But Yvette placed implicit trust in Charetier. She was sure that the mysterious meeting would be held at the appointed hour.
They crept silently to the rear of the building, cautiously forced a way through the crazy fence, and a moment later were outside the window of the room which Charetier had indicated as the meeting-place.
Crouching beneath the window they listened intently. They were safe enough except for some unforeseeable accident.
There was no sound in the room; no glimmer of light through the shutters.
Jules took from his pocket a tiny drill which speedily and silently bit a half-inch hole through the rotting woodwork of the window. Into this he thrust a plug which at the end bore an extremely delicate microphone receiver. With telephones at their ears they listened intently. Not a word would be uttered in the room without their knowledge. They could see nothing, but if anything was whispered they would certainly hear it.
The minutes dragged slowly past until just before three o’clock a slight sound caught Jules’ attention. Some one had entered the room. A moment later came the rasp of a match being struck.
Three o’clock boomed from a distant church dock. Footsteps echoed inside. The meeting was assembling!
How they longed to see into that room of mystery! But that was impossible; they must rely upon the microphone alone for all the information they could obtain. Jules’ hand sought Yvette’s wrist, and in the Morse code he tapped out with his fingers—he dared not speak—a caution to listen acutely. Their only hope of identifying the criminals was by their voices.
They could see nothing. They could not even tell how many people there were in the room. But the mutter of conversation in varying tones came dearly to their ears. It consisted mainly, as they expected, of fierce denunciation of Monsieur le Préfet of Police, whom they named “the Assassin.”
Soon it became clear that the meeting had been called solely to settle the time and place of the attack; evidently the method had been decided upon earlier. Not a single word could the listeners catch of how the attack was to be carried out, whether by bomb, or bullet, or knife. Little did they guess the secret and deadly swiftness of the anarchists’ plan.