detective was a promising one.

Delivet said to me:

"The train is express, and the next stop is Monterolier-Buchy in
nineteen minutes. If we do not reach there before Arsene Lupin, he can
proceed to Amiens, or change for the train going to Cleres, and, from
that point, reach Dieppe or Paris."

"How far to Monterolier?"

"Twenty-three kilometres."

"Twenty-three kilometres in nineteen minutes....We will be there ahead
of him."

We were off again! Never had my faithful Moreau-Repton responded to
my impatience with such ardor and regularity. It participated in my
anxiety. It indorsed my determination. It comprehended my animosity
against that rascally Arsene Lupin. The knave! The traitor!

"Turn to the right," cried Delivet, "then to the left."

We fairly flew, scarcely touching the ground. The mile-stones looked
like little timid beasts that vanished at our approach. Suddenly, at a
turn of the road, we saw a vortex of smoke. It was the Northern Express.
For a kilometre, it was a struggle, side by side, but an unequal
struggle in which the issue was certain. We won the race by twenty
lengths.

In three seconds we were on the platform standing before the
second-class carriages. The doors were opened, and some passengers
alighted, but not my thief. We made a search through the compartments.
No sign of Arsene Lupin.

"Sapristi!" I cried, "he must have recognized me in the automobile as we
were racing, side by side, and he leaped from the train."

"Ah! there he is now! crossing the track."

I started in pursuit of the man, followed by my two acolytes, or rather
followed by one of them, for the other, Massol, proved himself to be a
runner of exceptional speed and endurance. In a few moments, he had made
an appreciable gain upon the fugitive. The man noticed it, leaped over
a hedge, scampered across a meadow, and entered a thick grove. When we
reached this grove, Massol was waiting for us. He went no farther, for
fear of losing us.

"Quite right, my dear friend," I said. "After such a run, our victim
must be out of wind. We will catch him now."

I examined the surroundings with the idea of proceeding alone in the
arrest of the fugitive, in order to recover my papers, concerning which
the authorities would doubtless ask many disagreeable questions. Then I
returned to my companions, and said:

"It is all quite easy. You, Massol, take your place at the left; you,
Delivet, at the right. From there, you can obs