ates...."

"And is that all?"

"That is all, monsieur: I saw nothing else!"

"Little enough," murmured Fandor, disappointed. "Still no detail,
however slight, must be ignored!... What have you done with that list,
mademoiselle?"

"I must have taken it with me when I collected all the papers I could
find the day before yesterday, before going to the boarding-house at
Auteuil."

"When you have an opportunity, will you bring me that list?" requested
Fandor.

* * * * *

The conversation was interrupted. A boy came to tell Fandor that he was
wanted on the telephone by someone in the Public Prosecutor's Office.

* * * * *

Later on in the day Jerome Fandor sent the following express message to
Elizabeth Dollon:

_"Do not believe a word of the Police Headquarters' version which
you will read in this evening's 'La Capitale.'"_

This despatched, our journalist commenced his article entitled:

STILL THE AFFAIR OF THE RUE NORVINS

_Police Headquarters takes a view of this affair which is the very
reverse of that taken by our contributor, Jerome Fandor._

_By the Seine sewer, the roofs of the Palace, and the chimney of
Marie Antoinette, an inspector has succeeded in reaching the
Depot._

_Police Headquarters is convinced that Jacques Dollon escaped
alive!_

VII

PEARLS AND DIAMONDS

"Nadine!"

"Princess!"

"Nadine, what time is it?"

The young Circassian, with hair as black as ink, souple and slender,
rose from her chair and was hastening from the bedroom to ascertain the
time when her mistress recalled her:

"Don't go away, Nadine! Stay with me!"

The dusky Circassian obeyed: she stared with big, astonished eyes into
those of her mistress:

"But, Princess, why don't you wish me to go?"

The Princess stammered in a mysterious tone:

"Don't you know then, Nadine, that to-day is the anniversary?... and I
am frightened!"

* * * * *

Princess Sonia Danidoff was in her bath robe. It must have been a
quarter past eleven, or even nearer midnight than that. Although she had
lived in Paris for years, she had never been able to make up her mind to
settle in a flat of her own. Possessing an immense fortune, she much
preferred the American way of living, and had taken a suite of rooms in
one of those great palace-hotels near the place de l'Et