“I merely want your permission to claim the candlesticks on behalf of his Eminence, without their passing through any hands, save yours and mine, and without all the formalities that usually attend the claiming of property found by the police.”
“But Madame Demidoff is for the time being the person from whom these candlesticks have been robbed, she might object to their being handed over to anyone save herself.”
“Madame Demidoff has declared before the magistrate that they are not her property,” replied Volenski. “I will communicate with her, as soon as I have your authorisation to do so, and you will find that she will be only too glad to hand over to me all responsibility in the matter.”
“That will be for her to decide,” rejoined the chief of the police drily, “we can discuss the matter later on; anyhow, I can promise you that I will communicate with you the moment the police have seized the missing articles.”
“They have not yet been found then?” asked Iván, breathlessly.
“They are not actually in our possession,” corrected the chief of the police.
“May I ask what that implies?” asked Volenski, whose parched lips and quivering nerves hardly enabled him to frame an intelligible query.
“It implies that we know where they are, and that we can lay our hands on them at any moment.”
“And——”
“Stay! let me explain,” added the polite baron kindly, as he noted Volenski’s eagerness. “The police are, as you know, well acquainted with the woman who was in the room with the thief at the time of the arrest, and who ran away through the window with a part of the booty. She is one of that class whom it is bon ton to designate as the ‘unfortunate.’ ”