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"Was any one inside the car?" asked Hanaud

"No, monsieur; it was empty"

"But you saw the driver!" exclaimed Wethermill

"Yes; as he like?" cried the Commissaire

Perrichet shook his head mournfully

"He wore a talc mask over the upper part of his face, and had a

little black reat-coat of

blue with a white collar"

"That is my coat, monsieur," said Servettaz, and as he spoke he

lifted it up from the chauffeur's seat "It is Mroaned aloud

"We have lost hirasp--he, the rief was pitiable

"Monsieur," he pleaded, "a car slackens its speed and goes on

again--it is not so unusual a thing I did not know the number of

Mme Dauvray's car I did not even know that it had disappeared";

and suddenly tears of mortification filled his eyes "But why do I

make these excuses?" he cried "It is better, M Hanaud, that I go

back to my uniform and stand at the street corner I am as foolish

as I look"

"Nonsense,the disconsolate man

upon the shoulder "You re--and perhaps a great deal," he added gravely "As for

the talc mask and the black moustache, that is not much to help