he quickly identified as the
loungers on the tower of the Chateau d'If.

It occurred to him that there was a remote chance of recognition by Gros
Jean, so he busied himself for an instant in a seeming scrutiny of the
bookstall until they had passed. A little further down the platform he
caught sight of Inspector Winter, that worthy individual being engaged
in a fiercely unintelligible controversy with an Italian porter as to
the possession of his portmanteau.

Sir Hubert hurried forward, and seized the amazed policeman by his hand,
wringing it warmly. To tell the truth, Winter did not know for a moment
who it was that accorded him such a cordial greeting, for, as it
subsequently transpired, the policeman was not aware of Sir Hubert's
journey to Marseilles, nor did he guess that Edith was with him.

The stolid detective, however, quickly recovered himself, and his first
words were--

"Did Mr. Brett fully understand my signal?"

"I think so," said the other; "but he will tell you all about that
afterwards. At present he wishes you to ascertain Gros Jean's intended
residence."

Mr. Winter smiled with the peculiar air of superiority affected by
Scotland Yard.

"Oh, that is too easy," he condescended to explain. "I have been talking
to him."

"You don't say so!"

"Yes, I have. My French is bad, and his English is worse, but he
understands that I am in the wholesale grocery trade. I have come to
Palermo to buy currants!"

"Most extraordinary! How very clever of you!"

Mr. Winter drew himself up with an air of professional pride.

"That is nothing, sir," he said. "We often make queer acquaintanceships
in the way of business. But Gros Jean is a smart chap. He eyed me
curiously when he happened to hear that I was the fifth passenger who
wished to leave the steamer at Messina, so I took the bull by the horns
and made myself useful to him in the matter of getting his baggage out
of the hold."

"Marvellous!" gasped Sir Hubert.

"The upshot of it was that he gave me some advice about currants. We
stayed in the same hotel at Messina, travelled together in the train,
and I am going to put up at the Campo Santo Hotel, where he will stay
with the Turks."

Meanwhile the subject of their conversation had quitted the station, and
Sir Hubert's respect for Mr. Winter's powers as a sleuth-hound yielded
to anxiety lest the slippery Frenchman might vanish once and for all.

"Hadn't we better follow him?" he suggested.

M