"Three days ago we received a telegram which said:
"'A very dangerous man. Wanted by the police. Letters follows.'
"At once de Chagny came to a decision and the day before yesterday, in the morning, he telephoned to the police. When the inspector arrived, he was too late. D'Estreicher had fled."
"Doubtless through the window of a pantry which looks down on the ravine?" said Dorothy.
"Yes, and down a fissure in the face of the cliff. How did you know?"
"It was the way Saint-Quentin and I took to get at d'Estreicher."
And forthwith, cutting short any questions, she added:
"Well, what was the information you got about him?"
"Extremely serious. Antoine d'Estreicher, formerly a naval officer, was dismissed the service for theft. Later, prosecuted for being an accomplice in a case of murder, he was released for lack of evidence. At the beginning of the war he deserted. Evidence of it has come to hand and a fortnight ago an inquiry into the matter was begun. During the war he borrowed the personality of one of his relations, who had been dead some years; and it is actually under his new name of Maxime d'Estreicher that the police are hunting for him."
"What a pity! A scoundrel like that! To have him in one's hands and let him go!"