“After him!  Run!  Fifty francs to whoever stops him!”

But Hyde had the heels of them.  He ran out and through a little courtyard at the back communicating with the street.  There he found a fiacre, into which he jumped, shouting to the cabman—­

“Drive on straight ahead!  A napoleon for yourself.”

In this way he distanced his pursuers, and half-an-hour later regained his hotel by a long detour.

Rather agitated and exhausted by the events of the morning, Hyde went upstairs to his own room to rest and review his situation.

“It is quite evident,” he said to himself, “that Cyprienne has tried to turn the tables on me.  I was too open with her.  It was incautious of me to show my hand so soon.  Of course the police have been set upon me—­the accused and still unjudged perpetrator of the crime in Tinplate Street—­by her.  But has she acted alone in this?

“I doubt it.  I doubt whether she would have come to Paris with that express purpose, or whether the police would have listened to her if she had.

“But who assisted her?  Some one from whom she has no secrets.  Were it not that such a woman is likely to have set up the closest relations with other miscreants in these past years, I should say that her agent and accomplice was Ledantec.  Ledantec is still alive; I know that, for I saw him myself on the field of the Alma, rifling the dead.

“Ledantec!  We have an old score to settle, he and I. What if he should be mixed up in this business that brings me to Paris?  It is quite likely.  That would explain his presence in the Crimea, which hitherto has seemed so strange.  I never could believe that so daring and unscrupulous a villain had degenerated into a camp-follower, hungry for plunder gained in the basest way.  It could not have been merely to prey upon the dead that he followed in the wake of our army.  Far more likely that he was a secret agent of the enemy.  If so then, so still, most probably.  What luck if these damaging clues that I hold should lead me also to him!

“But it is evident that I shall do very little if I continue to go about as Rupert Hyde.  The police are on the alert:  my movements would soon be interfered with, and, although I have no fear now of being unable to prove my innocence, arrest and detention of any kind might altogether spoil my game.

“I must assume some disguise, and to protect myself and my case I will do so with the full knowledge of the Embassy.  It will do if I go there within an hour.  By this evening at latest the police will certainly be here after Rupert Hyde.”

It must be mentioned here that the police of Paris are supposed to be acquainted with the names of all visitors residing in the city.  The rule may be occasionally relaxed, as now, but under the despotism of Napoleon III. it was enforced with a rigorous exactitude.

Hyde had been barely half-a-dozen hours in Paris, but already his name was inscribed upon the hotel-register awaiting the inspection of the police, who would undoubtedly call that same day to note all new arrivals.