ers' Staff, was a thing which was almost
inviolable.... But it has come to my knowledge that at the death of
Captain Brocq, you have devoted yourself not only to making the most
minute investigations--that, perhaps, was your right and your
duty--into the circumstances accompanying the death, but that you have
searched the domicile of the defunct as well, and this without giving
us the required preliminary notice. I cannot and will not sanction
this method of procedure, and I congratulate myself on having this
opportunity of telling you so."

During this speech of the colonel's Monsieur Maranjevol stared with
astonished eyes, first at the soldier and then at the detective. The
good-natured and peaceable Under-Secretary was surprised at the
colonel's violent attack, and asked himself how Juve was going to take
it.

Juve took it with an unmoved countenance. He said, in his turn:

"I would point out to you, Colonel, that had it been only a question
of a natural death, I should have contented myself with restoring to
you the documents which had been collected at our headquarters; but,
as you probably knew, Captain Brocq was killed--killed in a
mysterious fashion. I thus found myself in the presence of a crime, a
common law crime: the inquest has restored it to the civil law
jurisdiction, and not to the military: believe me, I understand my
business, I know my duty."

Juve had uttered these words with the greatest composure; but the
slight tremble in his voice would have made it clear to anyone who
knew him well, that the detective was maintaining his self-control
only by a violent effort.

The colonel replied in a tone stiff with offence:

"I persist in my opinion: you have no right to meddle in an affair
which concerns us alone. The death of Captain Brocq coincides with the
loss of a certain secret document: is it for you or for us to
institute an enquiry into it?"

After a pause, Juve's retort was:

"You must permit me to leave that question unanswered."

With all the bluntness of a military man, Colonel Hofferman had put
his finger on the open wound which for long years had been a source of
irritation to the detective force and the intelligence department
alike, when, owing to circumstances, both were called on to intervene
at one and the same time. In cases of theft and of spying the conflict
was ceaseless.

Monsieur Havard, Juve's chief, had talked this matter over the night
before, and his last words of c