ial until the story could be
investigated and verified.

* * * * *

The following facts were at once established by an examination of the
prison records: Eight weeks before a man named Baudru Desire had slept
at the Depot. He was released the next day, and left the Depot at two
o'clock in the afternoon. On the same day at two o'clock, having been
examined for the last time, Arsene Lupin left the Depot in a prison-van.

Had the guards made a mistake? Had they been deceived by the resemblance
and carelessly substituted this man for their prisoner?

Another question suggested itself: Had the substitution been arranged in
advance? In that event Baudru must have been an accomplice and must have
caused his own arrest for the express purpose of taking Lupin's
place. But then, by what miracle had such a plan, based on a series of
improbable chances, been carried to success?

Baudru Desire was turned over to the anthropological service; they
had never seen anything like him. However, they easily traced his past
history. He was known at Courbevois, at Asnieres and at Levallois.
He lived on alms and slept in one of those rag-picker's huts near the
barrier de Ternes. He had disappeared from there a year ago.

Had he been enticed away by Arsene Lupin? There was no evidence to that
effect. And even if that was so, it did not explain the flight of the
prisoner. That still remained a mystery. Amongst twenty theories which
sought to explain it, not one was satisfactory. Of the escape itself,
there was no doubt; an escape that was incomprehensible, sensational,
in which the public, as well as the officers of the law, could detect
a carefully prepared plan, a combination of circumstances marvelously
dove-tailed, whereof the denouement fully justified the confident
prediction of Arsene Lupin: "I shall not be present at my trial."

After a month of patient investigation, the problem remained unsolved.
The poor devil of a Baudru could not be kept in prison indefinitely, and
to place him on trial would be ridiculous. There was no charge against
him. Consequently, he was released; but the chief of the Surete resolved
to keep him under surveillance. This idea originated with Ganimard. From
his point of view there was neither complicity nor chance. Baudru was
an instrument upon which Arsene Lupin had played with his extraordinary
skill. Baudru, when set at liberty, would lead them to Arsene Lupin or,
at least, to some of his accomplices.