about three o'clock
This secret police service is distinctly apart from the detective service . The female police agent in all countries works independently , at the orders of the Director of Criminal Investigation , and is known to him and his immediate staff . Whatever information that wrinkled-faced old Frenchwoman in shabby black had imparted to Fetherston it was of an entirely confidential character . It , however , caused him to leave her about three o'clock , hurry to the Gare Porte-Neuve , and , after hastily swallowing a liqueur of brandy in the buffet , depart for Langres . Thence he had travelled to Nancy , where he had taken up quarters at the Grand Hotel in the Place Stanislas , and had there remained for two days in order to rest . He would not have idled those autumn days away so lazily , even though he so urgently required rest after that rapid travelling , had he but known that the person who occupied the next room to his -- that middle-aged commercial traveller -- an entirely inoffensive person who possessed a red beard , and who had given the name of Jules Dequanter , and his nationality as Belgian , native of Liège -- was none other than Gustav Heureux , the man who had been recalled from New York by the evasive doctor of Pimlico . And further , Fetherston , notwithstanding his acuteness in observation , was in blissful ignorance , as he strolled back from the station at Commercy , up the old-world street , that a short distance behind him , carefully watching all his movements , was the man Joseph Blot himself -- the man known in dingy Pimlico as Dr. Weirmarsh .