“Oh! I am going mad! I am going mad! They are all dead! they are all tied up! they are all free and at large! and there are twelve apaches arrested and the Grand Duchess Alexandra is Tom Bob’s mistress. Don’t, don’t! it is too much! let me be, give me a moment’s peace!” Once more the door opened. Calm, cool, collected, M. Havard entered the room. “You sent for me, sir?” he asked. “Whatever is going on? I can’t see one of your secretaries, the doors stand open for anyone to walk into your working room. Your trusty servant even refuses to show me in, simply telling me to march straight into your private room! Is it a revolution?” M. Landais cut short M. Havard’s exclamations: “A revolution? I can’t say! It’s just a story for a madhouse—the Grand Duchess Alexandra is a swindler! Juve is dead! Juve has arrested a dozen apaches! Tom Bob is tied up at the Palais! Tom Bob is running away! he’s free and at large: he’s at the grand duchess’s! I tell you I’ve lost count of everything. I don’t understand one word of it all!” But seeing M. Havard’s amazed look as he listened to the Minister’s wild words, the latter realized he would do well to cultivate a little more calm of manner. “Listen, Havard,” he said, “I have really lost touch with things. Since waking this morning I have received twenty contradictory reports. It will be another dreadful panic in town unless we can clear all this up”—and the Minister told M. Havard the story of his morning as intelligibly as he found possible. All the time he was speaking, the Head of the Criminal Bureau listened quietly, nodding his head at intervals in silent assent. Where the Minister was all at sea, he, M. Havard, accustomed to matters of police, could make a shrewd guess at the truth, and it was in an unruffled voice that the police official finally proposed: “If you think well, sir, I am going straight away to Lady Beltham’s?” “To Lady Beltham’s?” “Well, the Grand Duchess Alexandra’s, if you like it better.” “But what for?” “To beg her—and Tom Bob, who is with her, by what the Princess Sonia stated—to come and make their deposition before you, and before Juve, who, I am persuaded, will not be long now in letting us hear of him.” For the Minister M. Havard’s words were incomprehensible. Still he was too well assured of the ability invariably displayed by the Head of the Criminal Department not to agree to his plan. “Go by all means, Monsieur Havard; but tell me, is it an arrest you are going to attempt?” “No, Monsieur le Ministre, it is an invitation I am going to proffer, _but_ I shall be accompanied by a dozen constables when I make it.” CHAPTER XXIX THE “EVER-EVASIVE” ESCAPES AGAIN The Grand Duchess Alexandra gave vent to an exclamation expressive both of surprise and triumph, as she greeted the visitor who stood before her. The latter, dropping his eyes and assuming a humble, almost abject mien, the bearing of a repentant sinner, murmured: