The Washington herald., 1912-12-08
THE MINISTER OF POLICE s5s.n.2.s.5
By HENRY MOUNTJOY

"How many agents have you at
work." asked De Sartines, ascending
the stairs, as though the house were
quite familiar to MIN, as indeed it
was.
Three. Monsieur"
Good" said De Sartines, opening the
door of the boudoir. You can go and
help them, and at the least sign of
danger give me warning. There IS
back way leading into the Rue Mar
tell"
"Yes, Monsieur and I have stationed
agents at the end of the Rue Peysette,
and both ends OF the Rue Cog Heron,
to give us news should madame re-
turn. They know her carriage.
How are they 10 give warning?
by blast OF whistle, Monsieur !
Good A blast on a whistle, but
seems to me that the Rue Peysette is
long. and the Rue Cog Heron not
! short; at that distance"
"Oh, Monsieur" said Blanc, with
the satisfied air of a man who has
foTeseen everything, ''one OF the top
/ windows is open, and at that window /
! have placed Valmajour, who has the
! ears of hound, and who could pick
! out the police whistles from all the
noises in Paris, even though they were
blown at twice that distance"
You have done your business well"
said De Sartines, as he entered the bou-
doir OF Madame Linden, while Blanc,
J delighted at this praise from a master
who rarely praised, hurried downstairs
to superintend the doings Of his subor-
! dinates
| DE Sartines. when he entered the
! boudoir. stood for a moment glancing
about him as though he wished to sur
! prise the spirit OF the place He noted
the bureau in one corner, the flowers
| in the vase between the windows, the
! ornaments upon the mantel, a fan that
/ had been cast and forgotten upon the
! iauteuil. He was a past master in the
( game OF hide-and-seek. and had Mad
| anne Linden been a man he would have
directed his search toward carpet
! edges; he would have investigated the
| cfrtains, all those places where a man
might secret documents OF a Compro-
/ missing nature; but he knew the in
! stInct OF woman for a lock and key;
we're papers to be found here they
! would be found most probably in some
| secret drawer of the bureau. so he
| turned to it first He had all the inpie-
menis for scientific lock-picking in his
| pocket, hut no use for them. as he
found. to his disgust, that all the
| drawers were open
There were four drawers to the bu-
reau Three were empty. and one was
half filled with old letters and docu-
ments
He removed the three empty drawers
/ frst. a-d y Ilh the TapIdItv and science
OF a skilled cabinet-maker examined
/ them and the spaces ne had drawn
| them from the secret caches; then he
, replaced them without finding what he
| sought. and did the same to The fourth
| drawer. with like result. He exam
| ned the pigeonholes. and Nth a little
tape which he took from his pocket
measured their depth. contrasting them
with the depth OF the bureau. and all
! with such lightning-like rapidity that
in less than fve minutes he knew the
thing as we'll as though he had made ii,
and could say with scientific ccrtitude.
There is no secret repository here.
no cache for anything bigger than a
wafer"
Then this man Of many paris. Cour-
/ tier. politician. maker OF epigrams,
with the swiftness OF a clerk in his Of
! fetal bureau. and the dexterity OF a
conjurer. began to read and examine
| the papers in the last drawer in such a
manner that when he had finished not
one would be ont OF place.
There were bills. receipted and un-
reccipted letters. chiefly from women
friends in Vienna; letters from men.
love-lettcrs dated three wears back. a
ballad against himself-De Sartines-
and host ni other papers, all unirl-
portant The last letter he opened
was from a mlliner. and it contained
| pattcrn-a tiny snippet OF gray ma
terial, triangular. and scarcely an inch
long. He was glancing at the letter
when a sharp tap came to the door,
and Blanc appeared
Monsieur. madame is arriving. The
signal has been given"
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT SUNDAY
Method,