Part 15 (1/2)

It was not a fortune, Sir, but I had to be satisfied But in the meanwhile the disappearance of Theodore had res and cross-questionings, no aht any new ht Aristide Nicolet persisted in his statee of the Hotel des Cadets in theirs

Theodore had undoubtedly occupied roo the three days while I was racking my brain as to what had become of him

I equally undoubtedly saw hi up the Rue Beaune with Carissi beneath his coat Then he entered the open doorway of the hotel, and henceforth his whereabouts reand the dog himself, there was not the faintest indication of what becae vowed that he did not enter the hotel--Aristide Nicolet vowed that he did not enter No 25 But then the dog was in the cupboard, and so were the hat and coat; and even the police were bound to adliendarme's entry into room 25 it would be impossible for the most experienced criminal on earth to murder a man, conceal every trace of the crime, and so to dispose of the body as to baffle the most minute inquiry and the ht the wholecrazy

5

Thus about a week or ten days went by and I had just come reluctantly to the conclusion that there ends which tell us that the devil runs aith his elect from time to time, when I received a summons from M the Commissary of Police to present myself at his bureau

He was pleasant and urbane as usual, but to ave me the old reply: ”No trace of him can be found”

Then he added: ”We ood M

Ratichon, that yourout of the way The murder theory is untenable; we have had to abandon it The total disappearance of the body is an unanswerable arguainst it Would you care to offer a reward for infor friend?”

I hesitated I certainly was not prepared to pay anyone for finding Theodore

”Think it over, ood M Ratichon,” rejoined M le Commissaire pleasantly ”But in the meanwhile I must tell you that we have decided to set Aristide Nicolet free There is not a particle of evidence against hi or of that of your friend

Mme de Nole's servants cannot swear to his identity, whilst you have sworn that you last saw the dog in your ht to detain an innocent h that there was not a tittle of solid evidence against the man Nicolet, nor had I the power tofrom their decision In er-polled ruffian knew all about Carissimo and all about the present whereabouts of that rascal Theodore But what could I say, Sir? What could I do?

I went hos at Passy more perplexed than ever I had been inI arrived at my office soon after nine The proble a new man of all ould serve rateful wretch Theodore

I mounted the stairs with a heavy step and opened the outer door of my apartment with my private key; and then, Sir, I assure you that for one briefway under th on the floor

There, sitting at the table in my private room, was Theodore He had donned one of the many suits of clothes which I always kept at the office for purposes of e which was to have been part ofa half-bottle of my best Bordeaux

He appeared wholly unconscious of his enormities, and when I taxed him with his villainies and plied hied silence and a sulky attitude which I have never seen equalled in all my life He flatly denied that he had ever walked the streets of Paris with a dog under his arm, or that I had ever chased hied in the Hotel des Cadets, or been acquainted with its proprietress, or with a red-polled, hunchback miscreant named Aristide Nicolet He denied that the coat and hat found in roo, and with an impudence, Sir, which was past belief

But he put the crown to his insolence when he finally demanded two hundred francs from me: his share in the su He demanded this, Sir, in the name of justice and of equity, and even brandished our partnershi+p contract in usted that presently I felt that I could not bear the sight of hier I turnedhi h the antecha out into the street for a little fresh air when so in the aspect of the chair-bedstead on which that aboht attracted my attention I turned over one of the cushi+ons, and with a cry of rage which I took no pains to suppress I seized upon what I found lying beneath: a blue linen blouse, Sir, a peaked cap, a ginger-coloured wig and beard!

The villain! The aboh choking rath

With the da pieces of conviction in my hand, I rushed back into the inner roonation had aroused the va, and tauntedhiuise of the so-called Aristide Nicolet

It was a disguise which he had kept by hiency when first he decided to start business as a dog thief Carissimo had been his first serious venture and but for my interference it would have been a wholly successful one He had worked the whole thing out with reatly assisted by Madame Sand, the proprietress of the Hotel des Cadets, as a friend of his mother's The lady, it seems, carried on a lucrative business of the same sort herself, and she undertook to furnish hi out of his plan The proceeds of the affair were to be shared equally between himself and Madame; the confederates, who helped to jostle M stolen, were to receive five francs each for their trouble