"Explain yourself!" he cried. "Who is the man?"
"His name is Crochard, sir," Pigot replied.
Delcassé evidently did not recognise the name, but Lépine's face was suddenly illumined.
"Crochard," he explained, "is the most adroit, the most daring, the most accomplished scoundrel with whom I have ever had to deal. Surely Monsieur remembers the affair of the Michaelovitch diamonds?"
"Ah, yes!" cried Delcassé, his face, too, lighting. "So that was Crochard!"
"Crochard the Invincible, he calls himself," growled Pigot. "He is a great braggart."
"And with some reason," added Lépine. "We have never yet been able to convict him."
"He restored the Mazarin diamond to the Louvre, did he not?" queried the Minister. "And also the Mona Lisa?"
"The Mazarin certainly," assented Lépine. "As for the Mona Lisa, I have never been quite certain. There is a rumour that the original is now owned by an American millionaire, and that the picture returned to the Louvre is only a copy—a wonderful one, it is true. Where did you meet him, Pigot?"
Pigot related the story of the meeting, while Delcassé listened thoughtfully.