proper moment, the
_deus ex machina_, the magical words "His Excellency," so as to dazzle
Poiret just as he himself unmasked his batteries, for he took Poiret and
the Michonneau for the male and female of the same species.

"If his Excellency himself, his Excellency the Minister... Ah! that is
quite another thing," said Poiret.

"You seem to be guided by this gentleman's opinion, and you hear what he
says," said the man of independent means, addressing Mlle. Michonneau.
"Very well, his Excellency is at this moment absolutely certain that the
so-called Vautrin, who lodges at the Maison Vauquer, is a convict
who escaped from penal servitude at Toulon, where he is known by the
nickname _Trompe-la-Mort_."

"Trompe-la-Mort?" said Pioret. "Dear me, he is very lucky if he deserves
that nickname."

"Well, yes," said the detective. "They call him so because he has been
so lucky as not to lose his life in the very risky businesses that he
has carried through. He is a dangerous man, you see! He has qualities
that are out of the common; the thing he is wanted for, in fact, was a
matter which gained him no end of credit with his own set----"

"Then is he a man of honor?" asked Poiret.

"Yes, according to his notions. He agreed to take another man's crime
upon himself--a forgery committed by a very handsome young fellow that
he had taken a great fancy to, a young Italian, a bit of a gambler,
who has since gone into the army, where his conduct has been
unexceptionable."

"But if his Excellency the Minister of Police is certain that M.
Vautrin is this _Trompe-la-Mort_, why should he want me?" asked Mlle.
Michonneau.

"Oh yes," said Poiret, "if the Minister, as you have been so obliging as
to tell us, really knows for a certainty----"

"Certainty is not the word; he only suspects. You will soon understand
how things are. Jacques Collin, nicknamed _Trompe-la-Mort_, is in the
confidence of every convict in the three prisons; he is their man of
business and their banker. He makes a very good thing out of managing
their affairs, which want a _man of mark_ to see about them."

"Ha! ha! do you see the pun, mademoiselle?" asked Poiret. "This
gentleman calls himself a _man of mark_ because he is a _marked
man_--branded, you know."

"This so-called Vautrin," said the detective, "receives the money
belonging to my lords the convicts, invests it for them, and holds it at
the disposal of those who escape, or hands it over to their fam