“And now, having carried out our plans so successfully, it only remained to leave no trace behind us.  Our little band of workers at the other end had already ripped up the rails and disconnected the side line, replacing everything as it had been before.  We were equally busy at the mine.  The funnel and other fragments were thrown in, the shaft was planked over as it used to be, and the lines which led to it were torn up and taken away.  Then, without flurry, but without delay, we all made our way out of the country, most of us to Paris, my English colleague to Manchester, and McPherson to Southampton, whence he emigrated to America.  Let the English papers of that date tell how throughly we had done our work, and how completely we had thrown the cleverest of their detectives off our track.

“You will remember that Gomez threw his bag of papers out of the window, and I need not say that I secured that bag and brought them to my employers.  It may interest my employers now, however, to learn that out of that bag I took one or two little papers as a souvenir of the occasion.  I have no wish to publish these papers; but, still, it is every man for himself in this world, and what else can I do if my friends will not come to my aid when I want them?  Messieurs, you may believe that Herbert de Lernac is quite as formidable when he is against you as when he is with you, and that he is not a man to go to the guillotine until he has seen that every one of you is en route for New Caledonia.  For your own sake, if not for mine, make haste, Monsieur de——­, and General——­, and Baron——­ (you can fill up the blanks for yourselves as you read this).  I promise you that in the next edition there will be no blanks to fill.

“P.S.—­As I look over my statement there is only one omission which I can see.  It concerns the unfortunate man McPherson, who was foolish enough to write to his wife and to make an appointment with her in New York.  It can be imagined that when interests like ours were at stake, we could not leave them to the chance of whether a man in that class of life would or would not give away his secrets to a woman.  Having once broken his oath by writing to his wife, we could not trust him any more.  We took steps therefore to insure that he should not see his wife.  I have sometimes thought that it would be a kindness to write to her and to assure her that there is no impediment to her marrying again.”

The Beetle-Hunter

A curious experience? said the Doctor.  Yes, my friends, I have had one very curious experience.  I never expect to have another, for it is against all doctrines of chances that two such events would befall any one man in a single lifetime.  You may believe me or not, but the thing happened exactly as I tell it.