He doesn't remain idle. If we are working, he's at work too. No
matter what side I turn, I find him on the defensive. He foiled you,
papa, in your effort to obtain a clue concerning Gustave's identity; and
he made me appear a fool in arranging that little comedy at the Hotel de
Mariembourg. His diligence has been wonderful. He has hitherto been in
advance of us everywhere, and this fact explains the failures that have
attended all my efforts. Here we arrive before him. But if he came here,
it was because he scented danger. Hence, we may hope. Now let us get
back and question Polyte's wife."
Alas! poor Toinon the Virtuous did not understand the affair at all. She
had remained upstairs, holding her child by the hand, and leaning over
the baluster; her mind in great perplexity and her eyes and ears on the
alert. As soon as she perceived the two detectives coming up the stairs
again, she hastened down to meet them. "In the name of heaven, what does
this all mean?" she asked. "Whatever has happened?"
But Lecoq was not the man to tell his business on a landing, with
inquisitive ears all around him, and before he answered Toinon he made
her go up into her own garret, and securely close the door.
"We started in pursuit of a man who is implicated in the murders at the
Poivriere," he said; "one who came here hoping to find you alone, who
was frightened at seeing us."
"A murderer!" faltered Toinon, with clasped hands. "What could he want
of me?"
"Who knows? It is very probable that he is one of your husband's
friends.
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