"You will pardon me," said my hearer, "but in what way did you make sure that they were the women you desired?" "By the younger one's resemblance to Miss Holladay," I answered, lying with a glibness which surprised myself. "The Jourdains maintained that a photograph of Miss Holladay was really one of their lodger." I heard him draw a deep breath, but he kept his face under admirable control. "Ah, yes," he said. "That was exceedingly clever. I should never have thought of that. That is worthy of Monsieur Lecoq. And so you follow them to France--but, surely, you have some more--what you call--definite address than that, Mistair Lester!" I could feel his eyes burning out from the shadows; I was thankful for the cigarette--it helped me to preserve an indifferent countenance. "No," I said. "It seems rather a wild-goose chase, doesn't it? But you could advise me, Mr. Martigny. Where would it be best for me to search for them?" He did not answer for a moment, and I took advantage of the opportunity to select a second cigarette and light it. I dared not remain unoccupied; I dared not meet his eyes; I trembled to see that my hand was not wholly steady. "That," he began slowly, at last, "seems to me a most--ah!--deeficult affair, Mistair Lester. To search for three people through all France--there seems little hope of success. Yet I should think it most likely that they have gone to Paris." I nodded. "That was my own theory," I agreed. "But to find them in Paris, seems also impossible." "Not if one uses the police," he said. "It could, most probably, be soon achieved, if you requested the police to assist you." "But, my dear sir," I protested. "I can't use the police. Miss Holladay, at least, has committed no crime; she has simply chosen to go away without informing us." "You will permit me to say, then, Mistair Lester," he observed, with just a touch of irony, "that I fail to comprehend your anxiety concerning her." I felt that I had made a mis-step; that I had need to go carefully. "It is not quite so simple as that," I explained. "The last time we saw Miss Holladay, she told us that she was ill, and intended to go to her country home for a rest. Instead of going there, she sailed for France, without informing anyone--indeed, doing everything she could to escape detection. That conduct seems so eccentric that we feel in duty bound to investigate it. Besides, two days before she left she received from us a hundred thousand dollars in cash." I saw him move uneasily on his bed; after all, this advantage of mine was no small one. No wonder he grew restless under this revelation of secrets which were not secrets! "Ah!" he said softly; and again, "Ah! Yes, that seems peculiar. Yet, perhaps, if you had waited for a letter----" "Suppose we had waited, and there had been no letter--suppose, in consequence of waiting, we should be too late?" "Too late? Too late for what, Mistair Lester? What is it you fear for her?"