Lefarge called for Burnley the next morning at the latter’s hotel, and they made their way to the superintendent’s office at the Gare St. Lazare. ‘Well, gentlemen,’ said their friend of the previous afternoon, motioning them to be seated, ‘I think I’ve got the information you want.’ He took up some papers. ‘I have here the receipt of the Southampton boat people for what we may call number one cask, which was handed them on the arrival of the 7.47 from this station on the night of the 30th ult. Here,’ he took up a similar paper, ‘I have the receipt of the I. and C. Steam Navigation Co. at Rouen for cask number two, which left here by goods train on the 1st inst., and was got on board on the 3rd. Finally, our agent at the Goods Station at the rue Cardinet informs me he has found the porters who assisted to unload this number two cask when it arrived. You can see them by going down there now.’ ‘I can hardly find words to thank you, sir,’ said Lefarge, ‘your help has been of the utmost value.’ ‘Delighted, I am sure.’ They parted with mutual compliments, and the detectives took a Ceinture train to Batignoles, and walked down the rue Cardinet to the vast goods station. They introduced themselves to the agent, who was expecting them, and brought them through long passages and across wide yards alive with traffic to a dock in the side of one of the huge goods sheds for outward bound traffic. Calling up two blue-bloused porters and instructing them to answer the detectives’ questions, he excused himself and took his leave. ‘Now, men,’ said Lefarge, ‘we’ll be much obliged for some information and there’ll be a few francs going if you can give it.’ The men expressed anxiety to supply whatever was needed. ‘Do you remember on Thursday week, the 1st instant, unloading a cask labelled for Felix, London, via Rouen and long sea?’ ‘But yes, monsieur, we remember it,’ said the men in chorus. ‘You must unload hundreds of casks. How did you come to notice this one so specially?’ ‘Ah, monsieur,’ replied one of the men, ‘had monsieur had to lift it himself he also would have noticed it. The weight was remarkable, extraordinary. The shape also was peculiar. In the middle there was no bulge.’ ‘At what time did it arrive here?’ ‘Just after six in the evening, monsieur, between five and ten minutes past.’ ‘It is a good while since then. How do you come to remember the time so exactly?’ ‘Because, monsieur,’ the man smiled, ‘we were going off duty at half-past six, and we were watching the time.’ ‘Can you tell me who brought it to the yard?’ The men shrugged their shoulders. ‘Alas! monsieur, we do not know,’ the spokesman answered. ‘The carter we would recognise if we saw him again, but neither of us know where he lives nor the name of his employers.’ ‘Can you describe him?’ ‘But certainly, monsieur. He was a small man, thin and sickly looking, with white hair and a clean-shaven face.