He did not regard it as necessary to tell his correspondent friend that the _Cricket_ had sailed from Marseilles with but one port in view--Aratat. He did not tell him that the _Cricket_ had come with a message to him and that he was answering it in person, as it was intended that he should--a message written six weeks before his arrival in France. There were many things that Chase did not explain to Archibald James. "You're looking fine, Chase, old man. Did you a lot of good out there. You're as brown as that Arab in the taximetre back there. By Jove, old man, that Persian girl is ripping. You say she's his wife? She's--" Chase broke in upon this far from original estimate of the picturesque Neenah. "I say, Arch, there's something I want to know before I go to the Marquess's this evening. I'm due there with my thanks. He lives in the Boulevard St. Germain--I've got the number all right. Is one likely to find the house full of swells? I'm a bit of a savage just now and I'm correspondingly timid." His friend stared at him for a moment. "I can save you the trouble of going to the Marquess," he said. "He and the Marchioness are in London at present. Left Paris a month ago." "What? The house is closed?" in deep anxiety. "I think not. Servants are all there, I daresay. Their place adjoins the Brabetz palace. The Princess is his niece, you know." "You say the Brabetz palace is next door?" demanded Chase, steadying his voice with an effort. "Yes--the old Flaurebert mansion. The Princess was to have been the social sensation of Paris this year. She's a wonderful beauty, you know." "Was to have been?" "She married that rotten Brabetz last June--but, of course, you never heard of it out there in what's-the-name-of-the-place. You may have heard of his murder, however. His mistress shot him in Brussels----" "Great God, man!" gasped Chase, clutching his arm in a grip of iron. "The devil, Chase!" cried the other, amazed. "What's the matter?" "He's dead? Murdered? How--when? Tell me about it," cried Chase, his agitation so great that James looked at him in wonder. "'Gad, you seem to be interested!" "I _am_! Where is she--I mean the Princess? And the other woman?"