Evening star., 1922-08-13

not turn. How, then, would this rob-
Der enter the marquis apartment?
| Again the marquis was able to give
Forneau an explanation.
| ''on the evening of the robbery it
was his intention to remain in his
apartment. He had dismissed his
valet and the servants and was alone.
Later he changed mis- mind and con-
| cluded to go out. Upon reflection he
; remembered that he did not entirely
close the door: but 1t was a thing
| which did not at the moment impress
! him. 1t was his habit always. of
course. to close the door. and he had
closed it. but upon returning for a
glove he had left the door ajar. This
he was afterward able to establish
because of a trivial incident. He re-
membered the glitter of the electric
light on the point of a gold frame
at the corner of the drawing -room
table. 1t caught his eye as he de-
| scended the steps. But 1t did not
impress him with the fact that he
had neglected entirely to close the
door. 1t impressed him merely as an
incident which he afterward remenl-
! bered. and he continued to descend.
CIT now occurred to Forneau that
this robbery had been committed
by some one Of the hotel thieves OF
Paris, who were accustomed to enter
any building which they were able to
get into and to search any apartment
! that they happened to find open. But
the marquis reminded Forneau that
the person committing this robbery
had brought with him a piece of pa
per from the basement: that mere
thieves entering on the chance Of
finding some valuables would not have
taken this precaution. Forneau recog-
nixed the wisdom Of this suggestion
and he inquired OF the marquis upon
what theory the investigation would
proceed.
"The marquis now pointed out that
this robbery must have been commit
ted by some one familiar with the
building, some one who knew the
' habits of the tenants and was in a
position to await a favorable oppor-
tunity; otherwise he could not have
taken advantage Of this one occasion
on which the door to the, marquis
.. apartment happened not to be closed.
,, This theory pleased Forneau and he
adopted every excellent suggestion
which the marquis was able to make.
But he ventured to wonder from what
source the thief had been able to OBJ
tain the combination to the safe, since
it was known only to madame the
marquise. The marquis was again
able to indicate valuable sugges-
ton. Women. he ventured to sug
gcst, had always the same habits.
They did not trust their memories for
anything that required an accuracy
of numbers. The marquise would
have somewhere this memorandum
written down. He suggested that
Forneau make a search Of her writing
table.
"To their surprise, they found the
lock to the drawers of this table
broken, and among some papers
hastily turned over. at the back Of
, one of these drawers, small book
| with red leather cover. On the last
page, in pencil. was precisely the
same memorandum which the marquis
had picked up on the slip Of paper
under the door-'the combination to
the safe OF the Marquise de Chan
telle'-and following the four columns
of four figures. :.
"It was now clear that the robbery
had been committed as the marquis
had suggested-by some one in the
building who had the leisure to watch
and who was familiar with the habits