The Prescott daily news., 1910-03-22

part so well that the woman consent ed to take me In as a boarder. For weeks 1t was waiting game. I would go away on peddling tour and the,. come back as boarder Nothing devel- oped, but l could not get rid of the feeling that my man was somewhere near in the woods"
 "One of your iAtu;tionS. Uell?"
 "Well, at last the woman became convinced that they had nothing to fear from me, and she did things more openly. One day I saw her put some food in a basket and give 1t to the lit tie girl. And the little girl went off with the basket into the forest Then knew I was right. and the next day 1 followed the little girl, and, sure enough, she led me to a rough cave where her father was hiding. l hung about there for an hour or two, and finally the man came out from the cave, and 1 saw him talk to his wife and child near a bridge over noun tain torrent"
 "The picture that girl saw in the dreamw
 "Yes; I'll never forget it. 1 had my pistol ready, and he was defenseless, and once I was just springing forward and kissed his little girl don't know how you look at these things, Pou- 1 geot but I couldn't break in there and take that man away from his wife and child. The woman had been kind to me and trusted me, and-well, it was a breach of duty, and they punished me for it. But l couldn't do 1t. ! couldn't do it, and didn't do it." ! And you let the fellow go?''
 q let him go then, but got him a week later in fair fight, man to man. They gave him ten years"
 And discharged you from the force?"
 "Yes-that is, in view of my past | services they allowed me to resign" 1 Coquenil spoke bitterly.
 Outrageous! Unbelievablew nut | tered Pougeot
 Coquenil looked at Pougeot with an | odd little smile. You take it just as I thought you would-just as I took it | myself until today. It seems like a stupid blunder, doesn't it? We'll. it | wasn't a blunder; it was a necessary move in the game"
 "The game What game?" The commissary stared.
 "A game involving great crime" "You have the facts of this crime?" "No; 1t hasn't been committed yet" [ Not committed yeti" repeated the 1 other, with a startled glance. But you know the plan? You have evidenceY
 "I have what is perfectly clear evi- dence to me-so clear that l wonder never saw it before. Lucien, suppose you were a great criminal, wealthy, educated, daring and resourceful. and | suppose there was one person in this city who was thwarting your pur- poses, perhaps jeopardizing your safe | ty. What would you naturally do?"
 I'd try to get rid of him."
 Exactly" Coquenil paused, and | then, leaning closer to his friend, he said with extraordinary earnesrness, 'Lucien. for over two years some one 1 has been trying to get rid of mel
 "The devil." started Pougeot. How long have you known thisY"
 "Only today" drowned the detective. 'I ought to have known it long ago"
 "Hm, Aren't you building good deal on that dream|
 "The dream? Heavens, man." snap ped Coquenil. I'm building nothing on the dream and nothing on the girl. | She simply brought together two facts that belong together. Why she did 1t doesn't natter she did it. and my req son did the rest. There is connec- tion between this Rio de Janeiro offer and my discharge from the force. l know it. I'll show you other links in the chain. Three times in the past two years l have received offers or business positions away from Paris. tempting offers. Notice that-business positions away from Paris! Some one has extraordinary reasons for wanting me out of this city and out of detec- tive work"
 And you think this some one was responsible for your discharge from the force?"
 q tell you I know it. M. Giroux, the chief at that time, was distressed at the order-he told me so himself;