r me as if I were her child, and would go
through the fire for me. I had a good deal of trouble the other
day to prevent her strangling the false railway porter. I picked
her out of three or four thousand convicts. She had been convicted
of infanticide and arson. I would bet a hundred to one that,
during the three years that she has been in my service, she has not
even thought of robbing me of so much as a centime."

But M. Plantat only listened to him with one ear; he was trying to
find an excuse for cutting Janouille's story short, and to lead the
conversation to the events of the day before.

"I have, perhaps, incommoded you a little this morning, Monsieur
Lecoq?"

"Me? then you did not see my motto--'always vigilant?' Why, I've
been out ten times this morning; besides marking out work for three
of my men. Ah, we have little time to ourselves, I can tell you.
I went to the Vulcan's Forges to see what news I could get of that
poor devil of a Guespin."

"And what did you hear?"

"That I had guessed right. He changed a five-hundred-franc note
there last Wednesday evening at a quarter before ten."

"That is to say, he is saved?"

"Well, you may say so. He will be, as soon as we have found Miss
Jenny."

The old justice of the peace could not avoid showing his uneasiness.

"That will, perhaps, be long and difficult?"

"Bast! Why so? She is on my black ball there--we shall have her,
accidents excepted, before night."

"You really think so?"

"I should say I was sure, to anybody but you. Reflect that this
girl has been connected with the Count de Tremorel, a man of the
world, a prince of the mode. When a girl falls to the gutter, after
having, as they say, dazzled all Paris for six months with her
luxury, she does not disappear entirely, like a stone in the mud.
When she has lost all her friends there are still her creditors, who
follow and watch her, awaiting the day when fortune will smile on
her once more. She doesn't trouble herself about them, she thinks
they've forgotten her; a mistake! I know a milliner whose head is
a perfect dictionary of the fashionable world; she has often done
me a good turn. We will go and see her if you say so, after
breakfast, and in two hours she will give us Jenny's address. Ah,
if I were only as sure of pinching Tremorel!"

M. Plantat gave a sigh of relief. The conversation at last took
the turn he wished.

"You are thinking of him, then?" asked he.

"Am I?" shouted M.