taldi shot Yvonne. Later we
will prove that fact, but the worst of it is that the French police are
hot on the track of young Henfrey."

"How do you know that?" asked his companion quickly.

"Well," he answered, after a second's hesitation, "I heard so two days
ago."

Then Howell, pleading an urgent meeting with a mutual friend, also a
crook like themselves, grasped the other's hand, and they parted.

TWENTY-SIXTH CHAPTER

LISETTE'S DISCLOSURES

At ten o'clock on the morning that Hugh Henfrey left Avignon for Paris,
The Sparrow stood at the window of his cozy little flat in the Rue des
Petits Champs, where he was known to his elderly housekeeper--a worthy
old soul from Yvetot, in the north--as Guillaume Gautier.

The house was one of those great old ones built in the days of the First
Empire, with a narrow entrance and square courtyard into which the
stage coaches with postilions rumbled before the days of the P.L.M. and
aircraft. In the Napoleonic days it had been the residence of the Dukes
de Vizelle, but in modern times it had been converted into a series of
very commodious flats.

The Sparrow, sprightly and alert, stood, after taking his _cafe au
lait_, looking down into the courtyard. He had been reading through
several letters and telegrams which had caused him some perturbation.

"They are playing me false!" he muttered, as he gazed out of the window.
"I'm certain of it--quite certain! But, Gad! If they do I'll be even
with them! Who could have given Henfrey away in London--_and why_?"

He paced the length of the room, his teeth hard set and his hands
clenched.

"I thought they were all loyal after what I have done for them--after
the fortunes I have put into their pockets. Fancy! One of them a
well-known member of Parliament--another a director of one of the
soundest insurance companies! Nobody suspects the really great crooks.
It is only the little clumsy muddlers whom the police catch and the
judge makes examples of!"

Then crossing back to the window, he said aloud:

"Lisette ought to be here! She was due in from Toulouse at nine o'clock.
I hope nothing further has happened. One thing is satisfactory--young
Henfrey is safe."

As a matter of fact, the girl had spoken to The Sparrow from her hotel
in Toulouse late on the previous night, and told him that her "friend
Hugh" was in Marseilles.

Even to the master criminal the whole problem was increasingly
complicated. He could not prove