to search it again before asking for a complete description of the letter.Ī month later the Prefect returns, having found nothing on a second search, and mentions that he will offer a reward of fifty thousand francs, since the retrieval of the letter has become increasingly important. The narrator agrees with the Prefect that the letter must not be in the apartment, but Dupin asks G. The narrator asks the Prefect about the police's method of search, and the Prefect explains how thoroughly they have searched the apartment, particularly since the reward for the retrieval of the letter is so great.

Dupin remarks that the minister cannot be much of a fool, although the Prefect disparages the man for being a poet and therefore, in the Prefect's view, unintelligent. cannot be keeping the letter on his person, since the police have already searched him twice. The narrator notes that the minister must still have the letter, since to relinquish it would be to lose his power of blackmail, but the police have been unable to locate it, despite having thoroughly searched D.'s apartment. has used his possession of the letter for political blackmail, and because the lady is unable to publicly reclaim the letter, she has asked the police to retrieve it for her. The lady saw the substitution but was unable to point it out because of the presence of the third person, who noticed nothing. He then placed a letter of similar appearance beside it before retrieving the incorrect paper prior to leaving. The Minister D., who also entered, saw and interpreted the contents of the letter correctly. The letter belongs to a lady who was forced to hastily place it on a table when the person from whom she wished to conceal the secret entered the room. Monsieur G., the Prefect of the Parisian police, enters the apartment to ask Dupin's opinion of a case, although he refuses to do so in the dark because the idea is 'beyond his comprehension' and thus an 'oddity.' He describes the case as simple but puzzling, but ignores Dupin's suggestion that perhaps its simplicity and self-evidence is what confuses the police.Īccording to G., a letter has been stolen from the royal apartments that the police know the thief will use for blackmail. Auguste Dupin and his friend the unnamed narrator appear in a small library room in Paris, silently smoking and, in the case of the narrator, contemplating two of Dupin's previous cases involving the Rue Morgue murders and the death of Marie Rôget. Reprising their roles from 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue,' C.

Dupin finds the purloined letter