The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-01-14

little Of HIS antecedsnts fact which ha,
no doubt had its influence in deciding tn
Chief in favor Of an investigation.
4 "In my unavoidable absence, at the las
moment, Falliex, to whom all the detail
4 of the affair must have been well known
was directed to swat the arrival Of tn
supposed Thompsonne by the express a
nine O'Clock, and in the event of my still
nos having appeared, to aer that individu
al quietly wherever he might go, our oh
tect being to make the acquaintance o
any confederates Thompsonne might hav
in Paris, you understand. I reached tn,
Care justas Monsieur Langley was driving
away to the Grand Hotel. Once there, /
as you will doubtless recollect, left Fallie1
outside the supposed Thompsonne's room
4 entered it myself, and arrested Monsieur
4 Langley deplorable error, for which
have only forgiven myself since yester
day.
"Convinced by Monsieur Lucinghan
shortly afterward of this error, you will
also recolleet signed to my aide that he
might withdraw. Which he did in the
most tranquil manner possible, carrying
| off with him the red portefeuille and the
| fifty thousand francs of Monsieur Langley
with him. When, next day, informed
him of the f1sco and the way in which
our supposed fdiscur had himself been
| robbed. ft pleased Monsieur Falleix to lift
! his shoulders in his customary silent
fashion, and to smile disagreeably in my
face. remembered that smile when the
| notion that Monsieur Falleix, and none
but he, was the robber, began to grow
upon me. He had had time to dispose of
his plunder, and had evidently so disposed
of it as to feel quite safe.
Glow? Where! Questions had to
answer, and questions very difficult to
answer; for the way in which he had
planned and performed this coup proved
Monsieur Falleix at once to be q person
| of profound ability, who would never
have forgotten to take into his calcula-
tions the possibility, at any rate, of his
being suspected and watched, as meant
he should be.
"No; Monsieur Langley's red porte
| feuille,-I was of opinion, by the by, that
the portefeuille itself had not been de-
stroyed, either because Fslleix would con-
slider its destruction immaterial when it
was no longer liable to be found in his
possession, or because he had had no
means of destroying it safely forthwith,
and had been too prudent to keep it about
him I'LL he should have had these MEANS -
Monsieur Langley's portefeuille, | say,
and its contents, the proof OF Fallei1's
guilt and the correctness of my the.
ory, were only to be discovered
through Falleix's impatlence or impru-
dence. Only this could give me clew;
/ Il g ,-yhn
began to live, as it were, under glass;
the minutest action, the most trifiing incl
dents Of whose life were all henceforth
known to me, seemed to have determined
l should wait for eternally. The closest
watch upon him brought to iight-abso,
lutely nothing. My Suspect continued
to conduct himself in the most unsuspi-
cious manner possible. This had anti
cipsted he had taken it for granted he
was surpeiEe, of course. But the Chief
grew, or appeared to grow incredulous.
was pushing my theory too far, he said
it was indsgne, this que diGUe
"'Was it? Was l mistaken? / did
not wonder they thought l was; but
never thought 50, somehow, myself. No;
Falleix was even stronger than l had
imagined; that was all
| I16 WAS pOOly ulioCAoOiy POoi, ohOhS )
us who are not rich. Miserably poor.
Yet could see on his debauchee's face
signs of the vices that are costly. Those
| fiffy thousand francs,-how could he resist
| the temptation of them! How could he
hold himself back from them any longer
Yet knew he had not spent sou !; yet l
doubted if he had even once allowed him.
self to ascertain If his treasure was still
safe. Marvellous selfdeniall What was
| he waiting for! A pretext to get quit OF
us, and beyond our reach. Never beyond
| mine, used sometimes to say to myself,
if he went to.the end of the world.
al think he knew this. l think he
must have known the incessant, terrible
esaonn01s he was subjected to. But he
bors it, and 80 he baffled it; his patience
was proof against it, and he made no
sign.
"There are those who declared at last
that he was innocent Three months had
passed; this was the sole result had
obtained. But my conviction OF his guilt
was strong as ever.
"However, there must be an end of
this, the Chief declared Falleix must be
| released from surveillance. As for me, l
thought it advisable to anticipate events
by rendering my resignation at once.
:" The Chief smiled and shook his head.
a'" Not yet" he said.
""But since it appears that I am
wrong" 49,, =
not then understand me?"
"At last did. The Chiefs idea was
simple enough. "Falleix," he reasoned,
"has been perfectly aware of the watch
we have kept upon him, and 80 has taken
very good care to avoid betraying himself.
When he finds he is no longer file, he will
conclude he is no longer suspected: And
then-well, then, you see, he may be less
careful So withdraw useless surVeli-
lance, and-I leave the rest to you"
"The next day it was reported at the
Prefecture that had been sent on special
service across the Channel. But that day,
and every day, in one disguise or another,
I dogged my man about Paris, patiently,
ruthlessly, as hound follows a trail In
vain, however; in vain always.
Had he recognized me? felt sure
he had not Was he really guilty after all?
Yes; thousand times yes. My instinct
if not my Judgment told me had not de-
ceived myself I stuck doggedly to the
trail Admit, though Messieurs. that this
affair was assuming hopeless aspect.
There appeared no limit to the time this
game of hide-snd-seek between US might
! kst.r --r.s4z z=
arI was thinking 30 two mornings ago
when, once more, my man-chase recon-
menced. In his usual listless fashion Fal.
leix was strolling along the Quais just suf.
| hciently ahead to be kept well in sight
| It seemed everybody's Dimanche but his
in his threadbare garments he looked more
miserably poverty stricken than ever
then. Surely, he must allow himself to
draw on the red portefeuille soon tried
to hope.
"All at once his listless mode of pro
erosion changed My fdnsvr began
walking like . man with some object in
view. I had to shorten the distance be-
| tween us
"sAcross the Place, across the Boule-
ward, where was he going so straight
To the station in the Rue d dAmsterdam, il
appeared presently. Tempted by the
sunshine, the poor devil wanted to
breathe little country air. Wheres
"He waited his turn at the bureau oi
the st. Germain line. His destination,
concluded, then, was Asnieres The
price of seat on the insperials to that ia
vored locality would hardly be beyond his
means. But no. He was going further
too far, it struck me. He must have beer
diDicile about the country air he breathed
for he asked for ticket for Chatou.
"'Dia5e! Why Chatou, when we were
30 poor that positively our whole available
capital could not compass the fare; an6
but for the compassionate official who con
| seysfad IN acces,t n littln hon uron the Pre-