the room, without disturbing his companion, carefully
looked round the whole of the house and walked out through the principal
gate.

* * * * *

He reached Paris on his motor-cycle at nine o'clock in the morning. Two
of his friends, to whom he telephoned on the road, met him there. They
all three spent the day in making searches which Lupin had planned out
beforehand.

He set out again hurriedly at six o'clock; and never, perhaps, as he
told me subsequently, did he risk his life with greater temerity than in
his breakneck ride, at a mad rate of speed, on a foggy December evening,
with the light of his lamp hardly able to pierce through the darkness.

He sprang from his bicycle outside the gate, which was still open, ran
to the house and reached the first floor in a few bounds.

There was no one in the little dining-room.

Without hesitating, without knocking, he walked into Jeanne's bedroom:

"Ah, here you are!" he said, with a sigh of relief, seeing Jeanne and
the doctor sitting side by side, talking.

"What? Any news?" asked the doctor, alarmed at seeing such a state of
agitation in a man whose coolness he had had occasion to observe.

"No," said Lupin. "No news. And here?"

"None here, either. We have just left M. Darcieux. He has had an
excellent day and he ate his dinner with a good appetite. As for Jeanne,
you can see for yourself, she has all her pretty colour back again."

"Then she must go."

"Go? But it's out of the question!" protested the girl.

"You must go, you must!" cried Lupin, with real violence, stamping his
foot on the floor.

He at once mastered himself, spoke a few words of apology and then, for
three or four minutes, preserved a complete silence, which the doctor
and Jeanne were careful not to disturb.

At last, he said to the young girl:

"You shall go to-morrow morning, mademoiselle. It will be only for one
or two weeks. I will take you to your friend at Versailles, the one to
whom you were writing. I entreat you to get everything ready to-night
... without concealment of any kind. Let the servants know that you are
going.... On the other hand, the doctor will be good enough to tell M.
Darcieux and give him to understand, with every possible precaution,
that this journey is essential to your safety. Besides, he can join you
as soon as his strength permits.... That's settled, is it not?"

"Yes," she said, absolutely dominated by Lupin's gentle an