will
seek insignificance by living in a normal and commonplace manner. What
more easy, for instance, for Mademoiselle than to return to the life of
the circus, whilst her lover--granted that he wished to remain in her
company--will obtain some suitable employment in the same circle. There
is a suspicion of a joke in the statement, but I am quite serious. The
mere consciousness that they have in their possession a vast fortune,
which time alone will enable them to realize, will serve as an
inducement to undergo the period of hard work which means safety. You
remember that the lady's father, Gros Jean, visited the Gare de Lyon
yesterday?"

Fairholme nodded.

"I think you will find that he was depositing there the necessary
luggage for a contemplated trip into the interior, so that Mademoiselle
might slip out late at night quietly and unnoticed and join her lover at
some preconcerted rendezvous, a thing which we now know she did. I
cannot, of course, be certain whether the Frenchman who signalled to her
in the Cafe Noir was himself the favoured individual. It is possible. By
the way, what height is Talbot?"

"About five feet nine."

Brett pondered for a little while.

"Yes," he communed aloud, "I think I am right. That pink-and-white
Frenchman is the master mind in this conspiracy. And to think that the
unintelligent muscles of a couple of thick-headed French policemen
should have crudely interfered with me at such a moment!" He sighed
deeply.

"Never mind," he went on, "it cannot be helped. I must keep to the
thread of my story. Mademoiselle Beaucaire left the Cabaret shortly
after eleven o'clock. We cannot be certain that she went to the Gare de
Lyon, but the cab unquestionably set off in that direction. It is a long
drive from Montmartre to the Lyons station. We will give her, say, until
twelve o'clock to reach there. Now, unless she was journeying to some
suburban district--a contingency which upsets the whole of my
theory--there was no main line train leaving for the south until 1.5
a.m., and that is a slow train, stopping at nearly every station south
of Melun. Let us suppose that they guard against every contingency. She
and her companion wish to escape the scrutiny of detectives. It will at
once occur to you that they run far more risk of observation if
travelling by a fast express than if they elect to journey by the
commonplace trains which only serve the needs of country districts."

"It did not occur