“Let me see! I have during these last days fired several times quite
near to the house to frighten the birds away that eat my fruit. I want
to see if the paper is mine.”
The peasant gave it to him.
It was a very thin lead form, such as contain the cartridges used
in American breech-loading guns. What was singular was that it was
blackened by burnt powder; but it had not been torn, nor had it blazed
up in the discharge. It was so perfectly uninjured, that one could read
the embossed letters of the name of the manufacturer, Clebb.
“That cartridge never belonged to me,” said the count.
But as he uttered these words he turned deadly pale, so pale, that his
wife came close to him, and looked at him with a glance full of terrible
anguish.
“Well?”
He made no reply.
But at that moment such silence was so eloquent, that the countess felt
sickened, and whispered to him,--
“Then Cocoleu was right, after all!”
Not one feature of this dramatic scene had escaped M. Galpin’s eye.
He had seen on every face signs of a kind of terror; still he made no
remark. He took the metal case from the count’s hands, knowing that it
might become an important piece of evidence; and for nearly a minute he
turned it round and round, looking at it from all sides, and examining
it in the light with the utmost attention.
Then turning to the peasants, who were standing respectfully and
uncovered close by the door, he asked them,--
“Where did you find this cartridge, my friends?”
“Close by the old tower, where they keep the tools, and where the ivy is
growing all over the old castle.”
M. Seneschal had in the meantime succeeded in recovering his
self-control, and said now,--
“Surely the murderer cannot have fired from there. You cannot even see
the door of the house from the old tower.”
“That may be,” replied the magistrate; “but the cartridge-case does not
necessarily fall to the ground at the place where the gun is discharged.
It falls as soon as the gun is cocked to reload.”
This was so true, that even Dr. Seignebos had nothing to say.
“Now, my friends,” said M. Galpin, “which of you has found the
cartridge-case?”
“We were all together when we saw it, and picked it up.”
“Well, then, all three of you must give me your names and your domicile,
so that I can send for you when you are wanted.”
This was done; and, when all formalities were attended to, they went
off with numberless bows and doffings of hats. Just at that moment the
furious gallop of a horse was heard approaching the house; the next
moment the man who had been sent to Sauveterre for medicines came in. He
was furious.
“That rascal of a druggist!” he said. “I thought he would never open his
shop!”
Dr. Seignebos had eagerly seized the things that were sent him, then,
bowing with mock respect to the magistrate, he said,--
“I know very well, sir, how pressing the necessity is to have the head
of the culprit cut off; but I think it is almost as pressing to save the
life of the murdered man. I have probably delayed the binding up of the
count’s wounds longer than I ought to have done; and I beg you will now
leave me alone, so as to enable me to do my duty to him.”