When Juve made his way into the woman's ward, Doctor Patel was actually in process of seeing his patients. He was passing from bed to bed, questioning each of the women under treatment and listening to the comments of the house staff who followed him. "Gentlemen," the doctor was saying as Juve joined the group, "the patient we have just seen affords a very excellent and typical instance of intermittent fever. The serum tests have not given any appreciable result; it is therefore impossible to arrive at----" A hand was laid on Juve's shoulder. "Why, the tests are always absolutely indicative! Palpable typhoid, eh? What do you think?" Juve turned his head and could not suppress a cry of surprise. "Doctor Chaleck!" "What! M. Juve!--You here! Were you looking for me?" Juve was dumbfounded. He drew Chaleck aside. "Then you're attached to this hospital?" "Oh, I have only leave to attend the courses." "And I came here out of curiosity." "In any case, allow me to thank you for the service you rendered me the other day. The officer who was with you seemed to take me for the guilty man." "Well, you see, appearances...." "But if anyone was a victim it was I. Apart from the finding of the murdered woman in my house, I have been robbed!" Here the doctor broke off. A house surgeon was beckoning to him. "Forgive me," he said to Juve. "I cannot keep my colleague waiting." Leaving Chaleck, Juve went back to the attendant who had patiently waited for him. "Stranger than ever!" he murmured. "There is no making it all out. Josephine writes that Loupart means to rob Chaleck. I track Loupart and he gives me the slip. I spend a night in a room where I see nothing, and where nevertheless a horrible amazing crime is committed. The murder takes place scarce a yard from me, and the doctor, the tenant of the house, sees nothing either, and does not even know the victim who is found next morning on his premises! Thereupon our informant, Josephine, goes into hospital; pain in the stomach, they say--hem! Poison, maybe? Then she gets a threatening letter from Loupart. And when I come to the hospital to protect her, whom do I meet but Doctor Chaleck!" Juve, turning to the attendant who was escorting him, asked: "You know the person I was speaking to just now?" "Doctor Chaleck? Yes, sir." "What is his business here?" "He is a foreign doctor, I believe. I should fancy a Belgian. Anyhow, he is allowed by the authorities to follow the clinical courses and make researches in the laboratory." VII A REVOLVER SHOT