CHAPTER XXVI.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 8794, 7 March 1896, Page 4

CHAPTER XXVI.

1 Not vet,' said the detective, ' not yet, the battle now depends on the precision of our movements. A single fault miseiably upsets all my combinations, and then I shall be forced to ai rest and deliver up the criminal. We mast have a ten minutes interview with Mademoiselle Laurence, but not much more, and it is absolutely necessary that this interview should be suddenly interrupted by Tremorel's return. Let's make our calculations. Jit will take the rascal half an hour to go to the Rue des Saintes-Peres, where he will find nobody, as long to get back, let us throw in fifteen minutes as a margin, in all, an hour and a quarter. There are forty minutes left us. . M. Plantat did not rsply, but Ins companion said that he could notstay so long on his feet after the fas tigues of the day, agitated as he wa and having eaten nothing since the evening before. He led him into a neighboring cafe, and forced him to eat a biscuit and drink a glass of wine. Then seeing that conversation would be annoying to the unhappy old man he took up an evening paper and soon seemed to be absorbedin the latest news from Germany. The old justice, his head leaning on the back of his chair and his eyes wandering over the ceiling, passing in mental review the events of the past four years. It seemed to him asy eslerday that Laurence , still a child, ran up his garden path and picked his roses and honeysuckles. How pretty she was, and how divine were her great eyes ! Then, as it seemed, between dusk and dawn, as a rose blooms on a June night, the pretty child became a sweet and radiant young girl, one was timid and reserved with all but jj{ m W as he not her old friend, the confidant of all her little griefs and heiinnocenthopes? Howfrankand pure she was then ; what a heavenly ignorance of evil! Nine o'clock strucit, M. Lecoq laid down his paper. '' Let us go,' said he. M. Plantat followed him with a firmei step, and they soon reached M. Wilson's house accompanied by Job and his men, He rang ; the door swung open ; and M. Plantat and Hie detective went in under tho arch. The porter was on the threshold of his lodge. ' M. Wilson ?" asked M. Lccoq. ' He is out. 1 1 1 will speak to Madame then. ' She is also out.' 'Very well. Only I must positively speak with Madame Wilson, I'm going upstairs.' The porter seemed about to resist him by force ; but as M. Lecoq now called in his men, he thought better of it and kept quiet. M. Lecoq posted six of his men in the court in such a position that they could easily be seen fiom the windows on the first floor, and instructed the other to place themselves on the opposite sidewalk, telling them to look ostentatiously at the house. These meaasures taken, he returned to the porter. ' Attend to me, my man. When your master who has goneout, comes in again, beware that you don't tell him that we are upstairs ; a single word would get you into terribly hot warer— ' 'lam blind,' he answered, "and deaf.' ' How many servants are there in the house ?' ' Three, but they haveall goneout. The detective then took M. Plantat by the arm, and holding him firmly said, ' You see, my dear friend, said he, ' the game is ours. Come along — and in Laurence's name have courage !'