hese appalling tidings, seemed to strive to utter something, then fell
prone to the floor, unconscious.

The major-domo and the girls sprang to her side to lavish attentions
upon her.

At that moment the door was pushed a little way open, and the figure of
Juve appeared.

"May I come in?" said he.

XXII. THE SCRAP OF PAPER

It was three o'clock when Juve arrived at the rue Levert, and he found
the concierge of number 147 just finishing her coffee.

Amazed at the results achieved by the detective, the details of which
she had learned from the sensational articles in the daily paper she
most affected, Mme. Doulenques had conceived a most respectful
admiration for the Inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department.

"That man," she constantly declared to Madame Aurore, "it isn't eyes he
has in his head, it's telescopes, magnifying glasses! He sees everything
in a minute--even when it isn't there!"

She gave him an admiring "good afternoon, Inspector," as he came into
her lodge, and going to a board on which numbers of keys were hanging,
took one down and handed it to him.

"So there's something fresh to-day?" she said. "I've just seen in the
paper that M. Gurn has been arrested. So it was my lodger who did it?
What a dreadful man! Whoever would have thought it? It turns my blood
cold to think of him!"

Juve was never a man for general conversation, and he was still less
interested in the garrulity of this loquacious creature. He took the key
and cut short her remarks by walking to the door.

"Yes, Gurn has been arrested," he said shortly; "but he has made no
confession, so nothing is known for certain yet. Please go on with your
work exactly as though I were not in the house, Mme. Doulenques."

It was his usual phrase, and a constant disappointment to the
concierge, who would have asked nothing better than to go upstairs with
the detective and watch him at his wonderful work.

Juve went up the five floors to the flat formerly occupied by Gurn,
reflecting somewhat moodily. Of course Gurn's arrest was a success, and
it was satisfactory to have the scoundrel under lock and key, but in
point of fact Juve had learned nothing new in consequence of the arrest,
and he was obsessed with the idea that this murder of Lord Beltham was
an altogether exceptional crime. He did not yet know why Gurn had killed
Lord Beltham, and he did not even know exactly who Gurn himself was; all
he could declare was that the