Rue de Grammont, there, presumably, to be
nursed back to health by Madame his wife.

5.

Now in all this matter, I ask you, Sir, who ran the greatest risk?
Why, I--Hector Ratichon, of course--Hector Ratichon, in whose
apartment M. de Firmin-Latour was discovered in a position bordering
on absolute inanition. And the proof of this is, that that selfsame
night I was arrested at my lodgings at Passy, and charged with robbery
and attempted murder.

It was a terrible predicament for a respectable citizen, a man of
integrity and reputation, in which to find himself; but Papa
Mosenstein was both tenacious and vindictive. His daughter, driven to
desperation at last, and terrified that M. le Marquis had indeed been
foully murdered by M. de Naquet, had made a clean breast of the whole
affair to her father, and he in his turn had put the minions of the
law in full possession of all the facts; and since M. le Comte de
Naquet had vanished, leaving no manner of trace or clue of his person
behind him, the police, needing a victim, fell back on an innocent
man. Fortunately, Sir, that innocence clear as crystal soon shines
through every calumny. But this was not before I had suffered terrible
indignities and all the tortures which base ingratitude can inflict
upon a sensitive heart.

Such ingratitude as I am about to relate to you has never been
equalled on this earth, and even after all these years, Sir, you see
me overcome with emotion at the remembrance of it all. I was under
arrest, remember, on a terribly serious charge, but, conscious of mine
own innocence and of my unanswerable system of defence, I bore the
preliminary examination by the juge d'instruc-tion with exemplary
dignity and patience. I knew, you see, that at my very first
confrontation with my supposed victim the latter would at once say:

"Ah! but no! This is not the man who assaulted me."

Our plan, which so far had been overwhelmingly successful, had been
this.

On the morning of the tenth, M. de Firmin-Latour having pawned the
emeralds, and obtained the money for them, was to deposit that money
in his own name at the bank of Raynal Freres and then at once go to
the office in the Rue Daunou.

There he would be met by Theodore, who would bind him comfortably but
securely to a chair, put a shawl around his mouth and finally lock the
door on him. Theodore would then go to his mother's and there remain
quietly until I needed his services again.

It had b