"We don't know such a person; we haven't seen any one answering the
description you give of him."
Any other answer would have astonished Lecoq, so strongly persuaded was
he that the prisoner had only mentioned the circumstances of a trunk
left at one of these hotels in order to give a semblance of truth to his
narrative. Nevertheless he continued his investigation. If he noted down
in his memorandum book the names of all the hotels which he visited, it
was with a view of making sure of the prisoner's discomfiture when he
was conducted to the neighborhood and asked to prove the truth of his
story.
Eventually, Lecoq reached the Hotel de Mariembourg, at the corner of
the Rue St. Quentin. The house was of modest proportions; but seemed
respectable and well kept. Lecoq pushed open the glass door leading into
the vestibule, and entered the office--a neat, brightly lighted room,
where he found a woman standing upon a chair, her face on a level with
a large bird cage, covered with a piece of black silk. She was repeating
three or four German words with great earnestness to the inmate of the
cage, and was so engrossed in this occupation that Lecoq had to make
considerable noise before he could attract her attention.
At length she turned her head, and the young detective exclaimed: "Ah!
good evening, madame; you are much interested, I see, in teaching your
parrot to talk."
"It isn't a parrot," replied the woman, who had not yet descended from
her perch; "but a starling, and I am trying to teach it to say 'Have you
breakfasted?' in German.
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