"You hear this?" said the commissary to Prosper.

"Yes, monsieur," replied the cashier, "M. Fauvel's statement is quite
correct."

After this explanation, the suspicions of the commissary, instead of
being strengthened, were dissipated.

"Well," he said, "a robbery has been perpetrated, but by whom? Did the
robber enter from without?"

The banker hesitated a moment.

"I think not," he said at last.

"And I am certain he did not," said Prosper.

The commissary expected and was prepared for those answers; but it did
not suit his purpose to follow them up immediately.

"However," said he, "we must make ourselves sure of it." Turning toward
his companion:

"M. Fanferlot," he said, "go and see if you cannot discover some traces
that may have escaped the attention of these gentlemen."

M. Fanferlot, nicknamed the Squirrel, was indebted to his prodigious
agility for this title, of which he was not a little proud. Slim and
insignificant in appearance he might, in spite of his iron muscles, be
taken for a bailiff's under clerk, as he walked along buttoned up to the