Panting for breath, the lady exclaimed:
“Arsène Lupin.... he attacked us.... he stole my jewels....I am Madame Renaud.... my husband is a director of the penitentiary service....Ah! here is my brother, Georges Ardelle, director of the Crédit Rouennais.... you must know....”
She embraced a young man who had just joined us, and whom the commissary saluted. Then she continued, weeping:
“Yes, Arsène Lupin.... while monsieur was sleeping, he seized him by the throat....Mon. Berlat, a friend of my husband.”
The commissary asked:
“But where is Arsène Lupin?”
“He leaped from the train, when passing through the tunnel.”
“Are you sure that it was he?”
“Am I sure! I recognized him perfectly. Besides, he was seen at the Saint-Lazare station. He wore a soft hat—-”
“No, a hard felt, like that,” said the commissary, pointing to my hat.