oliteness which a man owes to
his stomach. But I will accept with pleasure a drop of that old
Cognac which you offered me the other evening."

He took a seat; and the valet brought him a glass, which he set on
the edge of the table. Then,

"I have just seen our man," he said.

Maxence understood that he was referring to M. de Thaller.

"Well?" inquired M. de Tregars.

"Impossible to get any thing out of him. I turned him over and
over, every way. Nothing!"

"Indeed!"

"It's so; and you know if I understand the business. But what can
you say to a man who answers you all the time, 'The matter is in
the hands of the law; experts have been named; I have nothing to
fear from the most minute investigations'?"

By the look which Marius de Tregars kept riveted upon M. d'Escajoul,
it was easy to see that his confidence in him was not without limits.
He felt it, and, with an air of injured innocence,

"Do you suspect me, by chance," he said, "to have allowed myself to
be hoodwinked by Thaller?"

And as M. de Tregars said nothing, which was the most eloquent of
answers,

"Upon my word," he insisted, "you are wrong to doubt me. Was it
you who came after me? No. It was I, who, hearing through Marcolet
the history of your fortune, came to tell you, 'Do you want to know
a way of swamping Thaller?' And the reasons I had to wish that
Thaller might be swamped: I have them still. He trifled with me,
he 'sold' me, and he must suffer for it; for, if it came to be known
that I could be taken in with impunity, it would be all over with my
credit."

After a moment of silence,

"Do you believe, then," asked M. de Tregars, "that M. de Thaller is
innocent?"

"Perhaps."

"That would be curious."

"Or else his measures are so well taken that he has absolutely
nothing to fear. If Favoral takes everything upon himself, what
can they say to the other? If they have acted in collusion, the
thing has been prepared for a long time; and, before commencing
to fish, they must have troubled the water so well, that justice
will be unable to see anything in it."

"And you see no one who could help us?"

"Favoral--"

To Maxence's great surprise, M. de Tregars shrugged his shoulders.

"That one is gone," he said; "and, were he at hand, it is quite
evident that if he was in collusion with M. de Thaller, he would
not speak."

"Of course."

"That being the case, what can we do?"

"Wait."

M. de Tregars made a gesture