At that moment, the telephone-bell rang. It was Jean Doudeville, speaking from the post-office at Garches. The conversation did not take long:
"Is that you, Jean? Any news?"
"Yes, chief, Major Parbury. . . ."
"Well?"
"We have found him. He has become a Spaniard and has darkened his skin. We have just seen him. He was entering the Garches free-school. He was received by that young lady . . . you know, the girl who knows Prince Sernine, Geneviève Ernemont."
"Thunder!"
M. Lenormand let go the receiver, made a grab at his hat, flew into the passage, met Dieuzy and the German, shouted to them to meet him in his office at six o'clock, rushed down the stairs, followed by Gourel and two inspectors whom he picked up on the way, and dived into a taxi-cab:
"Quick as you can to Garches . . . ten francs for yourself!"
He stopped the car a little before the Parc de Villeneuve, at the turn of the lane that led to the school. Jean Doudeville was waiting for him and at once exclaimed:
"He slipped away, ten minutes ago, by the other end of the lane."