me it appears clear that somebody, strongly resembling him, stole
Mademoiselle Stangerson's reticule and in that letter, had demanded of
her something which she had not sent him. He must have been surprised at
the failure of his demand, hence his application at the Post Office, to
learn whether his letter had been delivered to the person to whom it had
been addressed. Finding that it had been claimed, he had become furious.
What had he demanded? Nobody but Mademoiselle Stangerson knows. Then, on
the day following, it is reported that she had been attacked during the
night, and, the next day, I discovered that the Professor had, at the
same time, been robbed by means of the key referred to in the poste
restante letter. It would seem, then, that the man who went to the Post
Office to inquire for the letter must have been the murderer. All these
arguments Larsan applies as against Monsieur Darzac. You may be sure
that the examining magistrate, Larsan, and myself, have done our best
to get from the Post Office precise details relative to the singular
personage who applied there on the 24th of October. But nothing has been
learned. We don't know where he came from--or where he went. Beyond the
description which makes him resemble Monsieur Darzac, we know nothing.

"I have announced in the leading journals that a handsome reward will be
given to a driver of any public conveyance who drove a fare to No. 40,
Post Office, about ten o'clock on the morning of the 24th of October.
Information to be addressed to 'M. R.,' at the office of the 'Epoque';
but no answer has resulted. The man may have walked; but, as he was most
likely in a hurry, there was a chance that he might have gone in a cab.
Who, I keep asking myself night and day, is the man who so strongly
resembles Monsieur Robert Darzac, and who is also known to have bought
the cane which has fallen into Larsan's hands?

"The most serious fact is that Monsieur Darzac was, at the very same
time that his double presented himself at the Post Office, scheduled for
a lecture at the Sorbonne. He had not delivered that lecture, and one
of his friends took his place. When I questioned him as to how he had
employed the time, he told me that he had gone for a stroll in the Bois
de Boulogne. What do you think of a professor who, instead of giving
his lecture, obtains a substitute to go for a stroll in the Bois de
Boulogne? When Frederic Larsan asked him for information on this point,
he