M. Formery presented Guerchard to him.

"Are you on their track? Have you a clue?" said the millionaire.

"I think," said M. Formery in an impressive tone, "that we may now
proceed with the inquiry in the ordinary way."

He was a little piqued by the millionaire's so readily turning from
him to the detective. He went to a writing-table, set some sheets of
paper before him, and prepared to make notes on the answers to his
questions. The Duke came back into the drawing-room; the inspector
was summoned. M. Gournay-Martin sat down on a couch with his hands
on his knees and gazed gloomily at M. Formery. Germaine, who was
sitting on a couch near the door, waiting with an air of resignation
for her father to cease his lamentations, rose and moved to a chair
nearer the writing-table. Guerchard kept moving restlessly about the
room, but noiselessly. At last he came to a standstill, leaning
against the wall behind M. Formery.

M. Formery went over all the matters about which he had already
questioned the Duke. He questioned the millionaire and his daughter
about the Charolais, the theft of the motor-cars, and the attempted
theft of the pendant. He questioned them at less length about the
composition of their household--the servants and their characters.
He elicited no new fact.

He paused, and then he said, carelessly as a mere matter of routine:
"I should like to know, M. Gournay-Martin, if there has ever been
any other robbery committed at your house?"