"Maybe he hasn't had time, guv'ner--maybe he wasn't on hand when the message arrived," hazarded Dollops. "It's not fifteen minutes all told since it was dispatched. So if----" "There she goes! there she goes! Passed, and through the customs in a wink, the Jezebel!" interposed Narkom, in a fever of excitement, as he saw Margot go by the inspector at the door and walk out into the streets of the city. "Lord! if she slips me now----" "She shan't!" cut in Dollops, jerking down his hat brim and turning up his collar. "Wait here till the cops come. I'll nip out after her and see where she goes. Like as not the cops'll know the place when you mention it; but if they don't--watch out for me; I'll come back and lead 'em." Then he moved hurriedly forward, passed the inspector, and was gone in a twinkling. For ten wretched minutes after he, too, had passed the customs and was at liberty to leave, Narkom paced up and down and fretted and fumed before a sound of clanking sabres caught his ear and, looking round, he saw M. Ducroix enter the place at the head of a detachment of police. He hurried to him and in a word made himself known. "Ten million pardons, m'sieur; but I was absent when the message he shall be deliver," exclaimed Ducroix in broken English. "I shall come and shall bring my men as soon as he shall be receive. M'sieur, who shall it be this great criminal you demand of me to arrest? Is he here?" "No, no. A moment, Ducroix. Do you know a place called the Inn of the Seven Sinners?" "Perfectly. It is but a stone's throw distant--on the Quai d'Lorme." "Come with me to it, then. I'll make you the most envied man in France, Ducroix: I'll deliver into your hands that witch of the underworld, Margot, the Queen of the Apaches!" Ducroix's face lit up like a face transfigured. "M'sieur!" he cried. "That woman? You can give me that woman? You know her? You can recognize her? But, yes, I remember! You shall have her in your hands once in your own country, but she shall slip you, as she shall slip everybody!" "She won't slip _you_, then, I promise you that!" said Narkom. "Reward and glory, both shall be yours. I have followed her across the channel, Ducroix. I know where she is to be found for a certainty. She is at the Inn of the Seven Sinners. Just take me there and I'll turn the Jezebel over to you." Ducroix needed no urging. The prospect of such a capture made him fairly beside himself with delight. In twenty swift words he translated this glorious news to his men--setting them as wild with excitement as he was himself--then with a sharp, "Come, m'sieur!" he turned on his heel and led the breathless race for the goal. Halfway down the narrow, ink-black street that led to the inn they encountered Dollops pelting back at full speed.