police, "if I have to search every boat on the Seine, from its source
to the ocean. I know the name of the captain, Gervais. The navigation
office will tell me something."

He was interrupted by Lecoq, who rushed into the house breathless. "Here
is old Tabaret," he said. "I met him just as he was going out. What a
man! He wouldn't wait for the train, but gave I don't know how much to a
cabman; and we drove here in fifty minutes!"

Almost immediately, a man appeared at the door, whose aspect it must be
admitted was not at all what one would have expected of a person who had
joined the police for honour alone. He was certainly sixty years old and
did not look a bit younger. Short, thin, and rather bent, he leant
on the carved ivory handle of a stout cane. His round face wore that
expression of perpetual astonishment, mingled with uneasiness, which
has made the fortunes of two comic actors of the Palais-Royal theatre.
Scrupulously shaved, he presented a very short chin, large and good
natured lips, and a nose disagreeably elevated, like the broad end of
one of Sax's horns. His eyes of a dull gray, were small and red at the
lids, and absolutely void of expression; yet they fatigued the observer
by their insupportable restlessness. A few straight hairs shaded his
forehead, which receded like that of a greyhound, and through their
scantiness barely concealed his long ugly ears. He was very comfortably
dressed, clean as a new franc piece, displaying linen of dazzling
whiteness, and wearing silk gloves and leather gaiters. A long and
massive gold chain, very vulgar-looking, was twisted thrice round his
neck, and fell in cascades into the pocket of his waistcoat.

M. Tabaret, surnamed Tirauclair, stood at the threshold, and bowed
almost to the ground, bending his old back into an arch, and in the
humblest of voices asked, "The investigating magistrate has deigned to
send for me?"

"Yes!" replied M. Daburon, adding under his breath; "and if you are a
man of any ability, there is at least nothing to indicate it in your
appearance."

"I am here," continued the old fellow, "completely at the service of
justice."

"I wish to know," said M. Daburon, "whether you can discover some clue
that will put us upon the track of the assassin. I will explain the--"

"Oh, I know enough of it!" interrupted old Tabaret. "Lecoq has told me
the principal facts, just as much as I desire to know."

"Nevertheless--" commenced the commissary of