ice of the mysterious occurrence.

That had been the role which I had intended to play. M. le Marquis
approved of it and had professed himself quite willing to endure a
twenty-four-hours' martyrdom for the sake of half a million francs. But,
as I have just had the honour to tell you, something which I will not
attempt to explain prompted me at the last moment to modify my plan in
one little respect. I thought it too soon to go back to the Rue Daunou
within twenty-four hours of our well-contrived coup, and I did not
altogether care for the idea of going myself to the police in order to
explain to them that I had found a man gagged and bound in my office.
The less one has to do with these minions of the law the better. Mind
you, I had envisaged the possibility of being accused of assault and
robbery, but I did not wish to take, as it were, the very first steps
myself in that direction. You might call this a matter of sentiment or
of prudence, as you wish.

So I waited until the evening of the second day before I got the key
from Theodore. Then before the concierge at 96 Rue Daunou had closed
the porte-cochere for the night, I slipped into the house unobserved,
ran up the stairs to my office and entered the apartment. I struck a
light and made my way to the inner room where the wretched Marquis
hung in the chair like a bundle of rags. I called to him, but he made
no movement. As I had anticipated, he had fainted for want of food. Of
course, I was very sorry for him, for his plight was pitiable, but he
was playing for high stakes, and a little starvation does no man any
harm. In his case there was half a million at the end of his brief
martyrdom, which could, at worst, only last another twenty-four hours.
I reckoned that Mme. la Marquise could not keep the secret of her
husband's possible whereabouts longer than that, and in any event I was
determined that, despite all risks, I would go myself to the police on
the following day.

In the meanwhile, since I was here and since M. le Marquis was
unconscious, I proceeded then and there to take the precaution which
prudence had dictated, and without which, seeing this man's treachery
and Theodore's villainy, I should undoubtedly have ended my days as a
convict. What I did was to search M. le Marquis's pockets for anything
that might subsequently prove useful to me.

I had no definite idea in the matter, you understand; but I had vague
notions of finding the bankers' receipt f