at 8.40 p.m.,
and was not due at Marseilles until 8.59 that morning.

It was now close on seven o'clock, so he went to his bedroom, effected
some much-needed changes in his personal appearance, and then consumed
an early breakfast of coffee and rolls. At half-past eight he called a
carriage and was driven to the railway station, where, punctually to the
minute, the Paris train arrived.

Brett managed to secure a favourable point whence he could observe the
passengers without being seen, for on the platform were stacked hundreds
of baskets of fruit and vegetables which had arrived by a local train.

There were not many passengers in the express, and among the first to
alight were Gros Jean and the three Turks--Hussein-ul-Mulk and the two
others he had seen in the Rue Barbette.

It would be idle to deny that the barrister experienced a thrill of
satisfaction at his own shrewdness, and he smiled as he realized the
consternation of the Paris commissary when informed that he had so
easily allowed the rogues to slip out of the net.

The travellers were evidently tired after a sleepless journey. Gros
Jean, being a fat man, had wobbled about a great deal during the night.
He much needed the restorative effect of a comfortable bed; whilst the
Turks, though younger and more active, also showed signs of fatigue, for
this long journey, in their case, was a sequel to many hours of
detention in an ill-ventilated apartment.

So they paid not the slightest heed to their whereabouts, save in so
far as to eye with suspicion a harmless gendarme who happened to be on
the platform.

The policeman, of course, took no notice of them whatever. Gros Jean was
to him merely a typical Frenchman, whilst persons of dark complexion and
Moorish appearance are everyday sights in the streets of Marseilles.

A diminutive railway porter loitered near Brett in the conceit that
perhaps this well-dressed stranger might have felonious designs on the
oranges and cabbages. His intense joy may therefore be pictured when the
barrister beckoned to him, placed a gold piece in his hand, and said--

"You see those Turks there. Go after them and find out where they are
going to. They are sure to take a carriage, as their luggage appears to
be somewhat heavy."

The man darted off, secure in the belief that no one who could afford to
give away twenty francs for such trivial information would be likely to
pocket a cauliflower. In half a minute he returned.