Monsieur:
I have the honor of informing Monsieur that something happened last night that no one can understand, the police no more than the rest of us. All the furniture was returned, all, without exception, everything, even to the smallest article. The house is now exactly as it was the day before the robbery. It is enough to drive one wild. It occurred during the night between Friday and Saturday. The roads are cut up as if everything had been dragged from the gate to the door. It was the same on the day of the disappearance.
We await the arrival of Monsieur, of whom I am the very humble servant.
Philippe Raudin.
Oh! no, oh! no, oh! no. I will not go back there! I took the letter to the commissaire of Rouen.
"It is a very adroit restitution," said he. "We must dissemble and lay low. We will pinch the man one of these days!"
•••••••
But he has not been pinched. No. They have not pinched him, and I am afraid of him, now, as if he were a wild beast let loose at my heels.
Undiscoverable! he is undiscoverable, this monster with a skull like a full moon! He will never be caught. He will never return to his home. What matters it to him. I am the only one that he fears to meet, and I won't do it.
I won't! I won't! I won't!
And if he does return, if he takes possession of his shop again, who is there that can prove that he had my furniture there? My testimony is all there is against him, and I feel that it is beginning to be discredited.
Ah! but no! it was no longer possible to lead such a life. And then I could not keep the secret of what
