All our energies were bent for the next two weeks on trying to find
something of the identity of the missing man, or to get any trace of
the two Americans. If the tall American were alive, it seemed
incredible that he should not have made application for the valuable
property he had lost. All attempts to trace him by means of the cheque
on the Credit-Lyonnais proved futile. The bank pretended to give me
every assistance, but I sometimes doubt if it actually did so. It had
evidently been well paid for its services, and evinced no impetuous
desire to betray so good a customer.
We made inquiries about every missing man in Paris, but also without
result.
The case had excited much attention throughout the world, and
doubtless was published in full in the American papers. The Englishman
had been in custody three weeks when the chief of police in Paris
received the following letter:--
'DEAR SIR,--On my arrival in New York by the English steamer
_Lucania_, I was much amused to read in the papers accounts of the
exploits of detectives, French and English. I am sorry that only one
of them seems to be in prison; I think his French _confrere_ ought to
be there also. I regret exceedingly, however, that there is the rumour
of the death by drowning of my friend Martin Dubois, of 375 Rue aux
Juifs, Rouen.
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