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184 CELLULOID
of plain-clothes detectives who are pursuing a thief. Eventually, as Michel is in despair what to do next, Prosper arrives with the news that Michel's ticket in a lottery has won a million francs.
Delighted with such sudden good fortune, Michel invites his creditors up to his studio and they proceed to hold a party. All goes well until Michel tries to find the ticket and recollects having put it in the pocket of an old coat which he had given to Beatrice to mend for him. She, meanwhile, has been surprised by the entry into her room of the thief wanted by the police, and in order to rid herself of his presence, has given him the old coat to replace his own lost in his flight. On hearing this, Michel promises Prosper a share in the prize if he can retrieve the coat, and himself departs for a theatrical costumier's shop where the thief had told Beatrice that the coat might be reclaimed. We now learn that the thief is head of a gang of crooks with concealed headquarters behind the costumier's shop, and a conference of the gang is interrupted by the entrance into the shop of Signor Sopranelli, the tenor of the Opera-Lyrique, in search of an ancient coat for part of his stage costume. Eventually he buys the one belonging to Michel, who arrives at the shop in time to be arrested on suspicion of theft by the police, for in his hands they discover the watch of the tenor which had been stolen by one of the crooks.
The unfortunate Michel is taken to a police-station, but he is able to impart the news to Prosper that the coat is in the possession of Signor Sopranelli at the Opera-Lyrique. By good luck, however, the creditors