Baroness de Watchau was dead, and that all her property had been
sold, what did you do?"

"You know; I went immediately to the person who had charge of the sale."

"Very well! and afterwards?"

"I examined the catalogue; and as, among the jewels mentioned, I could
find none that answered the description of these diamonds, I knew that
the clue was quite lost."

"There is precisely where you are mistaken!" exclaimed old Tirauclair,
exultantly. "If such valuable jewels are not mentioned in the catalogue
of the sale, the Baroness de Watchau could not have possessed them at
the time of her death. And if she no longer possessed them she must have
given them away or sold them. And who could she have sold them to? To
one of her lady friends, very probably. For this reason, had I been in
your place, I should have found out the names of her intimate friends;
this would have been a very easy task; and then, I should have tried to
win the favor of all the lady's-maids in the service of these friends.
This would have only been a pastime for a good-looking young fellow like
you. Then, I should have shown this earring to each maid in succession
until I found one who said: 'That diamond belongs to my mistress,' or
one who was seized with a nervous trembling."

"And to think that this idea did not once occur to me!" ejaculated
Lecoq.

"Wait, wait, I am coming to the second mistake you made," retorted the
oracle. "What did you do when you obtained possession of the trunk
which May pretended was his? Why you played directly into this cunning
adversary's hand. How could you fail to see that this trunk was only
an accessory article; a bit of 'property' got ready in 'mounting' the
'comedy'? You should have known that it could only have been deposited
with Madame Milner by the accomplice, and that all its contents must
have been purchased for the occasion."

"I knew this, of course; but even under these circumstances, what could
I do?"

"What could you do, my boy? Well, I am only a poor old man, but I should
have interviewed every clothier in Paris; and at last some one would
have exclaimed: 'Those articles! Why, I sold them to an individual like
this or that--who purchased them for one of his friends whose measure he
brought with him.'"

Angry with himself, Lecoq struck his clenched hand violently upon
the table beside him. "Sacrebleu!" he exclaimed, "that method was
infallible, and so simple too! Ah! I shall never forgive myself