The Havre herald. [volume] (Havre, Mont.) 1904-1908, 1908-05-27
CHAPTER XIII.

The man In charge OF the apartment
house at No. 20 Rue de Santin was a
short, dumpy man, Of the name Of Gug-
hatoff. Though he spoke French fluent
~, even with the accent Of a native, his
hiah Tartar cheek bones, his oblique
eyes, and gutteral information when unduly
excited, sufficiently attested his Russian
origin.
In Gughatof, the Russian, M. Cas-
sagne found he had far more difficult
person to deal with than the little laun-
Aress, plant by reason Of her excessive
greed. With GughatoR, whose political
opinions now constituted his whole life
motive, mere gain was secondary con-
sideration. He devoted all his spare time,
which was considerable, as his wife did
most of the work, to the discussion of
politics. He was one of those men of
whom people say He would sooner talk
politics than eat"
The Partisan detective now felt that
while his progress so far had been salts
factory, the greatest caution on his part
was necessary. He had seen the most
likely cases ruined by too hasty conduct. {:
He did not suffer himself to be unduly
elated by the extremely satisfactory out
come Of hds interview with Nine. Beau
santin. He went about his work with the
greatest elaboration. A man less a mas
ter of his difficult profession would have
at once excited suspicion, which would
have resulted in the Russians closing
his mouth forever. NJ. Cassagne avoided
this fatal error by the very elaboration
,.xxsAA ~-rhioS1 h~ ~x,ap+ ohoy,+ h{r EJ;u
first step was to find out the kind of man
he had to deal with. In two days. he
had possessed himself of all necessary
information. On the third he continued
to ingratiate himself with the janitor, in
regard to whose antecedents and pecu-
harities he had been so careful to make
himself acquainted.
On the fifth day the morning train bore
the detective away from Blois, the richer
for some very important information. He
had shown the portrait in the locket to
Gughatof, and the concierge, like Nine.
Beausantin, had declared it to be the
portrait of the American Henry Graham.
In addition he had actually persuaded
entertaining in Henry Graham a spy of
the Russian government; that he, Cas-
sagne, belonged to a friendly circle of
French cooperative Nihilists having its
headquarters In Paris; that Graham had
been at one time a member of the circle
and that he was about to betray his late
comrades. Gughatoff, to whom a spy
was as a red rag to a BULL had greedily
swallowed this remarkable fairy tale OF
the detectives, especially when the latter
had produced skillfully prepared docu
ment In Russian which not only com
mended him to the Offices of all good Nj
hilists, but even gave distinct account
of the object of his mission and infinitely
described his person for purposes of iden
tification.
True, Cassagne was the author himselt
OF this useful paper and had forwarded II
two days previously to D'Auburon In
Paris, where It had been translated into
Russian before being returned to Blois
But happily the concierge was ignorant
OF this deceit, and the plan had therefore
succeeded perfectly. Burning with hatred
for the supposed spy, Gughstoff had told
ill he knew OF his late guest, which was
as follows:
Henry Graham had resided IN Blois
some six or seven years, during which
time he had had correspondence with two