‘Yes, I suppose it must. I think I can give you that information, but it will take some time to get out.’
‘I’m sorry for giving you the trouble, but I see no other way. We shall have to follow up each of these casks until we find the right one.’
M. Thomas promised to put the work in hands without delay, and Burnley continued:—
‘There is another point. Could you tell me something about your dealings with M. Raoul Boirac, of the Avenue de l’Alma, and particularly of any recent sales you made him?’
‘M. Boirac? Certainly. He is a very good customer of ours and a really well-informed amateur. For the last six years, since I was appointed manager here, we must have sold him thirty or forty thousand francs worth of stuff. Every month or two he would drop in, take a look round, and select some really good piece. We always advised him of anything new we came across and as often as not he became a purchaser. Of recent sales,’ M. Thomas consulted some papers, ‘the last thing we sold him was, curiously enough, the companion piece of that ordered by Felix. It was a marble group of three female figures, two standing and one seated. It was ordered on the 25th of March, and sent out on the 27th.’
‘Was it sent in a cask?’
‘It was. We always use the same packing.’
‘And has the cask been returned?’
M. Thomas rang for a clerk and asked for some other papers.
‘Yes,’ he said, when he had looked over them, ‘the cask sent to M. Boirac on the 27th of last month was returned here on the 1st instant.’