He now wanted to circumscribe Madame Guyon's sphere of influence by getting her to become prioress of a convent at Gex.

He took fright and sought refuge in Switzerland, where he soon settled on the Lake of Geneva, pending his purchase of the estate of Ferney in the district of Gex and that of Tourney in Burgundy.

"Very near to Gex, what?" I shrugged my shoulders, for indeed the circumstances did appear somewhat strange.

Do you know Gex, my dear Sir?

Gex soon became the picturesque warehouse of every conceivable kind of contraband goods.

No difficulty, therefore, as you see, in getting contraband goodseven English onesas far as Gex.

St. Claude, of which Leroux had just spoken as the place where M. Aristide Fournier had recently bought himself a house, is in France, only a few kilometres from the neutral zone of Gex.

"But," I mused, "one cannot go to Gex without a permit from the police.

You know Gex, of course?" I had crossed the Jura once, in my youth, but was not very intimately familiar with the district.

"Are you prepared to journey with me to Gex?" "When do you start?" "To-day.

"We'll journey together as far as St. Claude; from there you will push on to Gex, and take up your abode in the city, styling yourself an interpreter.

I, on the other hand, will take up my quarters at Mijoux, the French customs station, which is on the frontier, about half a dozen kilometres from Gex.

I am a poor man, and will be out of pocket by the transaction from the hour I start for Gex to that when you pay me my fair share of the reward.

2. A week later I was at Gex.

Nothing of importance occurred during the first fortnight of my sojourn at Gex.

I had even had a few clientsconversations between the local police and some poor wretches caught in the act of smuggling a few yards of Swiss silk or a couple of cream cheeses over the French frontier, and sent back to Gex to be dealt with by the local authorities.

Leroux had found lodgings at Mijoux, and twice daily he walked over to Gex to consult with me.

No one in Gex appeared to know anything about him, though the proprietor of the principal hotel in the town did recollect having had a visitor of that name once or twice during the past year.

But four or five days after my arrival at Gex I saw three fellows handed over to the police of the department.

I had been in Gex just a fortnight when the weather, which hitherto had been splendid, turned to squalls and storms.

"It is a short walk from Gex.

Mother and I will be at Gex to-morrow at one hour after sundown.

As soon as I had seen the smugglers safely in the hands of Leroux and the gendarmes, I would make my way back to St. Cergues as rapidly as I could, step into my vehicle, drive like the wind back to Gex, and place myself at the disposal of my fair angel and her afflicted mother.

Less than an hour later we drew up at Gex outside the little inn, pretentiously called Le Roi de Rome.

My intention was to retire early to bed after spending an agreeable evening with the family, who would no doubt overwhelm me with their gratitude, and at daybreak I would drive back to Gex after I had heard all the latest news from Leroux.