“Galpin, Galpin!”
The other man paid no attention. Having taken a note-book and a pencil
from his pocket, he drew up close to the sick man’s bed, and asked him
in an undertone,--
“Are you strong enough, count, to answer my questions?”
“Oh, perfectly!”
“Then, pray tell me all you know of the sad events of to-night.”
With the aid of his wife and Dr. Seignebos, the count raised himself on
his pillows, and began thus,--
“Unfortunately, the little I know will be of no use in aiding justice to
discover the guilty man. It may have been eleven o’clock, for I am not
even quite sure of the hour, when I had gone to bed, and just blown out
my candle: suddenly a bright light fell upon the window. I was amazed,
and utterly confused; for I was in that state of sleepiness which is not
yet sleep, but very much like it. I said to myself, ‘What can this be?’
but I did not get up: I only was roused by a great noise, like the crash
of a falling wall; and then I jumped out of bed, and said to myself,
‘The house is on fire!’ What increased my anxiety was the fact, which
I at once recollected, that there were in the courtyard, and all around
the house, some sixteen thousand bundles of dry wood, which had been
cut last year. Half dressed, I rushed downstairs. I was very much
bewildered, I confess, and could hardly succeed in opening the outer
door: still I did open it at last. But I had barely put my foot on
the threshold, when I felt in my right side, a little above the hip, a
fierce pain, and heard at the same time, quite close to me, a shot.”
The magistrate interrupted him by a gesture.
“Your statement, count, is certainly remarkably clear. But there is one
point we must try to establish. Were you really fired at the moment you
showed yourself at the door?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then the murderer must have been quite near on the watch. He must have
known that the fire would bring you out; and he was lying in wait for
you.”
“That was and still is my impression,” declared the count.