l to wire from Culoz to the hall
porter of my club, begging him to send on everything without a
moment's delay.

Then, while still in the dark, I set myself like a prudent general to
discover what the enemy was doing. He was here in Aix in the persons
of Lord Blackadder and his two devoted henchmen, Falfani and Tiler. I
had heard the appointment he had given them at the Hotel Hautecombe,
and I cast about me to consider how I might gain some inkling of their
intentions. Luckily I had desired l'Echelle, the sleeping-car
conductor, to stick to me on leaving the police office, and I put it
to him whether or not he was willing to enter my service.

"I will take you on entirely," I promised, "if you choose to leave
your present employment. You shall be my own man, my valet and
personal attendant. It is likely that I may wander about the
Continent for some time, and it may suit you to come with me."

He seemed pleased at the idea, and we quickly agreed as to terms.

"Now, l'Echelle," I went on, "after last night I think I may trust you
to do what I want, and I promise you I won't forget it. Find out what
the other side is at, and contrive somehow to become acquainted with
Lord Blackadder's plans."

"How far may I go?" he asked me plump. "They are pretty sure to try
and win me over, they've done so already. Shall I accept their bid? It
would be the easiest way to know all you want."

"It's devilish underhand," I protested.

"You'll be paying them back in their own coin," he returned. "_A
corsaire fieffe corsaire et demi._ It will be to my advantage, and you
won't lose."

"Upon my soul, I don't quite like it." I still hung back, but his
arguments seemed so plausible that they overcame my scruples, and I
was not sorry for it in the long run.

[_The reader has already been told how Falfani craftily approached
l'Echelle, and found him, as he thought, an easy prey. We know how
the communication was kept up between the two camps, how Falfani was
fooled into believing that he kept close watch over Colonel Annesley
through l'Echelle, how the latter told his real master the true news
of the progress made by Tiler. When there could be little doubt that
the chase was growing warm and had gone as far as Lyons, the Colonel
felt that there was danger and that he must take more active steps to
divert the pursuit and mislead the pursuers. The Colonel shall
continue in his own words._]

I was much disturbed when I learnt that Tiler