'
'What was its number?'
'I don't know, sir.'
'You clod! Why didn't you call one of our men, whoever was nearest,
and leave him to shadow the American while you followed the cab?'
'I did shout to the nearest man, sir, but he said you told him to stay
there and watch the English lord, and even before he had spoken both
American and cabman were out of sight.'
'Was the man to whom he gave the box an American also?'
'No, sir, he was French.'
'How do you know?'
'By his appearance and the words he spoke.'
'I thought you said he didn't speak.'
'He did not speak to the American, sir, but he said to the cabman,
"Drive to the Madeleine as quickly as you can."'
'Describe the man.'
'He was a head shorter than the American, wore a black beard and
moustache rather neatly trimmed, and seemed to be a superior sort of
artisan.'
'You did not take the number of the cab. Should you know the cabman if
you saw him again?'
'Yes, sir, I think so.'
Taking this fellow with me I returned to the now nearly empty auction
room and there gathered all my men about me. Each in his notebook
took down particulars of the cabman and his passenger from the lips of
my incompetent spy; next I dictated a full description of the two
Americans, then scattered my men to the various railway stations of
the lines leading out of Paris, with orders to make inquiries of the
police on duty there, and to arrest one or more of the four persons
described should they be so fortunate as to find any of them.
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