hold of
you, I'll make you dance to a pretty tune! I wouldn't be in your shoes
for a great deal, when that happens."

They reached Monte Carlo at three o'clock in the afternoon. Lupin was at
once disappointed not to see Clarisse on the platform at the station.

He waited. No messenger came up to him.

He asked the porters and ticket-collectors if they had noticed, among
the crowd, two travellers answering to the description of Daubrecq and
Clarisse. They had not.

He had, therefore, to set to work and hunt through all the hotels and
lodging-houses in the principality. Oh, the time wasted!

By the following evening, Lupin knew, beyond a doubt, that Daubrecq and
Clarisse were not at Monte Carlo, nor at Monaco, nor at the Cap d'Ail,
nor at La Turbie, nor at Cap Martin.

"Where can they be then?" he wondered, trembling with rage.

At last, on the Saturday, he received, at the poste restante, a telegram
which had been readdressed from the Hotel Franklin and which said:

"He got out at Cannes and is going on to San Remo, Hotel Palace
des Ambassadeurs.

"CLARISSE."

The telegram was dated the day before.

"Hang it!" exclaimed Lupin. "They passed through Monte Carlo. One of us
ought to have remained at the station. I did think of it; but, in the
midst of all that bustle..."

Lupin and his friends took the first train for Italy.

They crossed the frontier at twelve o'clock. The train entered the
station at San Remo at twelve-forty.

They at once saw an hotel-porter, with "Ambassadeurs-Palace" on his
braided cap, who seemed to be looking for some one among the arrivals.

Lupin went up to him:

"Are you looking for M. Nicole?"

"Yes, M. Nicole and two gentlemen."

"From a lady?"

"Yes, Mme. Mergy."

"Is she staying at your hotel?"

"No. She did not get out. She beckoned to me, described you three
gentlemen and told me to say that she was going on to Genoa, to the
Hotel Continental."

"Was she by herself?"

"Yes."

Lupin tipped the man, dismissed him and turned to his friends:

"This is Saturday. If the execution takes place on Monday, there's
nothing to be done. But Monday is not a likely day... What I have to do
is to lay hands on Daubrecq to-night and to be in Paris on Monday, with
the document. It's our last chance. Let's take it."

The Growler went to the booking-office and returned with three tickets
for Genoa.

The engine whistled.

Lupin had a last hesitation:

"No, reall