k no pains to smother the sound of his voice, for,
after yawning enough to dislocate his jaws, he uttered a loud: "Ah!" He
accompanied his yawns with exclamations:

"It's a fact, the Republic doesn't do things up to the scratch! The rugs
here are of poor quality!... I'm aching all over!... The floor is strewn
with peach kernels--surely?... At any rate, it's a quiet hotel, and one
is not disturbed--a truly delectable refuge to have a jolly good snore
in!"

The sleeper sat up:

"What's the time exactly? Let us have a light on it!" A match was
struck, and a tiny flare of light shone from under the desk of the
presiding judge:

"Ten past eleven! I've still five minutes to be lazy in--and I shall
need all of it, for I've a rough night before me! I can rest awhile, and
think things over!"

The speaker calmly lay down again, trying to find a comfortable position
on what he christened mentally: "The administrative peach kernels":

"Let me see, now!" he went on aloud. "At five in the afternoon it was
known that Jacques Dollon had committed suicide; was probably innocent,
and that his corpse had disappeared. Yesterday, at half-past five, _La
Capitale_ announced that he had a very pretty sister.... To-night at
ten past eleven behold me, shut up quite alone in the Palais de Justice,
free to proceed to the little investigation I think of making.... Jerome
Fandor, my dear friend, I congratulate you! You have not managed
badly!...

"Yes," went on our journalist, "what a joke it is! Here have I got
myself shut up in the Palais without the slightest difficulty! It is
true, that if the assistant had been obliged to open, and verify, the
contents of all the robing-rooms of all the judges, he would never have
finished. As for me, in my cupboard, I followed all the good fellow's
movements, and he never suspected my presence. If I am to be
congratulated, he cannot be blamed for it! There I was, there I
remained, and now I must be off!"

Fandor drew a small wax taper from his pocket and lighted it with a
match.

"What's to be done with the alarum?" he went on. "To leave it will be to
betray my having passed this way--what of it?... In any case, even if
this reporting job fails, I shall make a story out of it ... and how can
they accuse me of stealing if I leave my cloak as a gift for his
judgeship!"

Laughing, Fandor piled up the law books lying on the desk, and placed
the alarum on the top; that done, he went to the principal e