this flat?"

"Yes, master!"

"Good! Now all we have to do, is to get away from this room, which we
shall not see again ... until this evening at any rate!"

XXI

IN A PRISON VAN

In one of the rooms reserved for readers of _La Capitale_, Jerome Fandor
was gravely listening to Madame Bourrat's account of what had occurred
at her boarding-house during the night. She had rushed off to tell him
and to ask his advice.

"What you tell me, madame, is truly extraordinary!" said Fandor, with an
air of profound astonishment....

"How did you discover that the police inspector who seized the trunk and
carried it away was not a genuine policeman?"

"Why, through the arrival of Monsieur Xavie, the police inspector of our
district! I know him.... There was no mistaking who and what he was; and
when I told him that the trunk had been carried off the preceding
evening, rather in the dead of night, he guessed everything...."

"And what did he say?..."

"Oh, he made us all come to the police station; and I can assure you
that he looked far from pleased!"

"You must admit, dear madame, that his annoyance was not without
reason!... The police were made fine fools of in this affair.... But
afterwards?... Whom did he take back with him to the police station?"

"He took me and my manservant."

"And when you got to the police station?"

"Well, Monsieur Fandor, when we reached the police station, he made us
come into his office, and there he put us through a regular
examination,... just as though he suspected us!"

"But there must have been an accomplice in your house who let the
robbers in," said Fandor. "I do not suppose the false police inspector
forced the door open!"

"Ah, but, Monsieur Fandor, here is something I do not understand, nor
does anybody else!... No, they did not try to hide themselves--not the
least in the world! They rang the bell; they asked to see me; they told
me what they had come for; and, accompanied by my manservant, carried
away the trunk, and had it put on the cab--all in the most open and
bare-faced manner!"

"It was your manservant who accompanied them?"

"But most certainly ... and that very fact turned against Jules, in a
very nasty manner.... Poor Jules! Just imagine, the police inspector
finished by ordering my house to be thoroughly searched from top to
bottom! And when the policemen returned, without a why or wherefore,
they took Jules away to another part of the police statio