‘It is the business of my staff to penetrate mysteries, madame. But
you may depend on my secretary’s discretion. It will be awkward if
the police have followed you here, however. If M. Rattache were
to learn that we had been in communication, I might be obliged to
withdraw from the case.’
Madame Humbert clasped her hands in agitation. Her demeanour was no
longer that of the cold, masterful woman who had conversed with me in
Baron Y----’s smoking-room.
‘Listen, monsieur! Is it possible that you do not guess the object of
my visit?’
‘Unless it is to give me further instructions on the subject of your
affair, no.’
Thérèse wrung her hands.
‘It is to tell you, on the contrary, that everything is lost. At the
very moment that we were talking together, a real robber, unknown to
me, was rifling my safe of everything!’
‘You are serious, madame, I suppose?’
‘Serious!’ It is impossible to describe the tragedy in her voice and
air. ‘I tell you, monsieur, that I left Baron Y----’s within an hour
of speaking to you. I drove straight home, went to the safe, opened
it, and found inside a button and a centime.’
‘Really!’
Madame Humbert gazed at me desperately.
‘You do not believe me, perhaps, monsieur? Yet I swear to you as a
Christian woman--I swear as a mother--that there were two hundred
millions of francs in that safe when I came to dine at Baron Y----’s.’
‘I have not the least doubt of it, madame.’
‘Then what do you suspect?’
‘It is clear to me that you have been robbed since.’
‘By whom?’
‘By some one in your confidence, perhaps. Some one to whom you had
confided the guardianship of this fund, in which his Royal Highness
the ---- of ---- is so much interested.’
Madame Humbert glared at me in anger.
‘You are mocking me,’ she cried fiercely. ‘I came here to ask if you
would undertake the recovery of this money from the thief.’
‘That is unnecessary, madame. All that your friends have to do is to
approach him, and breathe in his ear the three words, ---- ---- ----.’
‘But if we do not know who he is!’ cried the distracted plotter.
‘Oh, if you only require to know who he is, that is soon settled. I
will send you the name of the robber on the day on which your affair
terminates in the Courts.’
A light began to break upon the mind of the excited woman.
‘Monsieur V----!’ she exclaimed. ‘Is it possible----?’