l your energy to-morrow. Do not be afraid. I will arouse
you if anything dramatic should happen."

Left to himself, Brett again interviewed the hall-porter and returned to
the sitting-room, where he disposed himself for a nap on the sofa. Like
all men who possess the faculty of concentrated thought, he also
cultivated the power of dismissing a perplexing problem from his mind
until it became necessary to consider it afresh in the light of further
knowledge.

Within five minutes he was sound asleep.

At length he woke with a start. He was stiff with cold, for the fire had
gone out, and the tiny gas jet he had left burning was not sufficient to
warm the room. He sprang to his feet and looked at his watch. It was
half-past six.

"Surely," he cried, "there must have been a message from Paris long
before this!"

He ran downstairs, encountering on his way some of the hotel servants,
who even thus early had commenced work, for your industrious Frenchman
is no laggard in the morning. Going to the hall-porter's office he found
that functionary snoring peacefully. The poor fellow was evidently tired
out, and twenty telephone bells might have jangled in his ears without
waking him.

So, for the third time, Brett rang up the exchange to get in touch with
Paris. As he had anticipated, he quickly learnt that the Prefecture had
endeavoured to get through to him about 4.30 a.m., but the operators
were unable to obtain any answer.

"I can hardly blame the man," said he to himself, "for I was just as
tired as he."

The intimation he received from the Prefecture was startling enough. In
accordance with his instructions a number of detectives had raided the
Cabaret Noir soon after three o'clock. They found the place in
possession of a waiter and a couple of female servants. Gros Jean had
quitted the house the previous evening, and, most astounding fact of
all, with him were three Turks.

Neither the waiter nor the domestics could give any information whatever
concerning the hidden room. They knew of its existence, but none of them
had ever seen it, and the place was generally regarded as a sort of
cellar for the reception of lumber.

The police forced a padlock which guarded its trap-door, and found to
their surprise that the place was much more spacious than they
anticipated. It really contained two apartments, one of which was so
firmly secured that it had hitherto resisted all their efforts to open
it. The other was a sort