I was received by the official in charge of the _Bureau des Renseignements_ with bland politeness tempered with suspicion that I might be taking a mental photograph of the office furniture in order to betray its secret to a foreign government.

After many comings and goings of orderlies and underlings, he told me very little in complicated and reluctant language.

Captain Vauvenarde had resigned his commission in the Chasseurs d'Afrique two years ago.

At the present moment the Bureau had no information to give as to his domicile.
"Have you no suggestion, Monsieur, to offer ?" I asked, "whereby I may obtain this essential information concerning Captain Vauvenarde ?" "His old comrades in the regiment might know, Monsieur." "And the regiment ?" He opened the _Annuaire Officiel de l'Armee Francaise_, just as I might have done myself, and said: "There are six regiments.

One is at Blidah, another at Tlemcen, another at Constantine, another at Tunis, another at Algiers, and another at Mascara." "To which regiment, then, did Captain Vauvenarde belong ?" I inquired.
He referred to one of the dossiers that the orderlies had brought him.
"The 3rd, Monsieur." "I should get information, then, from Tlemcen ?" "Evidently, Monsieur." I thanked him and withdrew, to his obvious relief.