nsel with his colleague, while the Countess was kept
apart.

"What next, M. Flocon?" asked the Judge. "What shall we do with her?"

"Let her go," answered the detective, briefly.

"What! do you suggest this, sir," said the Judge, slyly. "After your
strong and well-grounded suspicions?"

"They are as strong as ever, stronger: and I feel sure I shall yet
justify them. But what I wish now is to let her go at large, under
surveillance."

"Ah! you would shadow her?"

"Precisely. By a good agent. Galipaud, for instance. He speaks English,
and he can, if necessary, follow her anywhere, even to England."

"She can be extradited," said the Commissary, with his one prominent
idea of arrest.

"Do you agree, M. le Juge? Then, if you will permit me, I will give the
necessary orders, and perhaps you will inform the lady that she is free
to leave the station?"

The Countess now had reason to change her opinion of the French
officials. Great politeness now replaced the first severity that had
been so cruel. She was told, with many bows and apologies, that her
regretted but unavoidable detention was at an end. Not only was she
freely allowed to depart, but she was escorted by both M. Flocon and the
Commissary outside, to where an omnibus was in waiting, and all her
baggage piled on top, even to the dressing-bag, which had been neatly
repacked for her.

But the little silver-topped vial had not been restored to her, nor the
handkerchief.

In her joy at her deliverance, either she had not given these a second
thought, or she did not wish to appear anxious to recover them.

Nor did she notice that, as the bus passed through the gates at the
bottom of the large slope that leads from the Lyons Station, it was
followed at a discreet distance by a modest fiacre, which pulled up,
eventually, outside the Hotel Madagascar. Its occupant, M. Galipaud,
kept the Countess in sight, and, entering the hotel at her heels, waited
till she had left the office, when he held a long conference with the
proprietor.

CHAPTER VIII

A first stage in the inquiry had now been reached, with results that
seemed promising, and were yet contradictory.

No doubt the watch to be set on the Countess might lead to something
yet--something to bring first plausible suspicion to a triumphant issue;
but the examination of the other occupants of the car should not be
allowed to slacken on that account. The Countess might have some
confederate among them--