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I went to bed that night I moved a chair against the bolted door and balanced the water-pitcher so that it would fall at the least jar. I also rigged a simple but effective burglar alarm on the windows, then went to sleep with the pistol under my pillow. My dreams were not pleasant.

When the garçon brought me the newspaper with my coffee at eight in the morning, here on the first page, in big scare-heads, was the following news:

". Jewels worth £12,000 stolen on Dover-Calais Passage. Victim, Hon. Mrs. Allerton-Staire May Die. No trace of Thief."

So this was Chu-Chu's errand to Boulogne. Without reading farther, I laid down the paper to think.

Chu-Chu's business then had nothing to do with the pearls. He had bigger game afoot. I saw Ivan's hand in this job. Chu-Chu had probably taken the boat which left Boulogne at seven, crossed to Folkestone, then gone to Dover, where he had awaited the train which left London at nine.

I picked up the paper and ran quickly through the account. The victim, it appeared, was on her way to Paris, accompanied by her maid. She carried her jewels in a small valise, which she never permitted to leave her hand in travelling. The crossing had been 142