"I was in some doubt as to whether such a stateroom was available, as this is the busy season; but on reference to our list, I found that there was such a stateroom. A customer to whom we had sold it had just called at the office, saying that he would not be able to sail, and leaving his tickets with us to resell, if possible. When I told the man of this, he seemed very pleased, took the tickets, and gave me the seven hundred-franc notes. My attention was called to them because they were quite new and unfolded. He took them from a long envelope which he carried in an inner pocket, and which seemed to contain a large sum of money."
"Do you remember the number of the stateroom?"
The clerk spread out before Lépine a cabin-plan of the ship.
"It was this one, sir," he said, and placed his finger on 514; "an inner room, you see, on the upper deck."
"You asked the man's name, I suppose?"
"Oh, yes, sir. I caused him to fill out the usual blank. Here it is."
Lépine took the blank and looked it over. It stated that stateroom No. 514, on the Prinzsessin Ottilie, for the sailing of September 27, two berths, second-class, had been purchased of Thomas Cook & Son by Ignace Vard, of New York City, the berths to be used by himself and his daughter; and that he had paid for these berths the sum of six hundred and forty francs, being payment in full, the receipt of which was acknowledged. The blank also stated that Mr. Vard was a naturalised citizen of the United States, and had lived in that country for ten years.
"The sailing was from Cherbourg?" Lépine inquired, when he had assimilated all this.
"Yes, sir."
"At what hour?"