er story, be it so. You shall decide."

Ricardo moved uneasily. The solemnity of Hanaud's manner impressed him.
He had no wish to take the responsibility of the decision upon himself.
But Hanaud sat with his eyes strangely fixed upon Ricardo, waiting for
his answer.

"Well," said Ricardo, at length, "good news will be none the worse for
waiting a few hours. Bad news will be a little the better."

"Yes," said Hanaud; "so I thought you would decide." He took up a
Continental Bradshaw from a bookshelf in the room. "From Geneva she
will come through Culoz. Let us see!" He turned over the pages. "There
is a train from Culoz which reaches Aix at seven minutes past three. It
is by that train she will come. You have a motor-car?"

"Yes."

"Very well. Will you pick me up in it at three at my hotel? We will
drive down to the station and see the arrivals by that train. It may
help us to get some idea of the person with whom we have to deal. That
is always an advantage. Now I will leave you, for I have much to do.
But I will look in upon M. Wethermill as I go down and tell him that
there is as yet no news."

He took up his hat and stick, and stood for a moment staring out of the
window. Then he roused himself from his reverie with a start.

"You look out upon Mont Revard, I see. I think M. Wethermill's view
over the garden and the town is the better one," he said, and went out
of the room.

At three o'clock Ricardo called in his car, which was an open car of
high power, at Hanaud's hotel, and the two men went to the station.
They waited outside the exit while the passengers gave up their
tickets. Amongst them a middle-aged, short woman, of a plethoric
tendency, attracted their notice. She was neatly but shabbily dressed
in black; her gloves were darned, and she was obviously in a hurry. As
she came out she asked a commissionaire:

"How far is it to the Hotel Majestic?"

The man told her the hotel was at the very top of the town, and the way
was steep.

"But madame can go up in the omnibus of the hotel," he suggested.
Madame, however, was in too much of a hurry. The omnibus would have to
wait for luggage. She hailed a closed cab and drove off inside it.

"Now, if we go back in the car, we shall be all ready for her when she
arrives," said Hanaud.

They passed the cab, indeed, a few yards up the steep hill which leads
from the station. The cab was moving at a walk.

"She looks honest," said Hanaud, with a sigh of re