M. Pigot looked at it an instant, while his companion added a sentence in his ear; then, with a nod of assent, the detective turned down one of the passage-ways, the other man at his heels.

“Official business, no doubt,” commented the purser, who had also been watching this little scene.  “M.  Pigot is one of the best of our officers, and you will find it a pleasure to talk with him.  He will no doubt soon be disengaged.”

“Yes, but meanwhile my esteemed contemporaries will arrive,” said Godfrey, with a grimace.  “They are on my heels—­here they are now!”

In fact, for the next twenty minutes, reporters from the other papers kept arriving, till there was quite a crowd before the purser’s office.  And from nearly every paper a special man had been detailed to interview M. Pigot.  Evidently all the papers were alive to the importance of the subject.  There was some good-natured chaffing, and then one of the stewards was bribed to carry the cards of the assembled multitude to M. Pigot’s stateroom, with the request for an audience.

The steward went away laughing, and came back presently to say that M. Pigot would be pleased to see us in a few minutes.  But when five minutes more passed and he did not appear, impatience broke out anew.  The lords of the press were not accustomed to being kept waiting.

“I move we storm his castle,” suggested the World man.

And just then, M. Pigot himself stepped out into the companionway.  In an instant he was surrounded.

“My good friends of the press,” he said, speaking slowly, but with only the faintest accent, and he smiled around at the faces bent upon him.  “You will pardon me for keeping you in waiting, but I had some matters of the first importance to attend to; and also my bag to pack.  Steward,” he added, “you will find my bag outside my door.  Please bring it here, so that I may be ready to go ashore at once.”  The steward hurried away, and M. Pigot turned back to us.  “Now, gentlemen,” he went on, “what is it that I can do for you?”

It was to Godfrey that the position of spokesman naturally fell.

“We wish first to welcome you to America, M. Pigot,” he said, “and to hope that you will have a pleasant and interesting stay in our country.”

“You are most kind,” responded the Frenchman, with a charming smile.  “I am sure that I shall find it most interesting—­especially your wonderful city, of which I have heard many marvellous things.”

“And in the next place,” continued Godfrey, “we hope that, with your assistance, our police may be able to solve the mystery surrounding the death of the three men recently killed here, and to arrest the murderer.  Of themselves, they seem to be able to do nothing.”

M. Pigot spread out his hands with a little deprecating gesture.

“I also hope we may be successful,” he said; “but if your police have not been, my poor help will be of little account.  I have a profound admiration for your police; the results which they accomplish are wonderful, when one considers the difficulties under which they labour.”