private life and enable me to work more easily in this darkness and to
know if I'm not getting myself into a tangle by bothering about the
Daubrecq bird. And time's getting short, hang it!"

One of the residences which Lupin occupied at that period and which he
used oftener than any of the others was in the Rue Chateaubriand, near
the Arc de l'Etoile. He was known there by the name of Michel Beaumont.
He had a snug flat here and was looked after by a manservant, Achille,
who was utterly devoted to his interests and whose chief duty was to
receive and repeat the telephone-messages addressed to Lupin by his
followers.

Lupin, on returning home, learnt, with great astonishment, that a woman
had been waiting to see him for over an hour:

"What! Why, no one ever comes to see me here! Is she young?"

"No... I don't think so."

"You don't think so!"

"She's wearing a lace shawl over her head, instead of a hat, and you
can't see her face... She's more like a clerk... or a woman employed in
a shop. She's not well-dressed..."

"Whom did she ask for?"

"M. Michel Beaumont," replied the servant.

"Queer. And why has she called?"