"But that is a splendid description!" cried Delcassé. "What more did you want?"
"Ah, sir," replied Crochard, "if it had been some of my friends, they would have managed to meet this man; they would have engaged him in conversation, have discovered his business and place of abode; instead of which, this friend in question merely sits at the door of his cabaret and watches the man pass! He was not doing his duty—but he will not make such a mistake again!"
"His duty?" echoed Delcassé. "His duty to whom?"
"His duty to me," replied Crochard.
"But I do not understand," said the Minister, more and more amazed. "Why should your friends have any such duty to you?"
Crochard hesitated. Lépine's face was fairly saturnine.
"I cannot explain that to you now, sir," said Crochard, finally. "I can only say that it is part of a system which has existed for a very long time, and of which I now happen to be the head."
Delcassé pondered this for a moment, his eyes on Crochard's face. Then he turned to Lépine.
"You must learn more of this stranger, Lépine," he said. "You, also, are at the head of a system—and a very expensive one."
"Yes, and a good one, sir," said Lépine, quickly. "One which is worth all it costs. But men will not work for money as they do for self-interest; and then, my system is a mere infant beside that of our friend here, which must be at least two hundred years old."