"Reasonably so. Can you spare Vernet for the day? He is a good man."
"One of my best. You shall have him. And if you succeed, I shall still regard myself the loser, and will buy the champagne, and the dinner at the Café Royale, as I agreed."
"And I shall be most happy to do the same should I fail. Oblige me by requesting Vernet to come to my rooms at the hotel at once. Good by."
Duvall hung up the receiver, and sat down with the drawings he had made before him. He awaited the coming of Vernet with impatience.
The latter appeared in some twenty minutes.
"What can I do for you, Monsieur Duvall?" he asked.
"Good morning, Vernet. Sit down, and have a cigar. I have a little matter I wish to talk over with you."
"Concerning the missing child of Monsieur Stapleton, I understand," remarked Vernet, as he lit a cigar and drew his chair up to the table. He glanced at the drawings before him. "What are these, may I ask?"
Duvall took up his pencil. "This, Vernet, is a map of a small part of Paris. Here, as you see, is the Avenue Kleber, terminating at the Champs Élysées just in front of the Arc de Triomphe."
"I see. It is quite plain."