"A thousand pardons, but has not monsieur forgotten his pocket-book a few moments ago?" Pierre felt in his coat pocket, and not finding it there, turned round to look at Emile once more. "I had the honour to notice it lying on the counter of the tobacco shop after monsieur had just left it. But monsieur travelled so fast I had some difficulty in reaching him." Pierre took the pocket-book, and after seeing that the contents had apparently not been tampered with, thanked him and offered him a five franc piece. Emile refused the proffered tip with a superb smile, and a majestic wave of the hand. "A thousand pardons, but really I cannot accept anything from monsieur, the fact that I have been the humble means of restoring monsieur's property is more than ample reward for me." Pierre grunted with a smile of contemptuous unbelief, and returned the piece to his pocket, after scanning him closely from head to foot. His inspection was evidently satisfactory for he paused for a few minutes and asked him whether he would care to perform a small service for him, for which he would pay him handsomely. "Ah, monsieur is too generous. To serve a patron like monsieur would be the supreme desire of my life, and payment would be quite a secondary consideration," he said with a greasy supercilious smile. "What is your name and address?" asked Pierre. Monsieur Emile opened a small card-case and handed him one of his cards which he always kept in readiness for emergencies like these. It bore the inscription:-- [Illustration: _Emile Deschamps, Traveller and Confidential Agent._ _Rue du Rhone, Grenoble._] The inscription on the card had been devised by M. Emile after much meditation and reflection, and while drawn up to create confidence in the recipient, was really as misleading a document as one could find. "You see," he would say to his 'copains,' "Grenoble is too far away for anyone in Paris to make awkward enquiries, the name of the street carries no number, and the fact that I am a traveller explains my presence in any city where I may be at the time, and does away with the necessity of having a fixed address. Moreover a confidential agent imparts a certain tone and air of respectability which cannot fail to give me the entire confidence of any patron who may be the favoured recipient of this small piece of pasteboard. Besides this, the fact that I have been a garçon for several years has enabled me to acquire that polished debonair appearance and deportment which can only be acquired from constant attendance on the high-born gentlemen and ladies whom I have had the honour to serve." Glancing at the card, Pierre invited him to enter his rooms, and in a few moments the pair were settled in a well-furnished and comfortable library.