In a flash I guessed how the jewels had come to be in the sachet; and that it was not Mademoiselle but M.
de Cocheforet who had mislaid them.

I thought this last discovery so important that I began to pace the room softly, unable, in my excitement, to remain still.
Doubtless he had dropped the jewels in the hurry of his start from the inn that night! Doubtless, too, he had carried them in that bizarre hiding-place for the sake of safety, considering it unlikely that robbers, if he fell into their hands, would take the sachet from him; as still less likely that they would suspect it to contain anything of value.

Everywhere it would pass for a love-gift, the work of his mistress.
Nor did my penetration stop there.

I guessed that the gems were family property, the last treasure of the house; and that M.de Cocheforet, when I saw him at the inn, was on his way to convey them out of the country; either to secure them from seizure by the Government, or to raise money by selling them--money to be spent in some last desperate enterprise.

For a day or two, perhaps, after leaving Cocheforet, while the mountain road and its chances occupied his thoughts, he had not discovered his loss.