"And who exposed them?" I asked, much interested. "Somebody must have betrayed them."
"Somebody did betray them--by anonymous letters to the police--letters which were received at intervals at the Préfecture in Paris, and led to the arrest of one after another of the chief members of the gang. It seemed to have been done by some one irritated by Bell's arrest. But the identity of the informant has never been ascertained. He deemed it best to remain hidden--for obvious reasons," laughed my friend at my side.
"You seem to know a good many facts regarding the affair," I said. "Have you no idea of the identity of the mysterious informant?"
"Well"--he hesitated--"I have a suspicion that it was some person associated with them--some one who became conscience-stricken. Ah! M'sieur Biddulph, if you only knew the marvellous cunning of that invulnerable gang. Had it not been for that informant, they would still be operating--in open defiance of the police of Europe. Criminal methods, if expert, only fail for want of funds. Are not some of our wealthiest financiers mere criminals who, by dealing in thousands, as other men deal in francs, conceal their criminal methods? Half your successful financiers are merely successful adventurers. The _dossiers_ of some of them, preserved in the police bureaux, would be astounding reading to those who admire them and proclaim them the successful men of to-day--kings of finance they call them!"
"You are certainly something of a philosopher," I laughed, compelled to admit the truth of his argument; "but tell me--how is it that you know so much concerning George Harriman, alias Bell, and his antecedents?"
I was greatly interested, even though I was now filled with suspicion.
Somehow I had become impressed with the idea that the stranger might have been one of the daring and dangerous association, and that he had related that strange story for the purpose of misleading me.
But the stranger, who had, in the course of our conversation, told me that his name was Pierre Delanne, only said--
"You could have read it all in the _Matin_, my dear monsieur."
His attitude was that of a man who knew more than he intended to reveal. Surely it was a curious circumstance, standing there in the night, listening to the dramatic truth concerning the big-faced American, Harriman, whom I had for so long regarded as an enigma.