“Yes, he will have informed the marquis. And where is the marquis himself?”
“At home. And, from what the Growler has heard, there is nothing suspicious there either.”
“Are they certain that he has not been inside Daubrecq’s house?”
“As certain as they can be.”
“Nor Daubrecq?”
“Nor Daubrecq.”
“Have you seen Prasville?”
“Prasville is away on leave. But Chief-inspector Blanchon, who has charge of the case, and the detectives who are guarding the house declare that, in accordance with Prasville’s instructions, their watch is not relaxed for a moment, even at night; that one of them, turn and turn about, is always on duty in the study; and that no one, therefore, can have gone in.”
“So, on principle,” Arsène Lupin concluded, “the crystal stopper must still be in Daubrecq’s study?”
“If it was there before Daubrecq’s disappearance, it should be there now.”