OUZON. In the case of that pretty woman from Toulouse, at Bordeaux, a
case which made a good deal of stir at the time, it was I who forced the
accused to make the confession that led her to the guillotine.

BUNERAT [_admiringly_] Was it really?

VAGRET. My dear friend, I ask you most seriously--and if I am insistent,
it is because I have reasons for being so--between ourselves, I beg you
to tell us on what you base your opinion.

MOUZON. Well, I don't want to hide my light under a bushel--I'll tell
you.

BUNERAT. We are listening.

MOUZON. Recall the facts. In a house isolated as are most of our Basque
houses they find, one morning, an old man of eighty-seven murdered in
his bed. Servants who slept in the adjacent building had heard nothing.
The dogs did not bark. There was robbery, it is true, but the criminal
did not confine himself to stealing hard cash; he stole family papers as
well. Remember that point. And I will call your attention to another
detail. It had rained on the previous evening. In the garden footprints
were discovered which were immediately attributed to the murderer, who
was so badly shod that the big toe of his right foot protruded from his
boot. Monsieur Delorme proceeds along the trail; he obtains a piece of
evidence that encourages him, and he declares that the murderer is a
vagrant. I say this is a mistake. The murderer is not a vagrant. Now the
house in which the crime was committed is an isolated house, and we know
that within a radius of six to ten miles there was no tramp begging
before the crime. So this tramp, if there was one, would have eaten and
drunk on the scene of the crime, either before or after striking the
blow. Now no traces have been discovered which permit us to suppose that
he did anything of the kind. So--here is a man who arrives in a state of
exhaustion. He begs; he is refused. He then hides himself, and, when it
is night, he robs and assassinates. There is wine and bread and other
food at hand; but he goes his way without touching them. Is this
probable? No. Don't tell me that he was disturbed and so ran off; it is
not true; their own witness declares that he saw him in the morning, a
few yards from the house, whereas the crime was committed before
midnight. If Monsieur Delorme, in addition to his distinguished
qualities, had a little experience of cases of this kind, he would
realize that empty bottles, dirty glasses, and scraps of food left on
the table constitute,