“The biography which I have just read establishes nothing. We do not
succeed by probabilities and presumptions; however strong they are in
convincing a jury. They want and require proof, positive proof, before
they condemn. Well, such proof I have.”
“Oh!”
From the same box from which he had taken the papers concerning Crochard
he now drew a letter, which he shook in the air with a threatening
gesture. “Here is something,” he said, “which was sent to the state
attorney twelve days after the last attempt had been made on M.
Champcey’s life. Listen!” And he read thus,--
“Sir,--A sailor, who has come over to Boen-Hoa, where I live with my
wife, has told us that a certain Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet, has shot,
and perhaps mortally wounded, Lieut. Champcey of the ship ‘Conquest.’
“In connection with this misfortune, my wife thinks, and I also consider
it a matter of conscience, that we should make known to you a very
serious matter.
“One day I happened to be on a yardarm, side by side with Crochard,
helping the sailors to furl a sail, when I saw him drop a huge block,
which fell upon Lieut. Champcey, and knocked him down.
“No one else had noticed it; and Crochard instantly pulled up the block
again. I was just considering whether I ought to report him, when he
fell at my feet, and implored me to keep it secret; for he had been very
unfortunate in life, and if I spoke he would be ruined.
“Thinking that he had been simply awkward, I allowed myself to be moved,
and swore to Crochard that the matter should remain between us. But
what has happened since proves very clearly, as my wife says, that I was
wrong to keep silence; and I am ready now to tell all, whatever may be
the consequences.
“Still, sir, I beg you will protect me, in case Crochard should think of
avenging himself on me or on my family,--a thing which might very easily
happen, as he is a very bad man, capable of any thing.
“As I cannot write, my wife sends you this letter. And we are, with the
most profound respect, &c.”
The doctor rubbed his hands violently.
“And you have seen this blacksmith?” he asked.
“Certainly! He has been here, he and his wife. Ah! if the man had been
left to his own counsels, he would have kept it all secret, so terribly
is he afraid of this Crochard; but, fortunately, his wife had more
courage.”
“Decidedly,” growled the surgeon. “The women are, after all, the better
part of creation.”
The magistrate carefully replaced the letter in the box, and then went
on in his usual calm voice,--
“Thus the first attempt at murder is duly and fully proven. As for the
second,--the one made on the river,--we are not quite so far advanced.
Still I have hopes. I have found out, for instance, that Crochard is a
first-rate swimmer. Only about three months ago he made a bet with one
of the waiters at the hotel where he is engaged, that he would swim
across the Dong-Nai twice, at a place where the current is strongest;
and he did it.”
“But that is evidence; is it not?”
“No; it is only a probability in favor of the prosecution. But I
have another string to my bow. The register on board ship proves that
Crochard went on shore the very evening after the arrival of the vessel.
Where, and with whom, did he spend the evening? Not one of my hundred
and odd witnesses has seen him that night. And that is not all. No one
has noticed, the next day, that his clothes were wet. Therefore he must
have changed his clothes; and, in order to do that, he must have bought
some; for he had taken nothing with him out of the ship but what he had
on. Where did he buy these clothes? I mean to find that out as soon as
I shall no longer be forced to carry on the investigation secretly, as I
have done so far. For I never forget one thing, that the real criminals
are in France, and that they will surely escape us, if they hear that
their wretched accomplice here is in trouble.”
Once more the surgeon drew Henrietta’s letter from his pocket, and
handed it to the lawyer, saying,--
“I know who they are, the really guilty ones. I know Daniel’s
enemies,--Sarah Brandon, Maxime de Brevan, and the others.”