you wasted our
time...."

He stopped and took a rapid turn up and down the room. When he spoke
again, his voice was quite composed.

"Introduce the man at once," he commanded.

"I think it would be well," said Pigot tonelessly, "that M. Delcasse
should first be informed as to the name and character of this man."

Again Delcasse stared.

"Explain yourself!" he cried. "Who is the man?"

"His name is Crochard, sir," Pigot replied.

Delcasse evidently did not recognise the name, but Lepine's face was
suddenly illumined.

"Crochard," he explained, "is the most adroit, the most daring, the most
accomplished scoundrel with whom I have ever had to deal. Surely
Monsieur remembers the affair of the Michaelovitch diamonds?"

"Ah, yes!" cried Delcasse, his face, too, lighting. "So that was
Crochard!"

"Crochard the Invincible, he calls himself," growled Pigot. "He is a
great braggart."

"And with some reason," added Lepine. "We have never yet been able to
convict him."

"He restored the Mazarin diamond to the Louvre, did he not?" queried the
Minister. "And also the Mona Lisa?"

"The Mazarin certainly," assented Lepine. "As for the Mona Lisa, I have
never been quite certain. There is a rumour that the original is now
owned by an American millionaire, and that the picture returned to the
Louvre is only a copy--a wonderful one, it is true. Where did you meet
him, Pigot?"

Pigot related the story of the meeting, while Delcasse listened
thoughtfully.

"Is he to be trusted?" he asked, when Pigot had finished.

"In this affair I believe so," answered Lepine quietly. "He may be as
good a patriot as you or I. If he is really in earnest, he can be of
immense assistance. He has absolute command of the underworld, and a
thousand sources of information which are closed to the police. At
least, it can do no harm to hear what he has to say."

Delcasse agreed with a nod, and sat down again.

"Bring him in," he said, and a moment later Crochard entered.

If M. Delcasse had expected to perceive anything of the criminal in the
man who bowed to him respectfully from the threshold, he was most
thoroughly disappointed. What he _did_ see was a well-built man in the
very prime of life, with clear and fearless eyes of greenish-grey
flecked with yellow, a face singularly open and engaging, and a manner
as easy and self-possessed as Delcasse's own. The only sign of
approaching age was the sprinkle of grey in the crisp, brown hair,