"Monsieur is pleased to laugh at me," he said. "But it was not I
who called myself intelligent. Though indeed I would like to be
so, for the good God knows I do not look it."

Hanaud clapped him on the shoulder.

"Then congratulate yourself! It is a great advantage to be
intelligent and not to look it. We shall get on famously. Come!"

The four men descended the stairs, and as they walked towards the
villa Perrichet related, concisely and clearly, his experience of
the night.

"I passed the gate of the villa about half-past nine," he said.
"The gate was dosed. Above the wall and bushes of the garden I saw
a bright light in the room upon the first floor which faces the
road at the south-western comer of the villa. The lower windows I
could not see. More than an hour afterwards I came back, and as I
passed the villa again I noticed that there was now no light in
the room upon the first floor, but that the gate was open. I
thereupon went into the garden, and, pulling the gate, let it
swing to and latch. But it occurred to me as I did so that there
might be visitors at the villa who had not yet left, and for whom
the gate had been set open. I accordingly followed the drive which
winds round to the front door. The front door is not on the side
of the villa which faces the road, but at the back. When I came to
the open space where the carriages turn, I saw that the house was
in complete darkness. There were wooden latticed doors to the long
windows on the ground floor, and these were closed. I tried one to
make certain, and found the fastenings secure. The other windows