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 woman, and was the leader of a gang of desperate robbers, determined on looting the bank. Louis Bourcet held firmly to this opinion.

"It is my belief," he said solemnly, "that it was a scheme which involved not only robbery, but possibly assassination. The old woman was no old woman, but a reckless criminal, who, by a clever disguise, got into the bank, and was only prevented from carrying out some dreadful design by the coolness and decision of the bank employees. The basket, which is marked with the initials A. D., is held at the bureau of the arrondissement, and at the investigation to-morrow morning—mark my words, that basket will be the means of disclosing a terrible plot against the banking-house of Lafitte."

Madame Bourcet listened to these words of wisdom with the profoundest respect—but Fifi uttered a convulsive sound which she smothered in her handkerchief and which, she explained, was caused by her agitation at the sensational story she had just heard.

Louis was so flattered by the tribute of attention to his powers of seeing farther into a millstone than any one else, that he harangued