on the day of the murder has condemned him in the minds of his fellow-townsmen. His name is blackened by a terrible suspicion, and I have sworn to clear it, if it can be cleared. If he is guilty—well, he can hardly be worse off with a rope round his neck than he is now, with all his old friends estranged from him. For my own part, in such a case I should infinitely prefer the rope. It would be a short way out of a difficulty.”
“My experience of criminals is that when the crisis comes they would rather endure the ignominy than the halter,” replied Distin. “Perhaps you have never seen a man within an hour of his being hanged?”
“Thank God I have not been obliged to do that, though I have had to look upon one an hour after.”
“Ah, then you do not know to what manhood can descend—how it can grovel before the spectre of instant, certain death. Come now, cannot I persuade you to think better of your idea of investigating this mysterious business?”
“No. I have promised to do it. I must keep my promise.”
“So be it.”
And then Joseph Distin discussed the matter freely, with perfect frankness. He told Heathcote what means he had used to discover the girl’s identity on this side of the Channel.
“I should have gone further and crossed the water, if I had not seen good reason to desist,” he said, when he had explained his plan of inquiry at every likely lodging-house, and how that plan had totally failed.
“But what would you have done on the other side of the water, without any clue?”
“I should have gone across myself and put the case into the hands of Félix Drubarde, one of the cleverest police-officers in Paris. He would have been instantly on the alert to hear of any application made to the police by the relatives and friends of the missing girl. She could hardly disappear for any length of time without some one being concerned by her disappearance. The application to the police might not occur perhaps until months after her death; but it would be likely to occur sooner or later. And, again, Félix Drubarde has his allies in every quarter of Paris. He hears of events so quickly that it might be supposed he had a network of speaking-tubes all over the city. With his help I should have been almost certain to arrive at the identification of the dead girl.”
“But I sent three advertisements to each of the best known Paris newspapers,” said Heathcote. “How do you account for those advertisements not having been seen by the girl’s friends?”
“Because French people of the lower classes are sometimes very illiterate, and live in a very narrow circle. Your papers may not have come within the range of the girl’s friends. They would be likely to apply to the police when time passed and they received no tidings of her. But they would not be likely to see your best known papers—the papers of the upper classes, no doubt. And then your advertisements appeared immediately after the girl’s death; at a time when the parents or friends had no reason for feeling alarmed as to her safety.”
“That may be so,” replied Heathcote thoughtfully. “I think you can help me very much in my undertaking, Mr. Distin, if you are willing to do so.”
“In what way?”
“Give me a letter of introduction to this Parisian detective, and let me engage his aid by and by, when I go to Paris. I shall be happy to pay him liberally for his services.”
“Drubarde is no extortioner. He will not fleece you,” said Distin. “In fact the man is a gentleman, in his own particular line. He has made an independence, and he only works now as an amateur. Yes, I will give you a letter of introduction to him with pleasure, since you are bent on pursuing this business to the bitter end. I suppose you will go straight to Paris.
“No. I want first to follow up the only valuable clue I have. I shall go first to Dinan, in Brittany, to find the convent, where I have reason to believe this poor girl was educated.”
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