"May I look at the two things you have mentioned, Monsieur le Préfet?"

"Yes, but they won't tell you anything."

"Perhaps so--"

Don Luis examined at length the cardboard box and the yellow envelope,
on which were printed the words, "Café du Pont-Neuf." The others awaited
his words as though they were bound to shed an unexpected light. He
merely said:

"The handwriting is not the same on the envelope and the box. The writing
on the envelope is less plain, a little shaky, obviously imitated."

"Which proves--?"

"Which proves, Monsieur le Préfet, that this yellow envelope does not
come from your detective. I presume that, after writing his report at a
table in the Café du Pont-Neuf and closing it, he had a moment of
inattention during which somebody substituted for his envelope another
with the same address, but containing a blank sheet of paper."

"That's a supposition!" said the Prefect.

"Perhaps; but what is certain, Monsieur le Préfet, is that your
inspector's presentiments are well-grounded, that he is being closely
watched, that the discoveries about the Mornington inheritance which he
has succeeded in making are interfering with criminal designs, and that
he is in terrible danger."