t fell upon his face, I uttered a
cry of astonishment, for he was none other than my old friend Leglosse,
while behind him was the infallible Lepallard.

"Well, thank goodness we have found you at last," cried Leglosse. "We
have had such a hunt for you as man never dreamed of. I called at your
apartments late last night, hoping to see you, on important business,
but you had not returned from a dinner to which you had been invited. I
called again this morning and was informed by the _concierge_ that they
had, up to that moment, seen nothing of you. When the good Lepallard
informed me that you had left the restaurant in a cab with Monsieur
Hayle, and that the latter had returned to his apartments this morning
in a great hurry, only to leave them a short time after with his
luggage, for the railway station, I began to grow uneasy. You have no
idea what a day I have had looking for you, but it has been well spent,
since we have the pleasure of seeing you again."

"I shall be grateful to you all my life for the service you have
rendered me," I replied. "But how did you manage to gain admittance to
this house?"

"It was quite easy; the birds had flown," he answered. "Has the
suspicion not struck you that they were going to clear out and leave you
here to starve?"

"The brutes," I answered. "But I'll be even with their leader yet. And
now let us get away from here as quickly as possible. Have you any idea
where our man has gone?"

"To Naples," Lepallard replied. "I disguised myself as a pompous old
bourgeois, and I was behind him when he asked for his ticket and
distinctly heard what he said."

"Then I shall go after him at once," I replied. "He will in all
probability be off his guard. He will imagine me to be still locked up
in this room, you see."

"And I shall accompany you, if you will permit me," said Leglosse.

"But why?" I asked in surprise. "What have you got to do with him? You
have no case against him, and you cannot spare the time to do it simply
out of kindness to me."

"It's not kindness, it's business, my friend," he replied. "You may not
believe it, but I have a warrant for your man's arrest."

"On what charge?"

"On a charge of being concerned in a big embezzlement in Cochin China,"
he answered. "We laid the other two men by the heels at the time, but
the Englishman, who was the prime mover in it, we have never been able
to lay our hands upon. I felt certain that day when I met him in
Amsterdam,