LITMIR.BIZ

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“but how is it that Guespin did not rejoin his comrades in the Batignolles? For in that way, to a certain degree, he might have provided a kind of alibi.”

      Dr. Gendron had been sitting on the only unbroken chair in the chamber, reflecting on Plantat’s sudden embarrassment, when he had spoken of Robelot the bone-setter. The remarks of the judge drew him from his revery; he got up, and said:

      “There is another point; putting forward the time was perhaps useful to Guespin, but it would greatly damage Bertaud, his accomplice.”

      “But,” answered M. Domini, “it might be that Bertaud was not consulted. As to Guespin, he had no doubt good reasons for not returning to the wedding. His restlessness, after such a deed, would possibly have betrayed him.”

      M. Lecoq had not thought fit to speak as yet. Like a doctor at a sick bedside, he wanted to be sure of his diagnosis. He had returned to the mantel, and again pushed forward the hands of the clock. It sounded, successively, half-past eleven, then twelve, then half-past twelve, then one.

      As he moved the hands, he kept muttering:

      “Apprentices—chance brigands! You are malicious, parbleu, but you don’t think of everything. You give a push to the hands, but don’t remember to put the striking in harmony with them. Then comes along a detective, an old rat who knows things, and the dodge is discovered.”

      M. Domini and Plantat held their tongues. M. Lecoq walked up to them.

      “Monsieur the Judge,” said he, “is perhaps now convinced that the deed was done at half-past ten.”

      “Unless,” interrupted M. Plantat, “the machinery of the clock has been out of order.”

      “That often happens,” added M. Courtois. “The clock in my drawing-room is in such a state that I never know the time of day.”

      M. Lecoq reflected.

      “It is possible,” said he, “that Monsieur Plantat is right. The probability is in favor of my theory; but probability, in such an affair, is not sufficient; we must have certainty. There happily remains a mode of testing the matter—the bed; I’ll wager it is rumpled up.” Then addressing the mayor, “I shall need a servant to lend me a hand.”

      “I’ll help you,” said Plantat, “that will be a quicker way.”

      They lifted the top of the bed and set it on the floor, at the same time raising the curtains.

      “Hum!” cried M. Lecoq, “was I right?”

      “True,” said M. Domini, surprised, “the bed is rumpled.”

      “Yes; and yet no one has lain in it.”

      “But—” objected M. Courtois.

      “I am sure of what I say,” interrupted the detective. “The sheets, it is true, have been thrown back, perhaps someone has rolled about in the bed; the pillows have been tumbled, the quilts and curtains ruffled, but this bed has not the appearance of having been slept in. It is, perhaps, more difficult to rumple up a bed than to put it in order again. To make it up, the coverings must be taken off, and the mattresses turned. To disarrange it, one must actually lie down in it, and warm it with the body. A bed is one of those terrible witnesses which never misguide, and against which no counter testimony can be given. Nobody has gone to bed in this—”

      “The countess,” remarked Plantat, “was dressed; but the count might have gone to bed first.”

      “No,” answered M. Lecoq, “I’ll prove to the contrary. The proof is easy, indeed, and a child of ten, having heard it, wouldn’t think of being deceived by this intentional disorder of the bedclothes.”

      M. Lecoq’s auditors drew up to him. He put the coverings back upon the middle of the bed, and went on:

      “Both of the pillows are much rumpled, are they not? But look under the bolster—it is all smooth, and you find none of those wrinkles which are made by the weight of the head and the moving about of the arms. That’s not all; look at the bed from the middle to the foot. The sheets being laid carefully, the upper and under lie close together everywhere. Slip your hand underneath—there—you see there is a resistance to your hand which would not occur if the legs had been stretched in that place. Now Monsieur de Tremorel was tall enough to extend the full length of the bed.”

      This demonstration was so clear, its proof so palpable, that it could not be gainsaid.

      “This is nothing,” continued M. Lecoq. “Let us examine the second mattress. When a person purposely disarranges a bed, he does not think of the second mattress.”

      He lifted up the upper mattress, and observed that the covering of the under one was perfectly even.

      “H’m, the second mattress,” muttered M. Lecoq, as if some memory crossed his mind.

      “It appears to be proved,” observed the judge, “that Monsieur de Tremorel had not gone to bed.”

      “Besides,” added the doctor, “if he had been murdered in his bed, his clothes would be lying here somewhere.”

      “Without considering,” suggested M. Lecoq, “that some blood must have been found on the sheets. Decidedly, these criminals were not shrewd.”

      “What seems to me surprising,” M. Plantat observed to the judge, “is that anybody would succeed in killing, except in his sleep, a young man so vigorous as Count Hector.”

      “And in a house full of weapons,” added Dr. Gendron; “for the count’s cabinet is full of guns, swords and hunting knives; it’s a perfect arsenal.”

      “Alas!” sighed M. Courtois, “we know of worse catastrophes. There is not a week that the papers don’t—”

      He stopped, chagrined, for nobody was listening to him. Plantat claimed the general attention, and continued:

      “The confusion in the house seems to you surprising; well now, I’m surprised that it is not worse than it is. I am, so to speak, an old man; I haven’t the energy of a young man of thirty-five; yet it seems to me that if assassins should get into my house, when I was there, and up, it would go hard with them. I don’t know what I would do; probably I should be killed; but surely I would give the alarm. I would defend myself, and cry out, and open the windows, and set the house afire.”

      “Let us add,” insisted the doctor, “that it is not easy to surprise a man who is awake. There is always an unexpected noise which puts one on his guard. Perhaps it is a creaking door, or a cracking stair. However cautious the murderer, he does not surprise his victim.”

      “They may have used fire-arms;” struck in the worthy mayor, “that has been done. You are quietly sitting in your chamber; it is summer, and your windows are open; you are chatting with your wife, and sipping a cup of tea; outside, the assassins are supplied with a short ladder; one ascends to a level with the window, sights you at his ease, presses the trigger, the bullet speeds—”

      “And,” continued the doctor, “the whole neighborhood, aroused by it, hastens to the spot.”

      “Permit me, pardon, permit me,” said M. Courtois, testily, “that would be so in a populous town. Here, in the midst of a vast park, no. Think, doctor, of the isolation of this house. The nearest neighbor is a long way off, and between there are many large trees, intercepting the sound. Let us test it by experience. I will fire a pistol in this room, and I’ll wager that you will not hear the echo in the road.”

      “In the daytime, perhaps, but not in the night.”

      “Well,” said M. Domini, who had been reflecting while M. Courtois was talking, “if against all hope, Guespin does not decide to speak to-night, or to-morrow, the count’s body will afford us a key to the mystery.”

      During this discussion, M. Lecoq had continued his investigations, lifting the furniture, studying the fractures, examining the smallest pieces, as if they might betray the truth. Now and then, he

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