ary burglary, an annexation of
his treasures. The fact that you took part in it put him off the scent."

"Still, the disappearance of the stopper..."

"To begin with, the thing can have had but a secondary importance for
him, as it is only the model."

"How do you know?"

"There is a scratch at the bottom of the stem; and I have made inquiries
in England since."

"Very well; but why did the key of the cupboard from which it was stolen
never leave the man-servant's possession? And why, in the second place,
was it found afterward in the drawer of a table in Daubrecq's house in
Paris?"

"Of course, Daubrecq takes care of it and clings to it in the way in
which one clings to the model of any valuable thing. And that is why I
replaced the stopper in the cupboard before its absence was noticed. And
that also is why, on the second occasion, I made my little Jacques take
the stopper from your overcoat-pocket and told the portress to put it
back in the drawer."

"Then he suspects nothing?"

"Nothing. He knows that the list is being looked for, but he does not
know that Prasville and I are aware of the thing in which he hides it."

Lupin had risen from his seat and was walking up and down the room,
thinking. Then he stood still beside Clarisse and asked:

"When all is said, since the Enghien incident, you have not advanced a
single step?"

"Not one. I have acted from day to day, led by those two men or leading
them, without any definite plan."

"Or, at least," he said, "without any other plan than that of getting
the list of the Twenty-seven from Daubrecq."

"Yes, but how? Besides, your tactics made things more difficult for
me. It did not take us long to recognize your old servant Victoire in
Daubrecq's new cook and to discover, from what the portress told us,
that Victoire was putting you up in her room; and I was afraid of your
schemes."

"It was you, was it not, who wrote to me to retire from the contest?"

"Yes."

"You also asked me not to go to the theatre on the Vaudeville night?"

"Yes, the portress caught Victoire listening to Daubrecq's conversation
with me on the telephone; and the Masher, who was watching the house,
saw you go out. I suspected, therefore, that you would follow Daubrecq
that evening."

"And the woman who came here, late one afternoon..."

"Was myself. I felt disheartened and wanted to see you."

"And you intercepted Gilbert's letter?"

"Yes, I recognized his writing on the e