‘Here are all the disappearances reported during March, monsieur,’ he said, ‘and here those for April up to the present date. I haven’t a return for the last four weeks only, but can get one out at once if you wish.’ ‘No. These are all right.’ The Chief examined the documents. ‘Last month,’ he said, ‘seven persons disappeared of whom six were women, four being in the Paris area. This month two people have disappeared, both women and both in the Paris area. That is six women in Paris in the last five weeks. Let’s see, now,’ he ran his fingers down the column, ‘Suzanne Lemaître, aged seventeen, last seen--well, it could not be she. Lucille Marquet, aged twenty--no good either. All these are girls under twenty-one, except one. Here, what is this? Marie Lachaise, aged thirty-four, height 172 centimetres--that is about five feet eight in English measure--dark hair and eyes and clear complexion, wife of M. Henri Lachaise, the avocat, of 41 rue Tinques, Boulevarde Arago. Left home on the twenty-ninth ultimo, that is about ten days ago, at three o’clock, ostensibly for shopping. Has not been heard of since. Better take a note of that.’ M. Lefarge did so, and spoke for the first time. ‘We shall try it, of course, monsieur, but I don’t expect much result. If that woman went out to shop she would hardly be wearing evening dress, as was the corpse.’ ‘Also,’ said Burnley, ‘I think we may take it the dead woman’s name was Annette B.’ ‘Probably you are both right. Still, you had better make sure.’ The Chief tossed away the papers and looked at Burnley. ‘No other disappearances have been reported, nor have we any further information here that would seem to help. I am afraid we must fall back on our other clues. Let us consider, therefore, where we should start.’ He paused for a few moments and then resumed. ‘We may begin, I think, by checking the part of Felix’s statement which you, Mr. Burnley, have not yet been able to inquire into, and to do so we must interview M. Le Gautier and try to ascertain if he wrote the letter. If he admits it we will be a step farther on, if not, we must find out how far the story of the lottery and the bet is true, and whether the conversation described by Felix actually took place. In this case we must ascertain precisely who were present and overheard that conversation, and would therefore have the knowledge necessary to write that letter. If this does not give us what we want, it may be necessary to follow up each of these persons and try for our man by elimination. A part of that inquiry would be a search for the typewriter used, which, as Mr. Burnley points out, is identifiable. Simultaneously, I think we should endeavour to trace the wearing apparel and the cask. What do you think of that, gentlemen, for a rough programme?’ ‘I don’t think we could do better, sir,’ returned Burnley as the Chief looked at him, while Lefarge nodded his approval.