"I have already forgotten them," said Lépine.
Delcassé had listened to this interchange with smiling lips.
"Magnificent!" he cried. "I shall remember this scene all my life. And now to work!"
"First," said Lépine, "permit me to inquire of Inspector Pigot how it happened that neither he nor his men heard anything of these two strangers?"
Pigot flushed darkly and opened his lips to defend himself, but Crochard silenced him with a little gesture.
"I can explain that," he said. "Pigot is not a genius, it is true, but neither is he quite a fool, and I should grieve to see him blamed for something not his fault. I was careful to warn my friend to repeat his story to no one. That, I think, was the wisest course. Those men must not know that we suspect them."
Delcassé nodded.
"You are right," he agreed. "Are you possessed of any further information?"
"I had only a few hours," Crochard apologised; "but I did what I could. I learned that two men resembling these, and undoubtedly the same, had been staying since Friday at the Hotel du Nord. The proprietor of that house informed me that they left before daybreak this morning to walk to Frejus."
"Ah, then," began Delcassé.