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122 "Thank you," said I, and went back to hurry the mécanicien.

For with this information it seemed to me that the whole business was clear. Kharkoff's car was a big, heavy, limousine affair, and not capable of much speed. Kharkoff would probably stop at St. Germain for déjeuner, and this would consume an hour and a half at least, for the Russian was a high-liver. After déjeuner they would take the road to Boulogne, probably stopping at Abbeville for tea, and reaching Boulogne in good time to take the boat which left for Folkestone at seven. Chu-Chu would push right through, and contrive in some way to get a word with Léontine, handing over to her the pearls, with strict instructions from Ivan that she dispose of them. After that, he would return with all speed to Paris and take up my trail. The game was being undoubtedly played to the full limit and to win the pearls, the gems and the life of a dangerous renegade.

All of this hit me, like a ton of brick, as the true solution. I had been a fool, I thought, to figure for a second on Chu-Chu's condescending to make a dicker with a rank outsider who had handled him as I had done. To begin with, no doubt his ferocious hate was so intense that he would rather have lost the gems and flung the pearls into the Seine than to have had me square myself with the Cuttynges. Ivan, too, had been humiliated in a manner impossible for his self-respect as the chief of a big criminal system to endure. Neither one could stomach it, and they had joined forces again to play the game out to the bitter end.