"It couldn't have been better arranged for the thieves," he declared. "If only I had stayed in my room--!"
"If you had, it might possibly have been worse--mightn't it? The burglar--or burglars--knew precisely the location of the safe. They were coming to my room, and if they had found me awake ... I think it quite possible, my friend, that your appetite for cigarettes may have saved my life."
"There's consolation in that," he confessed--"if it's any to you, who have lost so much."
"But perhaps I shall get my jewellery back."
"What makes you think that?"
"There's always the chance, isn't there? And I believe I have a clue, as they call it, an indefinite one but something to work from, perhaps."
"What is that?"
"It seems to me it must have been what the police at home call 'an inside job'; because whoever it was apparently knew the combination of the safe."
"You mean it wasn't broken open. That signifies nothing. I've never seen yours, but I know something about safes, and I'll undertake to open it without the combination within ten minutes."
"You, Monsieur Duchemin?"