Again the detective bowed, and addressing the consul, said—
"When shall I next have the honour of waiting on you again, monsieur?"
"As soon as you have learned any thing you think of sufficient importance to tell me."
"At the consulate, of course?"
"Will it be safe for you to be seen there?"
"Monsieur, I stake my professional reputation that, when I call on you, you shall not recognise me till I choose to reveal myself. There is an extremely artful person mixed up in this affair, but I shall prove still more artful than any of them; take the word of Hocquart Clermont Delamarre."
With another bow the French detective made his exit.
He proceeded in the first place to his own temporary residence, where he made a considerable alteration in his personal appearance.
Then making straight for the quarter of the city mostly inhabited by the respectable working classes, he made a friendly call on Pierre Lenoir the coiner, who, as it will be remembered, the police had been unable to trace since his encounter with Herbert Murray and the waggoner.
A friendly call we have termed it, and so it seemed at first, for the detective and the criminal shook hands in the most friendly manner.