“Ah! you would shadow her?”

“Precisely.  By a good agent.  Galipaud, for instance.  He speaks English, and he can, if necessary, follow her anywhere, even to England.”

“She can be extradited,” said the Commissary, with his one prominent idea of arrest.

“Do you agree, M. le Juge?  Then, if you will permit me, I will give the necessary orders, and perhaps you will inform the lady that she is free to leave the station?”

The Countess now had reason to change her opinion of the French officials.  Great politeness now replaced the first severity that had been so cruel.  She was told, with many bows and apologies, that her regretted but unavoidable detention was at an end.  Not only was she freely allowed to depart, but she was escorted by both M. Flocon and the Commissary outside, to where an omnibus was in waiting, and all her baggage piled on top, even to the dressing-bag, which had been neatly repacked for her.

But the little silver-topped vial had not been restored to her, nor the handkerchief.

In her joy at her deliverance, either she had not given these a second thought, or she did not wish to appear anxious to recover them.

Nor did she notice that, as the bus passed through the gates at the bottom of the large slope that leads from the Lyons Station, it was followed at a discreet distance by a modest fiacre, which pulled up, eventually, outside the Hotel Madagascar.  Its occupant, M. Galipaud, kept the Countess in sight, and, entering the hotel at her heels, waited till she had left the office, when he held a long conference with the proprietor.

CHAPTER VIII

A first stage in the inquiry had now been reached, with results that seemed promising, and were yet contradictory.

No doubt the watch to be set on the Countess might lead to something yet—­something to bring first plausible suspicion to a triumphant issue; but the examination of the other occupants of the car should not be allowed to slacken on that account.  The Countess might have some confederate among them—­this pestilent English General, perhaps, who had made himself so conspicuous in her defence; or some one of them might throw light upon her movements, upon her conduct during the journey.

Then, with a spasm of self-reproach, M. Flocon remembered that two distinct suggestions had been made to him by two of the travellers, and that, so far, he had neglected them.  One was the significant hint from the Italian that he could materially help the inquiry.  The other was the General’s sneering assertion that the train had not continued its journey uninterruptedly between Laroche and Paris.

Consulting the Judge, and laying these facts before him, it was agreed that the Italian’s offer seemed the most important, and he was accordingly called in next.

“Who and what are you?” asked the Judge, carelessly, but the answer roused him at once to intense interest, and he could not quite resist a glance of reproach at M. Flocon.