Chapter VIII.—“The Terror by Day.”When Larose returned to his lodgings about eight o'clock that night Croupin had not yet come home, and there was no sign of him when Larose at last put himself to bed.
If the course of the evening, however, it was reported to Ah Chung that a slightly drunken Frenchman had come to the lodging house next door. The Frenchman said he was a chef out of work, but from the skill with which he performed certain sleight-of-hand tricks for the amusement of the other lodgers, it was surmised he was a pickpocket.
“Give him more drink and search him,” said Ah Chung. “If you find anything on him, don't take it, but encourage him to come again. Search well, for he may have been sent by the police. A pickpocket should be earning more money than to have to come down here
