acting
independently; and after the Armistice, I have heard, he did well for
England in the matter of a Bolshevist conspiracy over there. But not
long ago, according to my information, Monsieur the Lone Wolf resigned
from the British Secret Service and returned to France--doubtless to
resume his old practices."

"Perhaps not," Duchemin suggested. "Possibly his reformation was
genuine and lasting."

The Comtesse de Lorgnes laughed that laugh of light derision which is
almost exclusively the laugh of the Parisienne of a certain class.
Remarking this, Duchemin eyed her mildly.

"Madame la Comtesse does not believe that. Well--who knows?--perhaps
she is right. Possibly she knows more of the nature and habits of the
criminal classes than we, sharing as she does, no doubt, the apparently
accurate and precise sources of information of monsieur le comte."

"At all events," Phinuit put in promptly, "I know what I would do if I
possessed a little fortune in jewels, and learned that a thief of the
ability of this Lone Wolf was at large in France: I would charter an
armoured train to convey the loot to the strongest safe deposit vault
in Paris."

"Thereby advertising to the Lone Wolf the exact location of the jewels,
monsieur, so that he might at his leisure make his plans perfect to
burglarise the vaults?"

"Is that likely?" Phinuit jeered.

Duchemin gave a slight shrug.

"One has heard that the fellow had real ability," he said.

The servant Jean came in, caught the eye of Madame de Sevenie, and
announced:

"The chauffeur of Monsieur Monk wishes me to say he has completed
repairs on the automobile, and the rain has ceased."

VII

TURN ABOUT

Duchemin took back with him to Nant, that night, not only monsieur le
cure in the hired caleche, but food in plenty for thought, together
with a nebulous notion, which by the time he woke up next morning had
taken shape as a fixed conviction, that he had better resign himself to
stop on indefinitely at the Grand Hotel de l'Univers and ... see what
he should see.

That fatality on which he had so bitterly reflected when; acting as
emergency coachman en route from Montpellier-le-Vieux to La
Roque-Sainte-Marguerite, had him now fairly by the heels, as it were
his very shadow, something as tenacious, as inescapable. Or he had been
given every excuse for believing that such was the case.
Impossible--and the more so the longer he pondered it--to credit to
mere coinciden