Unlike so many of my countrymen I am prepared to state that I detest the French capital.

I always make my visits to it as brief as possible, then, my business completed, off I fly again, seeming to breathe more freely when I am outside its boundaries.

I don't know why this should be so, for I have always been treated with the utmost courtesy and consideration by its inhabitants, particularly by those members of the French Detective Force with whom I have been brought in contact.
On this visit I crossed with one of the cleverest Parisian detectives, a man with whom I have had many dealings.

He was most anxious to ascertain the reason of my visit to his country.

My assurance that I was not in search of any one of his own criminals seemed to afford him no sort of satisfaction.