"You antic.i.p.ated my next request. Whilst you are looking to that letter you must place at my disposal two of your most trusty agents. In their company Lord Fairholme and I purpose visiting the house to-night."
They were conversing in the commissary"s office at a late hour after Brett had quitted his friend in the Grand Hotel.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Reginald Brett. --_Page 200._]
Within a few minutes the two Englishmen and their French companions were standing outside No. 41, Rue Bonbonnerie, and they found that Monsieur de Lisle kept a small shop, whose only significant feature was a placard announcing that letters might be addressed there.
"Oh," said Brett, when he noticed this legend, "this is simple. We need not waste much time here."
The four men walked inside, crowding the narrow s.p.a.ce before a diminutive counter. The proprietor was supping in style, as they could perceive through the gla.s.s top of the door which communicated with the sitting-room at the back. His feast consisted of a tankard of thin wine, half a loaf of black bread, and two herrings.
The man was surprised by the sudden incursion of customers. He came out looking puzzled and alarmed.
"Have you any letters here for Monsieur Jean Beaujolais?" said Brett.
"No, monsieur."
"Have you received any letters for a person of that name?"
"No, monsieur."
"I suppose you never heard the name of Jean Beaujolais before in your life?"
"I think not, monsieur."
"Then," exclaimed Brett, turning quietly away, "I fear you must be arrested. These two gentlemen"--and he nodded towards the detectives--"will take you to the Prefecture, where perhaps your memory may improve."
The man blanched visibly. His teeth chattered, and his hands shook as if with ague, whilst he nervously arranged some small objects on the counter.
"I cry your pardon, monsieur," he stammered, "but you will understand that I receive letters at my shop for a small fee, and I cannot remember the names of all my customers. I will search with pleasure among those now in my possession to see if there are any for M. Beaujolais."
"You are simply incriminating yourself," said Brett sternly. "If your excuse were a genuine one you would first have looked among your letters before answering so glibly that the name of Beaujolais was unfamiliar."
"I beg of you to listen," cried the dismayed shopkeeper. "I had no idea you were from the Prefecture, otherwise I would have answered you in the first instance. There have been letters here for Monsieur Beaujolais.
They came from London. He called for them three or four times. The last letter arrived yesterday morning. It is here now. I have not seen Monsieur Beaujolais since the previous evening."
He took from a drawer a packet of letters tied together with string, and the handwriting betrayed the contents of most of them. They evidently dealt with that species of the tender pa.s.sion which finds its outlet in the agony column or in fict.i.tious addresses.
One of the detectives did not trust to Monsieur de Lisle"s examination.
He seized the bundle and went through its contents carefully, but this time Monsieur de Lisle was speaking the truth.
There was only one letter addressed to Beaujolais, and it bore a foreign postmark. Brett tore it open. It contained a single sheet of notepaper, without a date or address, or any words save these, scrawled across the centre--
"_Tout va bien_."
He placed the doc.u.ment and its envelope in his pocket-book, and then fixed his keen glance on the shopkeeper"s pallid face.
"What sort of a person is Monsieur Beaujolais?"
The man was still so nervous that he could hardly speak.
"I am not good at descriptions," he began.
So Brett helped.
"Was he a Frenchman, about my height, elegant in appearance, well built, with long thin hands and straight tapering fingers, with very fair skin and high colour, dark hair and large eyes set deeply beneath well-marked eyebrows?"
"That is he to the life," cried the shopkeeper. "Monsieur must know him well. I recall him now exactly, but I could not for a hundred francs have described him so accurately."
"How long have you known him?" broke in Brett.
"Let me think," mused the man, who had now somewhat recovered from his alarm. "He came here one day last week--I think it was Thursday, because that day my daughter Marie--no matter what Marie did, I remember the date quite well now. He came in and asked me if I did not receive letters for a fee. I said "Yes," and told him that I charged ten centimes per letter. He gave me his name, and thereafter called regularly to obtain the enclosure from London. He always handed me half a franc and would never take any change."
"Was he alone?"
"Invariably, monsieur."
"Thank you. You will not be arrested to-night. I think you have told the truth."
The shopkeeper"s protestations that he had given every a.s.sistance in his power followed them into the street.
Brett dismissed the two detectives and returned to the hotel, where he and Fairholme found Edith and her brother sitting up for them. When Talbot heard the contents of the letter he remarked: "I suppose that "All goes well" means that I am still a prisoner?"
"Undoubtedly," said the barrister. "The letter was posted in the Haymarket. It came from your French host. I wonder what he will write now? By the way, where is he? Did you lose sight of the couple after your escape?"
"I did," laughed Talbot. "But Inspector Winter did not. By some mysterious means he learnt all about Fairholme"s action in smashing in the door. Whilst I was at the Foreign Office that night he arrested both the man and the woman."
"Winter is a perfect terror," said Brett. "He dreams of handcuffs and penal servitude. I hope this couple will not be brought to trial, or at any rate that your name will not be mixed up in it."
"Oh, no. As soon as I heard the Under-Secretary"s wishes, I promptly communicated with Scotland Yard. The Frenchman and his wife will be remanded on a mysterious charge of abetting a felony and held in durance vile until their testimony is wanted, should we ever capture Dubois."
At Brett"s request, detectives were hunting through Paris all that night and the next day for a sign of Hussein-ul-Mulk and his Turkish friends.
But these gentlemen had vanished as completely as if the earth had swallowed them up.
This was a strange thing. Although Paris is a cosmopolitan city, a party of Turks, only one of whom could speak French, should be discovered with tolerable rapidity in view of the fact that the French police maintain such a watch upon the inhabitants.
It was not until Brett and his four companions quitted the train at Ma.r.s.eilles late at night and the barrister received a telegram from the commissary announcing that the search made by the police had yielded no results, that he suddenly recalled the existence of a doorless and windowless room in the Cafe Noir.
Curiously enough, he had omitted to make any mention of this strange apartment in his recital to the official. He would not trust to the discretion of the Telegraph Department, so on reaching the Hotel du Louvre et de la Paix he succeeded, after some difficulty, in ringing up the commissary on the long-distance telephone.
Having acquainted the police officer with the exact position of the hidden apartment, he ended by saying--
"Continue inquiries throughout Paris during the whole of to-morrow. Do not visit the Cabaret Noir for the purpose of police inspection until a late hour--long after midnight--when the cafe is empty and the Boulevard comparatively deserted. It is only a mere guess on my part. The Turks may not be there. If they are, they should be set at liberty and not questioned. Tell them they owe their escape to me. If you do not find them you may make other discoveries of general interest to the police.
But above all things, I do not wish you to interfere with Gros Jean or his house until the next twenty-four hours have elapsed."
The commissary a.s.sured him that his desires would be respected, and soon afterwards Brett went upstairs with the full determination to secure a long and uninterrupted night"s sleep, of which he stood much in need.
He had reached the sitting-room reserved for the use of the party when Talbot and Lord Fairholme burst in excitedly.