He accomplished the task with which he had been charged and brought back with him the station master’s wife and mother who insisted, as was the custom of the country, that they ought to keep watch over the dead. He found one of the workmen from down the line talking to Marescal and learned that two men had been seen hurrying through the wood and that one of them was limping. “Was that all they found?” asked Ralph. “Everything,” said Marescal. “They did find, on the track these two scoundrels took, a heel stuck between two roots which had gripped it, a heel torn off a shoe, but it was the heel of a woman’s shoe.” “Then the workmen had nothing to report,” said Ralph in a tone of keen disappointment. “Nothing,” said Marescal a trifle glumly. They raised the English girl from the floor and laid her on the seat. Ralph gazed at his beautiful and charming traveler for the last time, and murmured beneath his breath: “I shall avenge you, Miss Bakersfield. If I was unable to guard you and save you, I swear that your murderers shall be punished.” He thought of the girl with the green eyes and swore again to take vengeance also on that mysterious creature. “She was a beautiful creature,” he said. “Don’t you know her name?” “How should I know it?” asked Marescal. “But what about this wallet?” “It must only be opened in the presence of the public prosecutor,” snapped Marescal; then, hastily changing the subject, he added: “The surprising thing is that the scoundrels did not rob her of it.” “It should contain papers,” said Ralph, pressing his point. “We must wait for the public prosecutor,” repeated the Commissary firmly. “But in any case it is quite clear that the robbers who stripped you took nothing from her—neither this wrist-watch, nor this brooch, nor this necklace.” His vanity and pretentiousness did not escape Ralph; he said in a tone of awed admiration: “I have an impression, Monsieur Commissary, that you have already made considerable progress towards the discovery of the truth. I feel that you are a master of the detective’s art. Would it be possible for you to tell me in a few words what point you have reached?” “Why not?” said Marescal, taking Ralph’s arm and drawing him into the empty compartment next door. “The police won’t be long coming, nor will the doctor. In order to make clear my position in the matter and make sure of the reward, I shall be glad to inform you of the preliminary result of my first investigations.” “Go it, old pomade-pot!” said Ralph to himself. “You could not find any one better than me to confide in!”