Part 19 (1/2)

”Nothing, Monsieur le Prefet. Otherwise, Sergeant Mazeroux and I would have given the alarm.”

”Was the garden door shut?”

”It must have been, as we had to unlock it at seven o'clock.”

”With what?”

”With the key on the bunch.”

”But how could the murderers, coming from the outside, have opened it?”

”With false keys.”

”Have you a proof which allows you to suppose that it was opened with false keys?”

”No, Monsieur le Prefet.”

”Therefore, until we have proofs to the contrary, we are bound to believe that it was not opened from the outside, and that the criminal was inside the house.”

”But, Monsieur le Prefet, there was no one here but Sergeant Mazeroux and myself!”

There was a silence, a pause whose meaning admitted of no doubt.

M. Desmalions's next words gave it an even more precise value.

”You did not sleep during the night?”

”Yes, toward the end.”

”You did not sleep before, while you were in the pa.s.sage?”

”No.”

”And Sergeant Mazeroux?”

Don Luis remained undecided for a moment; but how could he hope that the honest and scrupulous Mazeroux had disobeyed the dictates of his conscience?

He replied:

”Sergeant Mazeroux went to sleep in his chair and did not wake until Mme.

Fauville returned, two hours later.”

There was a fresh silence, which evidently meant:

”So, during the two hours when Sergeant Mazeroux was asleep, it was physically possible for you to open the door and kill the two Fauvilles.”

The examination was taking the course which Perenna had foreseen; and the circle was drawing closer and closer around him. His adversary was conducting the contest with a logic and vigour which he admired without reserve.

”By Jove!” he thought. ”How difficult it is to defend one's self when one is innocent. There's my right wing and my left wing driven in. Will my centre be able to stand the a.s.sault?”