. [_He takes a paper from his pocket-book and
accidentally drops other papers, which La Bouzole picks up_] I see--

LA BOUZOLE. You are dropping your papers, Mouzon. Is this yours--this
envelope? [_He reads_] "Monsieur Benoit, Officer of the Navy, Railway
Hotel, Bordeaux." A nice scent--

MOUZON [_flurried, taking the letter from La Bouzole_] Yes--a letter
belonging to a friend of mine.

LA BOUZOLE. And this? The Irissary murder?

MOUZON. Ah, yes--it's--I was going to explain--it's--oh, the Irissary
murder, yes--it's the translation Bunerat gave me of the article which
appeared in the _Eskual Herria_ to-day. It is extremely unpleasant. They
say Mauleon is a sort of penal Court--something like a Biribi of the
magistracy.

VAGRET. But, after all, I can't invent a murderer for you just because
the fellow is so pig-headed that he won't allow himself to be taken!
Delorme has sent the description they gave us to the offices of all the
magistrates.

MOUZON. Delorme! Shall I tell you what I think? Well, our colleague
Delorme is making a mistake in sticking to the idea that the criminal is
a tramp.

VAGRET. But there is a witness.

MOUZON. The witness is lying, or he's mistaken.

BUNERAT. A witness who saw gipsies leaving the victim's house that
morning.

MOUZON. I repeat, the witness is lying, or he is mistaken.

VAGRET. Why so?

MOUZON. I'm certain of it.

BUNERAT. Why?

MOUZON. Because I'm certain the murderer wasn't a gipsy.

VAGRET. But explain--

MOUZON. It's of no use, my dear friend. I know my duty to my colleague
Delorme too well to insist. I've said too much already.

VAGRET. Not at all.

BUNERAT. By no means.

MOUZON. It was with the greatest delicacy that I warned our colleague
Delorme--he was good enough to consult me and show me day by day the
information which he had elicited--I warned him that he was on a false
scent. He would listen to nothing; he persisted in searching for his
tramp. Well, let him search! There are fifty thousand tramps in France.
After all, I am probably wrong. Yet I should be surprised, for in the
big towns in which I have served as magistrate, and in which I found
myself confronted, not merely now and again, but every day, so to speak,
with difficulties of this sort, I was able to acquire a certain practice
in criminal cases and a certain degree of perspicacity.

VAGRET. Obviously. As for Delorme, it is the first time he has had to
deal with such a big crime.

M