Ralph taken aback, controlled himself. The name of Marescal suddenly awoke in his memory the confused remembrance of certain affairs in which it seemed to him that the Commissary had shown cleverness and remarkable clearsightedness. In any case it would be absurd to oppose him. “It’s my fault,” he thought. “Instead of acting at once in the matter of the English girl and fulfilling my last promise to her, I wasted time in getting excited about the masked girl. But all the same I’ll catch you before I’ve done with you, my pomaded friend.” In a tone of deference, as if he was quite alive to the prestige conferred by these high qualifications, he said: “Pardon me, Monsieur, little of a Parisian as I am—I spend most of my time out of France—your fame has reached my ears; and I recall among others an affair of earrings.” Marescal seemed to swell slightly. “Yes, the earrings of Princess Laurentini,” he said, pompously. “It wasn’t a bad piece of work. I don’t mind telling you that before the police, and above all the examining magistrate come on the scene, I should very much like to have carried the inquiry to a point at which——” “At which,” Ralph broke in in a tone of warm approval, “these gentlemen will have nothing to do but draw their conclusions. You are quite right; and I will not continue my journey till to-morrow, if my presence can be of any use to you.” “It would be very useful to me and I’m very much obliged to you for the offer,” said Marescal gratefully. The car was shunted into a siding; the train continued its journey. The conductor had to go with it; but before he went he made his statement Marescal began his investigations, then evidently with the intention of getting Ralph out off the way, he begged him to go to the station to find some sheets to cover the corpses. With an air of zeal Ralph bustled off down the corridor and out of the car. Then he slipped back, stepped on to the foot-board and raised his head to the level of the edge of the third window of the corridor. “Its just as I thought,” he said to himself, “my pomaded friend wished to be alone. He had a little preliminary game to play.” Marescal in fact had raised the body of the English girl a little and unbuttoned her coat. Round her waist was a belt to which was fastened a little red leather wallet. He unfastened the clasp and took away the wallet. Then he laid the corpse gently back on the floor and opened the wallet. It contained papers and at once he set about reading them. Ralph, who could only see his back, could not judge from his expression the effect that the papers had on him. He went off grumbling: “It’s no use your hurrying, comrade, I shall catch you all right before the end of the business. Those papers were bequeathed to me; no one but me has any right to them.”