"So I am to stand on these two feet?" Monsieur Ferraud ruminated, as he
took the seat by the window in the second-class carriage for Munich.
"All the finer the sport. Ten thousand marks! He forgot himself for a
moment. And I might have gone further and said that ninety thousand
marks would be added to those ten thousand if the bribe was accepted
and the promise fulfilled."

Ah, it would be beautiful to untangle this snarl all alone. It would
be the finest chase that had ever fallen to his lot. No grain of sand,
however small, should escape him. There were fools in Berlin as well
as in Paris; and he knew what he knew. "Never a move shall he make
that I shan't make the same; and in one thing I shall move first. Two
million francs! Handsome! It is I who must find this treasure, this
fulcrum to the lever which is going to upheave France. There will be
no difficulty then in pricking the pretty bubble. In the meantime we
shall proceed to Munich and carefully inquire into the affairs of the
grand opera singer, Hildegarde von Mitter."

He extracted a wallet from an inner pocket and opened it across his
knees. It was full of butterflies.




CHAPTER III

A PLASTER STATUETTE

Fitzgerald's view from his club window afforded the same impersonal
outlook as from a window in a car. It was the two living currents,