"Enough; the most incredulous would now be convinced." After thinking a
moment, he added:
"No, there is no longer any possible doubt of it."
M. Lecoq thought that his argument deserved a reward, and treated
himself to two lozenges at a mouthful.
"I haven't done yet," he resumed. "Granted, that the countess could not
have been murdered here; let's add that she was not carried hither, but
dragged along. There are only two ways of dragging a body; by the
shoulders, and in this case the feet, scraping along the earth, leave
two parallel trails; or by the legs--in which case the head, lying on
the earth, leaves a single furrow, and that a wide one."
Plantat nodded assent.
"When I examined the lawn," pursued M. Lecoq, "I found the parallel
trails of the feet, but yet the grass was crushed over a rather wide
space. How was that? Because it was the body, not of a man, but of a
woman, which was dragged across the lawn--of a woman full-dressed, with
heavy petticoats; that, in short, of the countess, and not of the
count."