“Carissimo!” I cried triumphantly. Then I added in a rapid whisper, “Mme. la Comtesse de Nolé is rich. She spoke of a big reward for the recovery of her pet.”
These happy words had the effect of stimulating the zeal of the gendarmes. Madame the proprietress grew somewhat confused and incoherent, and finally blurted it out that one of her lodgers—a highly respectable gentleman—did keep a dog, but that there was no crime in that surely.
“One of your lodgers?” queried the representative of the law. “When did he come?”
“About three days ago,” she replied sullenly.
“What room does he occupy?”
“Number twenty-five on the third floor.”
“He came with his dog?” I interposed quickly, “a spaniel?”
“Yes.”
“And your lodger, is he an ugly, slouchy creature—with hooked nose, bleary eyes and shaggy yellow hair?”
But to this she vouchsafed no reply.