"Madame has money?" went on the old hag in a half-threatening, half-coaxing whisper, as she came up quite close, and fastened on her victim like a bird of prey.
"If you mean that I am to bribe you-"
"Fie, the nasty word! But just a small present, a pretty gift, one or two yellow bits, twenty, thirty, forty francs-you'd better." She shook the soft arm she held roughly, and anything seemed preferable than to be touched by this horrible woman.
"Wait, wait!" cried the Countess, shivering all over, and, feeling hastily for her purse, she took out several napoleons.
"Aha! oho! One, two, three," said the searcher in a fat, wheedling voice. "Four, yes, four, five;" and she clinked the coins together in her palm, while a covetous light came into her faded eyes at the joyous sound. "Five-make it five at once, d'ye hear me?-or I'll call them in and tell them. That will go against you, my princess. What, try to bribe a poor old woman, Mother Tontaine, honest and incorruptible Tontaine? Five, then, five!"
With trembling haste the Countess emptied the whole contents of her purse in the old hag's hand.
"Bon aubaine. Nice pickings. It is a misery what they pay me here. I am, oh, so poor, and I have children, many babies. You will not tell them-the police-you dare not. No, no, no."
Thus muttering to herself, she shambled across the room to a corner, where she stowed the money safely away. Then she came back, showed the bit of lace, and pressed it into the Countess's hands.
"Do you know this, little one? Where it comes from, where there is much more? I was told to look for it, to search for it on you;" and with a quick gesture she lifted the edge of the Countess's skirt, dropping it next moment with a low, chuckling laugh.
"Oho! aha! You were right, my pretty, to pay me, my pretty-right. And some day, to-day, to-morrow, whenever I ask you, you will remember Mother Tontaine."
The Countess listened with dismay. What had she done? Put herself into the power of this greedy and unscrupulous old beldame?
"And this, my princess? What have we here, aha?"
Mere Tontaine held up next the broken bit of jet ornament for inspection, and as the Countess leaned forward to examine it more closely, gave it into her hand.
"You recognise it, of course. But be careful, my pretty! Beware! If any one were looking, it would ruin you. I could not save you then. Sh! say nothing, only look, and quick, give it me back. I must have it to show."
All this time the Countess was turning the jet over and over in her open palm, with a perplexed, disturbed, but hardly a terrified air.
Yes, she knew it, or thought she knew it. It had been- But how had it come here, into the possession of this base myrmidon of the French police?
"Give it me, quick!" There was a loud knock at the door. "They are coming. Remember!" Mother Tontaine put her long finger to her lip. "Not a word! I have found nothing, of course. Nothing, I can swear to that, and you will not forget Mother Tontaine?"
Now M. Flocon stood at the open door awaiting the searcher's report. He looked much disconcerted when the old woman took him on one side and briefly explained that the search had been altogether fruitless.
There was nothing to justify suspicion, nothing, so far as she could find.
The detective looked from one to the other-from the hag he had employed in this unpleasant quest, to the lady on whom it had been tried. The Countess, to his surprise, did not complain. He had expected further and strong upbraidings. Strange to say, she took it very quietly. There was no indignation in her face. She was still pale, and her hands trembled, but she said nothing, made no reference, at least, to what she had just gone through.
Again he took counsel with his colleague, while the Countess was kept apart.
"What next, M. Flocon?" asked the Judge. "What shall we do with her?"
"Let her go," answered the detective, briefly.
"What! do you suggest this, sir," said the Judge, slyly. "After your strong and well-grounded suspicions?"
"They are as strong as ever, stronger: and I feel sure I shall yet justify them. But what I wish now is to let her go at large, under surveillance."
"Ah! you would shadow her?"
"Precisely. By a good agent. Galipaud, for instance. He speaks English, and he can, if necessary, follow her anywhere, even to England."
"She can be extradited," said the Commissary, with his one prominent idea of arrest.
"Do you agree, M. le Juge? Then, if you will permit me, I will give the necessary orders, and perhaps you will inform the lady that she is free to leave the station?"
The Countess now had reason to change her opinion of the French officials. Great politeness now replaced the first severity that had been so cruel. She was told, with many bows and apologies, that her regretted but unavoidable detention was at an end. Not only was she freely allowed to depart, but she was escorted by both M. Flocon and the Commissary outside, to where an omnibus was in waiting, and all her baggage piled on top, even to the dressing-bag, which had been neatly repacked for her.
But the little silver-topped vial had not been restored to her, nor the handkerchief.
In her joy at her deliverance, either she had not given these a second thought, or she did not wish to appear anxious to recover them.
Nor did she notice that, as the bus passed through the gates at the bottom of the large slope that leads from the Lyons Station, it was followed at a discreet distance by a modest fiacre, which pulled up, eventually, outside the Hotel Madagascar. Its occupant, M. Galipaud, kept the Countess in sight, and, entering the hotel at her heels, waited till she had left the office, when he held a long conference with the proprietor.
CHAPTER VIII
A first stage in the inquiry had now been reached, with results that seemed promising, and were yet contradictory.
No doubt the watch to be set on the Countess might lead to something yet-something to bring first plausible suspicion to a triumphant issue; but the examination of the other occupants of the car should not be allowed to slacken on that account. The Countess might have some confederate among them-this pestilent English General, perhaps, who had made himself so conspicuous in her defence; or some one of them might throw light upon her movements, upon her conduct during the journey.
Then, with a spasm of self-reproach, M. Flocon remembered that two distinct suggestions had been made to him by two of the travellers, and that, so far, he had neglected them. One was the significant hint from the Italian that he could materially help the inquiry. The other was the General's sneering assertion that the train had not continued its journey uninterruptedly between Laroche and Paris.
Consulting the Judge, and laying these facts before him, it was agreed that the Italian's offer seemed the most important, and he was accordingly called in next.
"Who and what are you?" asked the Judge, carelessly, but the answer roused him at once to intense interest, and he could not quite resist a glance of reproach at M. Flocon.
"My name I have given you-Natale Ripaldi. I am a detective officer belonging to the Roman police."
"What!" cried M. Flocon, colouring deeply. "This is unheard of. Why in the name of all the devils have you withheld this most astonishing statement until now?"
"Monsieur surely remembers. I told him half an hour ago I had something important to communicate-"
"Yes, yes, of course. But why were you so reticent. Good Heavens!"