Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-08

months. Laughton happened to show him the
photograph of the missing man and he at
once became wildly excited and pulled chart
from his pocket.
ut was the Bertillon chart of the smugglerS'
presumed leader, a man named lie Breton.
There is little doubt that Couturier and LIE
Breton are one and the same
I whistled in surprise. "Oh, that's different.
You say he was only recently married; per-
haps his poor wife knows nothing Of the dou-
BILE life he's been leading"
Levallois nodded, I'm of now to the identity
section. Laughton is investigating the past
of Couturier. NJ. Duprez wishes you to come
to his office. Voltaire and Laughton are wait
ing for you. I shall be back soon"
When entered the Office of the Investigate
ing magistrate saw that as usual something
had ruff1ed him. He was examining sheaf OF
documents which a man had not seen be-
fore had obviously just brought. guessed that
he was the detective from Paris.
M DUPREz rapidly scanned the papers.
then he looked up with a frown. "I
don't see why you come to u.s." he said to the
Paris man, a thick-set fellow, whose Insignificant
appearance would have caused him to pass un-
observed in any crowd-a great asset for de-
tective. Lyon is not town where smuggled
opium or silk could be sold with any chance
of success. Our citizens have no leisure for
drugs, and as for silks well-it's like trying to
sell wine to Bordeaux"
II know that" the Partisan replied with
peculiarly harsh voice. But Lyon is a half
way house This gang uses the rivers for
transporting the dope from Marseille; and
the Chinese silk is sent to Paris packed i'll
boxes bearing the labels of famous local silk
factories. In this way they distribute their
contraband without risk, whereas silk coming
directly from Marseille would look suspicious.
"As for the raw opium, that is forwarded hid
den in jars of olive oil. Therefore you must
have a clever receiver here, who, if we can
find him, will lead us to the active gang oper-
ating at both ends"
M Duprez tapped his teeth thoughtfully with
a pen for a minute, then he turned to Voltaire
and myself:
''Have you any information likely to be OF
use in this matter?"
Voltaire shook his head "None whatever,
monsieur. We had no idea that this town
was used as distributing center I will in
form my inspectors of it, Perhaps our colleague
from Paris can give us some details?"
eyes, cam" the man rasped in his unpleas-
ant voice. I'VE have every reason to believe
that former seaman, known as LIE Breton, Is
at the head of the organization and, curiouSly
enough your chief inspector showed me q
photograph today which swear is that of LIE
Breton. It seems he is known here as M. Cou-
turier, and has a flourishing business. That.
of course, Is just blind
Furthermore. M. Laughton tells me that LIE
Breton alias Couturier, had only recently been
married, and Is missing since last Friday. but
has been traced to MarSeille; which entirely
fits in with my theory. This LIE Breton Is a
clever criminal He has been arrested twice
and served a sentence Of five years in FreSneS
prison Here is his chart" and he laid rec
ord with photograph and fingerprintS on the
table.
utl tt. n.t ~. ,L-e a., .e-,., d. .r s,ft