"Absolutely certain. I saw the gate close behind him."
"Then I can only say that, so far, the matter is inexplicable. Now let us come back to Valentin. He claims to be working to capture the kidnappers--in order to clear the nurse, whom he loves."
"That is as I understand it."
"He denies that he smokes, yet offers no explanation of the presence of the cigarettes in his room."
"None. Further, someone sends a note to Valentin, advising him that the writer is suspicious of Francois--suggesting that he watch him. Can this mean that Francois is in the plot, and they fear he may be weakening--preparing to turn against them?"
"It certainly looks that way."
"I wish I could see one of these famous cigarettes."
Grace laughed suddenly. "Why," she exclaimed, "I have one in my pocketbook. I had quite forgotten it." She opened her purse and took out the slender white cylinder.
Lefevre examined the thing closely. "An Egyptian cigarette of American make," he mused. "Expensive, here in Paris, and rarely used, except by Americans."
"That is true; yet I understand that this man Valentin has lived a great deal in America."
For a moment the Prefect did not reply. Then a puzzled look crossed his face. "This is a woman"s cigarette," he exclaimed. "No man would smoke such a thing." He brought his hand down sharply upon his knee. "My girl, it is not impossible that the child was stolen not by a man at all, but by a woman."
"A woman, apparently, that both Valentin and the nurse are trying to shield."
The Prefect sat for a moment buried in thought. Then he glanced at Grace keenly. "It seems to me," he remarked, in a quiet tone, "that we should endeavor to determine whether or not Mrs. Stapleton is in the habit of using cigarettes."
"Mrs. Stapleton!" gasped Grace, in amazement.
"Yes. I confess the idea is a new one, to me; but it may prove of interest."
"But why should the boy"s mother wish to kidnap him?"
"I do not know. There is but one point of significance. During the past week my men have, naturally, questioned Mrs. Stapleton closely as to her movements during the past two or three months. They did this, to determine, if possible, whether the criminals were of Paris, or from some other place, where Mrs. Stapleton may have been, with the child, during the past winter. You know these fellows work in bands, and have their regular field of operations."
"I see. And where had she been?"
"Monte Carlo!" The Prefect uttered the two words significantly.
Grace was quick to grasp his meaning.
"Then you mean that possibly Mrs. Stapleton may have lost large sums at the gambling tables, and, fearing to tell her husband of her losses, has enlisted the services of the nurse, and of her friend Valentin, and spirited the child away for a few weeks, in order to get the sum of one hundred thousand dollars from her husband without his knowledge?"
"It is by no means impossible. I would recommend that you investigate the matter thoroughly. If we find that Mrs. Stapleton uses gold-tipped cigarettes of this variety, it may go far toward a solution of the whole affair."
Grace, remembering Mrs. Stapleton"s grief-stricken appearance, felt that the clue was a very slender one, but determined to follow it up, nevertheless.
"Now," went on the Prefect, "we come to the sudden and most unexpected appearance of Valentin, clinging to the rear of the automobile that brought you back to Paris tonight."
"As I have told you, he claims to have clambered into Mr. Stapleton"s car."
"Driven by Francois?"
"Yes."
"And you say the man who drove the car had a black beard--the same man, in fact, who broke into Valentin"s room and stole the cigarettes?"
"Yes."
"Then either Valentin is lying, or the man with the black beard is Francois. Let us look at his story from both sides. If he is telling the truth, then Francois is one of the kidnappers."
"So it would seem. You are having him watched, you say?"
"Yes. My men report that he did leave the house, in Mr. Stapleton"s automobile tonight, at about nine o"clock. That would seem to agree with Valentin"s story. They also report that he returned about eleven, alone."
"They did not follow him?"
"No. It is impossible to do so, in another car, without arousing his suspicion, and putting him on his guard. We do not wish him to know that he is being watched."
"But Mr. Stapleton must know where he has been--why the car was out."
"Yes. We have questioned him. He says the man reported that the gasolene tank was leaking, and that he ordered him to have it repaired at once."
"And was it repaired?"
The Prefect smiled. "Yes. The car was at a garage in the Boulevard St.
Michel from half past nine until half past ten."
Grace fell back, astonished. "Then Valentin is lying!" she cried.
"So it seems; unless, of course, Francois took out another car from the garage, while his own was being fixed."
"They would know that at the garage."
"They deny it. But these fellows all hang together. They would think nothing of protecting a brother chauffeur, in the matter of a little joy ride."
"Valentin says nothing about this, in his story."
"He may have omitted it, as an unimportant detail. I mean that he may have slipped into the second car, as he did into the first, without being observed. It was dark of course. He may not have thought it necessary to mention it. All this, of course, is on the a.s.sumption that he is telling the truth. Now let us say that he is lying--that the man with the black beard is not Francois, but someone else concerned, with Valentin in the plot. What is the purpose of his tale?"
"I cannot imagine. Can you, Monsieur?"
"No, not immediately. The first contradiction, of course, is this. If Valentin and the man with the black beard are working together, why should the latter have broken into his room to get the cigarettes?"
"There seems no sense to it."
"Yet he may have realized the danger of the cigarettes being in Valentin"s possession, and instead of trying to warn him simply came and took them away. It is not a particularly plausible explanation; but let us admit it, for the moment, in order to get ahead with our reasoning.
Suppose Valentin, the man with the black beard, and Mary Lanahan, the nurse, to be all working together, either with Mrs. Stapleton, or with outside parties. They have the child safely hidden. They abduct you, and send the message to Mr. Stapleton through you. They do not trust you, knowing, no doubt, that you are an agent of my office. They send Valentin along, on the back of the machine, to pretend to be an enemy of theirs trying, like yourself, to recover the child. He thus gets into your confidence. He advises you to report your message from the kidnappers to Mr. Stapleton at once. He questions you, and learns that you do not know the location of the house where the child is hidden. He then offers to show you as nearly as he can where the house is located.
If he is in league with the kidnappers, he will take you, and the men whom tomorrow I shall send with you, to some location miles removed from the actual point where the child is concealed, and you will waste the day in a useless search. Decidedly it would be a clever move on their part."
"It certainly would."