XVI

other two entered the cab, which reached the Rue des Martyrs. Du Roy said: “I have a plan of the rooms. They are on the second floor. We shall first find a little anteroom, then a dining-room, then the bedroom. The three rooms open into one another. There is no way out to facilitate flight. There is a locksmith a little further on. He is holding himself in readiness to be called upon by you.”

When they arrived opposite the house it was only a quarter past eight, and they waited in silence for more than twenty minutes. But when he saw the three quarters about to strike, George said: “Let us start now.”

They went up the stairs without troubling themselves about the doorkeeper, who, indeed, did not notice them. One of the officers remained in the street to keep watch on the front door. The four men stopped at the second floor, and George put his ear to the door and then looked through the keyhole. He neither heard nor saw anything. He rang the bell.

The commissary said to the officers: “You will remain in readiness till called on.”

And they waited. At the end of two or three minutes George again pulled the bell several times in succession. They noted a noise from the further end of the rooms, and then a slight step approached. Someone was coming to spy who was there. The journalist then rapped smartly on the panel of the door. A voice, a woman’s voice, that an attempt was evidently being made to disguise asked: “Who is there?”

The commissary replied: “Open, in the name of the law.”

The voice repeated: “Who are you?”

“I am the commissary of police. Open the door, or I will have it broken in.”

The voice went on: “What do you want?”