Edith had rapidly detailed her adventures to her astonished auditors, and Brett seemed to resolve on some plan of action with the lightning rapidity peculiar to him.
Owing to the late hour he got through to Paris without much difficulty, and then he returned to the sitting-room, where Edith was rehearsing in greater detail all that had happened since she left them at the hotel door. Brett explained to his companions the motives of his second telephonic message.
"I am convinced," he said, "that Gros Jean is in communication with his daughter. For this reason I did not wish the police to put in an appearance at the Cafe Noir until to-morrow night, or rather to-night, for we have long entered upon another day. I wished to have a reasonable time for quiet inquiry at Ma.r.s.eilles before mademoiselle could be apprised of our presence here. Miss Talbot"s remarkable discovery has, however, wholly changed my plans. Mlle. Beaucaire and her lover have set off for some unknown destination, and the best chance we have of discovering it is to secure the immediate arrest of her father.
Possibly, being taken by surprise at this hour of the morning, some doc.u.ment may be found on him which will reveal his daughter"s destination. It occurs to me that she half expected him to arrive by a late train. Again, when the fishing-smack puts into port, the girl will probably adopt some method of communicating with him, and that communication must come into our hands, not into his. So I have telephoned the police officials in Paris to raid the Cabaret Noir forthwith, and it is possible that they may report developments within the next two or three hours."
"Is there no chance of your discovering the whereabouts of that fishing-smack?" said Fairholme.
"In what way?" demanded Brett.
"Well, this is a big port, you know, and there are always tugs knocking about with steam up, on the off-chance of their services being required.
Isn"t it possible to charter a steamboat and set off after the smack?"
"I do not think so," said Brett. "I imagine it would be wasted effort.
By this time the _Belles Soeurs_ is well out to sea. She can go in a dozen different directions. She may beat along the coast towards Toulon and the Riviera. She can make towards Corsica, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, Spain, or the mouth of the Rhone. She will certainly not show any lights, and I personally feel that although there is, perhaps, a thousand to one chance we might fall in with her, it will be far better for our purpose to remain quietly here and await developments in Paris."
"Anyhow," remarked Fairholme, convinced that his proposal was impracticable, "it will be an easy matter for the authorities to ascertain the port that she arrives at."
Brett shook his head dubiously.
"I have my doubts on that point," he said. "The man who has thus far kept himself so easily ahead of all pursuers, and exhibited such a wealth of resource in his methods, may well be trusted to cover up his tracks effectually. There is even a possibility that the _Belles Soeurs_ will never be seen again, and that her number will long remain vacant on the shipping register of Ma.r.s.eilles. However, we shall see."
"Then, Mr. Brett," put in Edith quietly, with a tired smile, "I suppose we may go to bed?"
"Most certainly, Miss Talbot. You have earned your rest more than any of us to-night," he answered.
He held out his hand to wish her good-night, but she demanded with some surprise, "What are you going to do? Surely you want some sleep?"
"I will remain here," he said. "I have bribed the hall-porter to keep awake, and I may be wanted on the telephone at any moment."
"Then I will stop with you," cried Fairholme.
"And I too," chimed in Talbot.
"You will do nothing of the sort," he answered with pleasant insistence.
"You will just be off, both of you, and get some hours of sound sleep.
You may need all your energy to-morrow. Do not be afraid. I will arouse you if anything dramatic should happen."
Left to himself, Brett again interviewed the hall-porter and returned to the sitting-room, where he disposed himself for a nap on the sofa. Like all men who possess the faculty of concentrated thought, he also cultivated the power of dismissing a perplexing problem from his mind until it became necessary to consider it afresh in the light of further knowledge.
Within five minutes he was sound asleep.
At length he woke with a start. He was stiff with cold, for the fire had gone out, and the tiny gas jet he had left burning was not sufficient to warm the room. He sprang to his feet and looked at his watch. It was half-past six.
"Surely," he cried, "there must have been a message from Paris long before this!"
He ran downstairs, encountering on his way some of the hotel servants, who even thus early had commenced work, for your industrious Frenchman is no laggard in the morning. Going to the hall-porter"s office he found that functionary snoring peacefully. The poor fellow was evidently tired out, and twenty telephone bells might have jangled in his ears without waking him.
So, for the third time, Brett rang up the exchange to get in touch with Paris. As he had antic.i.p.ated, he quickly learnt that the Prefecture had endeavoured to get through to him about 4.30 a.m., but the operators were unable to obtain any answer.
"I can hardly blame the man," said he to himself, "for I was just as tired as he."
The intimation he received from the Prefecture was startling enough. In accordance with his instructions a number of detectives had raided the Cabaret Noir soon after three o"clock. They found the place in possession of a waiter and a couple of female servants. Gros Jean had quitted the house the previous evening, and, most astounding fact of all, with him were three Turks.
Neither the waiter nor the domestics could give any information whatever concerning the hidden room. They knew of its existence, but none of them had ever seen it, and the place was generally regarded as a sort of cellar for the reception of lumber.
The police forced a padlock which guarded its trap-door, and found to their surprise that the place was much more s.p.a.cious than they antic.i.p.ated. It really contained two apartments, one of which was so firmly secured that it had hitherto resisted all their efforts to open it. The other was a sort of bed-sitting-room, and it had recently been occupied. From various indications they came to the conclusion that its latest tenants were Hussein-ul-Mulk and his confederates.
Judging from the fact that these gentry had quietly left the cafe in Gros Jean"s company about half-past seven the previous evening, they were not in confinement against their will. In fact, the police theory was that this secret chamber provided a safe retreat for any person who desired complete seclusion other than that provided by the authorities.
"It is a.s.sumed," said the officer who communicated this bewildering information to Brett, "that the locked room contains a quant.i.ty of stolen goods. The police remain in charge of the cafe, and when the necessary workmen have been obtained this morning the door will be forced. We will at once let you know the result of our further investigations."
"But what about Gros Jean and the Turks? Surely Paris cannot again have swallowed them up?" inquired Brett.
"Every effort is being made to trace their whereabouts," was the reply, "but you must remember, monsieur, that they had many hours" start of the police, and that this period of the day is the most difficult of the twenty-four hours in which to make successful inquiries. You must rest a.s.sured that the moment we receive even the slightest clue we will ring you up, provided, that is, you arrange for someone at your end to answer the telephone."
"Oh," said Brett with a laugh, "there is little fear of further delay in that respect. It will be daylight in another hour, and the servants are already busy about the place."
He rang off and then darted back to his sitting-room to consult a time-table, for the thought came to him that Gros Jean and the Turks had quitted the cafe in order to reach Ma.r.s.eilles.
He could not yet explain this strange alliance. It was impossible to believe that the innkeeper would betray his daughter to serve the ends of a political party. No; there must be some other explanation which the future alone could reveal.
He well knew that the last thought likely to occur to the Paris police would be to suspect the missing men of any desire to reach the south coast. It was with an almost feverish anxiety that he scrutinized the pages of the _indicateur des chemins de fer_, and he heaved a sigh of profound relief when he discovered that the first train Gros Jean and the Turks could travel by left Paris the previous evening at 8.40 p.m., and was not due at Ma.r.s.eilles until 8.59 that morning.
It was now close on seven o"clock, so he went to his bedroom, effected some much-needed changes in his personal appearance, and then consumed an early breakfast of coffee and rolls. At half-past eight he called a carriage and was driven to the railway station, where, punctually to the minute, the Paris train arrived.
Brett managed to secure a favourable point whence he could observe the pa.s.sengers without being seen, for on the platform were stacked hundreds of baskets of fruit and vegetables which had arrived by a local train.
There were not many pa.s.sengers in the express, and among the first to alight were Gros Jean and the three Turks--Hussein-ul-Mulk and the two others he had seen in the Rue Barbette.
It would be idle to deny that the barrister experienced a thrill of satisfaction at his own shrewdness, and he smiled as he realized the consternation of the Paris commissary when informed that he had so easily allowed the rogues to slip out of the net.
The travellers were evidently tired after a sleepless journey. Gros Jean, being a fat man, had wobbled about a great deal during the night.
He much needed the restorative effect of a comfortable bed; whilst the Turks, though younger and more active, also showed signs of fatigue, for this long journey, in their case, was a sequel to many hours of detention in an ill-ventilated apartment.
So they paid not the slightest heed to their whereabouts, save in so far as to eye with suspicion a harmless gendarme who happened to be on the platform.
The policeman, of course, took no notice of them whatever. Gros Jean was to him merely a typical Frenchman, whilst persons of dark complexion and Moorish appearance are everyday sights in the streets of Ma.r.s.eilles.
A diminutive railway porter loitered near Brett in the conceit that perhaps this well-dressed stranger might have felonious designs on the oranges and cabbages. His intense joy may therefore be pictured when the barrister beckoned to him, placed a gold piece in his hand, and said--
"You see those Turks there. Go after them and find out where they are going to. They are sure to take a carriage, as their luggage appears to be somewhat heavy."
The man darted off, secure in the belief that no one who could afford to give away twenty francs for such trivial information would be likely to pocket a cauliflower. In half a minute he returned.
"They have all driven off together, monsieur," he announced eagerly, "and the French gentleman first of all inquired of the driver how much he would charge to take them to the Jolies Femmes. Two francs was the fare, and this was agreeable, so they have gone there."