Lecoq made no reply; the driver was pulling up; they had reached their destination.

On seeing her obstinate questioner reappear, accompanied by the commissary, Madame Milner seemed to understand everything.

“Good heavens!” she exclaimed, “a detective!  I might have guessed it!  Some crime has been committed; and now my hotel has lost its reputation forever!”

While a messenger was despatched for a locksmith, the commissary endeavored to reassure and console her, a task of no little difficulty, and which he was some time in accomplishing.

At last they all went up to the missing man’s room, and Lecoq sprang toward the trunk.  Ah! there was no denying it.  It had, indeed, come from Leipsic; as the labels pasted upon it by the different railroad companies only too plainly proved.  On being opened, it was, moreover, found to contain the various articles mentioned by the prisoner.

Lecoq was thunderstruck.  When he had seen the commissary lock the trunk and its contents up in a cupboard and take possession of the key, he felt he could endure nothing more.  He left the room with downcast head; and stumbled like a drunken man as he went down the stairs.

XV

Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday, was very gay that year; that is to say, all places of public resort were crowded.  When Lecoq left the Hotel de Mariembourg about midnight, the streets were as full as if it had been noonday, and the cafes were thronged with customers.

But the young detective had no heart for pleasure.  He mingled with the crowd without seemingly seeing it, and jostled against groups of people chatting at the corners, without hearing the imprecations occasioned by his awkwardness.  Where was he going?  He had no idea.  He walked aimlessly, more disconsolate and desperate than the gambler who had staked his last hope with his last louis, and lost.

“I must yield,” he murmured; “this evidence is conclusive.  My presumptions were only chimeras; my deductions the playthings of chance!  All I can now do is to withdraw, with the least possible damage and ridicule, from the false position I have assumed.”

Just as he reached the boulevard, however, a new idea entered his brain, an idea of so startling a kind that he could scarcely restrain a loud exclamation of surprise.  “What a fool I am!” cried he, striking his hand violently against his forehead.  “Is it possible to be so strong in theory, and yet so ridiculously weak in practise?  Ah!  I am only a child, a mere novice, disheartened by the slightest obstacle.  I meet with a difficulty, and at once I lose all my courage.  Now, let me reflect calmly.  What did I tell the judge about this murderer, whose plan of defense so puzzles us?  Did I not tell him that we had to deal with a man of superior talent—­with a man of consummate penetration and experience—­a bold, courageous fellow of imperturbable coolness, who will do anything