away
from the station at that time, and though he did it clumsily, betraying
an irritating lack of observation when it came to details, still such
information as I could draw from him sounded encouraging. He remembered
perfectly well the place at which he had deposited his three passengers,
and I decided to take the risk of following them.

When I say "risk," I mean the risk that the man I was starting to chase
might turn out not to be the man I wished to follow. Besides, as they
had been driven to Neuilly, the distance was so great that, if I went
there in a cab, and found at last that I had made a mistake, I should
have wasted a great deal of valuable time on the wrong tack. If the
driver had remembered the name of the street, and the number of the
house at which he had paused, I would have hired a motor and flashed out
to the place in a few minutes; but, despite a suggested bribe, he could
say no more than that, when he had come to a certain place, one of his
passengers had called, "Turn down the next street, to the left." He had
done so, and in front of a house, almost midway along that street, he
had been bidden to stop. He had not bothered to look at the name of the
street; but, though he was not very familiar with that neighbourhood,
various landmarks would guide him to the right place, when he came to
pass them again.

Having heard all he had to say, I reluctantly made up my mind that I
could do no better than take the man as my conductor; and accordingly,
with a horse already tired, I drove to Neuilly. There, the landmarks
were not deceiving, as I was half afraid they would be; and in a quiet
street of the suburb, we stopped at last before a fair-sized house with
lights in many windows. Evidently it was a _pension_.

Of the man-servant who answered my ring, I enquired if three English
gentlemen had lately arrived. He replied that they had, and were dining.
Would Monsieur give himself the pain of waiting a few minutes, until
dinner should be over?

My answer was to slip a five franc piece into the servant's hand, and
suggest that I should be shown at once into the dining-room, without
waiting.

My idea was to catch my birds while they fed, and take them by surprise,
lest they fly away. If I pounced upon them in the midst of a meal, at
least they could not escape before being recognised by me: and as to
what should come after recognition, the moment of meeting must decide.

The five franc piece worked like