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By Root 145 0

and say the draft was good. I determined to prevent this man from getting the case until I knew more of his game. Quietly I removed from my place near the door to the auctioneer’s desk, having two objects in view: first, to warn the auctioneer not to part with the treasure too easily; and secondly, to study the suspected man at closer range. Of all evil-doers, the American is most to be feared; he uses more ingenuity in the planning of his projects, and will take greater risks in carrying them out, than any other malefactor on earth. From my new station I saw I had two to deal with. The bidder had a keen, intellectual face, and refined, ladylike hands, clean and white, showing they had long been divorced from manual labour, if, indeed, they had ever done any useful work. Coolness and imperturbability were his beyond a doubt. The companion who sat at his right was of an entirely different stamp. His hands were hairy and sun-tanned; his face bore the stamp of grim determination and unflinching bravery. I knew that these two types usually hunted in couples—the one to scheme, the other to execute, and they always formed a combination dangerous to encounter and difficult to circumvent.

There was a buzz of conversation up and down the hall, and these two men talked together in low tones. I knew now that I was face to face with the most hazardous problem of my life.

I whispered to the auctioneer, who bent his head to listen. He knew very well who I was, of course.

“You must not give up the necklace,” I said.

He shrugged his shoulders.

“I am under the orders of the officials of the Ministry of the Interior. You must speak to him.”

“I shall not fail to do so,” I replied. “Nevertheless, do not give up the box too readily.”

“I am helpless,” he said with another shrug. “I obey the orders of the Government.”

Seeing it was useless to parley further with the auctioneer, I set my wits to work to meet the new emergency. I felt convinced that the cheque would prove to be genuine, and that the fraud, wherever it lay, would be disclosed too late to be of service to the authorities. My duty, therefore, was to make sure we lost sight neither of the buyer nor the thing bought. Of course, I could not arrest him merely on suspicion; besides, it would make the Government the laughing-stock of the world if they were to sell a case of jewels and immediately arrest the buyer when they themselves had handed his purchase over to him; and ridicule kills in France. A breath of laughter will blow a Government out of existence in Paris much more effectually than a whiff of cannon-smoke. My duty, then, was to give the Government full warning, and never lose sight of my man until he was clear of France; then my responsibility was ended.

I took aside one of my own men in plain clothes and said to him—

“You have seen the American who has bought the necklace?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Very well. Go outside quietly and station yourself there. He is likely to emerge presently with the casket in his possession. You are not to lose sight of either the man or the jewels. I shall follow him and be close behind him as he emerges, and you are to shadow us. If he parts with the case, you must be ready at a sign from me to follow either the man or the jewels. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” he answered, and left the room.

It is ever the unforseen that baffles us: it is easy to be wise after the event. I should have sent two men, and I have often thought since how wise is the regulation of the Italian Government, which sends out its policemen in pairs. Or I should have given my man power to call for help; but even as it was, he did only half as well as I had a right to expect of him, and the blunder he committed by a moment’s dull-witted hesitation. Ah, well! there is no use in scolding. After all, the result might have been the same.

Just as my man disappeared through the two folding-doors, the official from the Ministry of the Interior entered. I intercepted him about half-way between the door and the auctioneer.

“Possibly the cheque appears to be genuine,” I whispered