"Have you seen him? Have you noticed anything?"
"Yes, the other day two men passed several times in the street and stopped in front of the house."
"Can you describe them?"
"I saw one of them better than the other. He was tall and powerful, clean-shaven and wore a little black cloth jacket, cut quite short."
"A waiter at a café, perhaps?"
"Yes, a head-waiter. I had him followed by one of my servants. He went down the Rue de la Pompe and entered a common-looking house. The ground-floor is occupied by a wine-shop: it is the first house in the street, on the left. Then, a night or two ago, I saw a shadow in the garden from my bedroom window."
"Is that all?"
"Yes."
He thought and then made a suggestion:
"Would you allow two of my men to sleep downstairs, in one of the ground-floor rooms?"