As he held his candle aloft at arm’s length in order to see me, his cranium appeared to me to resemble a little moon, in that vast chamber, encumbered with old furniture.  His features were wrinkled and blown, and his eyes could not be seen.

I bought three chairs which belonged to myself, and paid at once a large sum for them, giving him merely the number of my room at the hotel.  They were to be delivered the next day before nine o’clock.

I then started off.  He conducted me, with much politeness, as far as the door.

I immediately repaired to the commissaire’s office at the central police depot, and I told the commissaire of the robbery which had been perpetrated and of the discovery I had just made.  He required time to communicate by telegraph with the authorities who had originally charge of the case, for information, and he begged me to wait in his office until an answer came back.  An hour later, an answer came back, which was in accord with my statements.

“I am going to arrest and interrogate this man at once,” he said to me, “for he may have conceived some sort of suspicion, and smuggled away out of sight what belongs to you.  Will you go and dine and return in two hours:  I shall then have the man here, and I shall subject him to a fresh interrogation in your presence.”

“Most gladly, monsieur.  I thank you with my whole heart.”

I went to dine at my hotel and I ate better than I could have believed.  I was quite happy now; “that man was in the hands of the police,” I thought.

Two hours later I returned to the office of the police functionary, who was waiting for me.

“Well, monsieur,” said he, on perceiving me, “we have not been able to find your man.  My agents cannot put their hands on him.”

Ah!  I felt myself sinking.

“But ... you have at least found his house?” I asked.

“Yes, certainly; and what is more, it is now being watched and guarded until his return.  As for him, he has disappeared.”

“Disappeared?”

“Yes, disappeared.  He ordinarily passes his evenings at the house of a female neighbor, who is also a furniture broker, a queer sort of sorceress, the widow Bidoin.  She has not seen him this evening and cannot give any information in regard to him.  We must wait until to-morrow.”

I went away.  Ah! how sinister the streets of Rouen seemed to me, now troubled and haunted!

I slept so badly that I had a fit of nightmare every time I went off to sleep.

As I did not wish to appear too restless or eager, I waited till 10 o’clock the next day before reporting myself to the police.

The merchant had not reappeared.  His shop remained closed.

The commissary said to me: 

“I have taken all the necessary steps.  The court has been made acquainted with the affair.  We shall go together to that shop and have it opened, and you shall point out to me all that belongs to you.”