved and ferocious faces of the other customers in
the shop. For this low eating-house was a regular den of thieves and
cut-throats. Among those present there were not four workmen really
worthy of that name. The others occupied in eating and drinking there
were all more or less familiar with prison life. The least to be dreaded
were the barriere loafers, easily recognized by their glazed