Lupin shadowed them in his turn. They were detective-officers.
"Hullo, hullo!" he said to himself. "This is hardly what I expected.
So the Daubrecq bird is under suspicion?"
But, on the fourth day, at nightfall, the two men were joined bysix others, who conversed with them in the darkest part of theSquare Lamartine. And, among these new arrivals, Lupin was vastlyastonished to recognize, by his figure and bearing, the famousPrasville, the erstwhile barrister, sportsman and explorer, nowfavourite at the Elysee, who, for some mysterious reason, hadbeen pitchforked into the headquarters of police assecretary-general, with the reversion of the prefecture.
And, suddenly, Lupin remembered: two years ago, Prasville andDaubrecq the deputy had had a personal encounter on the Place