eporter:

"Well, here you are again, lad. Do you bring poison again to-day? This
will end by being found out, and the police..."

Just then he discerned Koupriane's form in the shadow, drew close
to make out who it was, and fell to his knees as he saw who it was.
Rouletabille tried to raise him, but he insisted on prostrating himself.
He was sure the Prefect of Police had come to his house to hang him.
Finally he was reassured by Rouletabile's positive assertions and the
great chief's robust laugh. The Prefect wished to know how the young man
came to be acquainted with the "alchemist" of the police. Rouletabille
told him in a few words.

Maitre Alexis, in his youth, went to France afoot, to study pharmacy,
because of his enthusiasm for chemistry. But he always remained
countrified, very much a Russian peasant, a semi-Oriental bear, and did
not achieve his degree. He took some certificates, but the examinations
were too much for him. For fifty years he lived miserably as a
pharmacist's assistant in the back of a disreputable shop in the Notre
Dame quarter. The proprietor of the place was implicated in the famous
affair of the gold ingots, which started Rouletabille's reputation, and
was arrested along with his assistant, Alexis. It was Rouletabille who
proved, clear as day, that poor Alexis was innocent, and that he had
never been cognizant of his master's evil ways, being absorbed in the
depths of his laboratory in trying to work out a naive alchemy which
fascinated him, though the world of chemistry had passed it by centuries
ago. At the trial Alexis was acquitted, but found himself in the street.
He shed what tears remained in his body upon the neck of the reporter,
assuring him of paradise if he got him back to his own country, because
he desired only the one thing more of life, that he might see his
birth-land before he died. Rouletabille advanced the necessary means
and sent him to St. Petersburg. There he was picked up at the end of two
days by the police, in a petty gambling-game, and thrown into prison,
where he promptly had a chance to show his talents. He cured some of his
companions in misery, and even some of the guards. A guard who had an
injured leg, whose healing he had despaired of, was cured by Alexis.
Then there was found to be no actual charge against him. They set him
free and, moreover, they interested themselves in him. They found meager
employment for him in the Stchoukine-dvor, an immense popul