“You know there were two shots fired at Count Claudieuse. One, which hit
him in the side, nearly missed him; the other, which struck his shoulder
and his neck, hit well.”
“I know,” said the advocate.
“The difference in the effect shows that the two shots were fired from
different distances, the second much nearer than the first.”
“I know, I know!”
“Excuse me. If I refer to these details, it is because they are
important. When I was sent for in the middle of the night to come and
see Count Claudieuse, I at once set to work extracting the particles
of lead that had lodged in his flesh. While I was thus busy, M. Galpin
arrived. I expected he would ask me to show him the shot: but no, he did
not think of it; he was too full of his own ideas. He thought only of
the culprit, of _his_ culprit. I did not recall to him the A B C of his
profession: that was none of my business. The physician has to obey the
directions of justice, but not to anticipate them.”
“Well, then?”
“Then M. Galpin went off to Boiscoran, and I completed my work. I have
extracted fifty-seven shot from the count’s wound in the side, and a
hundred and nine from the wound on the shoulder and the neck; and, when
I had done that, do you know what I found out?”
He paused, waiting to see the effect of his words; and, when everybody’s
attention seemed to him fully roused, he went on,--
“I found out that the shot in the two wounds was not alike.”