ssassins should get into my house, when I was
there, and up, it would go hard with them. I don't know what I
would do; probably I should be killed; but surely I would give the
alarm. I would defend myself, and cry out, and open the windows,
and set the house afire."

"Let us add," insisted the doctor, "that it is not easy to surprise
a man who is awake. There is always an unexpected noise which puts
one on his guard. Perhaps it is a creaking door, or a cracking
stair. However cautious the murderer, he does not surprise his
victim."

"They may have used fire-arms;" struck in the worthy mayor, "that
has been done. You are quietly sitting in your chamber; it is
summer, and your windows are open; you are chatting with your wife,
and sipping a cup of tea; outside, the assassins are supplied with
a short ladder; one ascends to a level with the window, sights you
at his ease, presses the trigger, the bullet speeds--"

"And," continued the doctor, "the whole neighborhood, aroused by it,
hastens to the spot."

"Permit me, pardon, permit me," said M. Courtois, testily, "that
would be so in a populous town. Here, in the midst of a vast park,
no. Think, doctor, of the isolation of this house. The nearest
neighbor is a long way off, and between there are many large trees,
intercepting the sound. Let us test it by experience. I will fire
a pistol in this room, and I'll wager that you will not hear the
echo in the road."

"In the daytime, perhaps, but not in the night."

"Well," said M. Domini, who had been reflecting while M. Courtois
was talking, "if against all hope, Guespin does not decide to speak
to-night, or to-morrow, the count's body will afford us a key to
the mystery."

During this discussion, M. Lecoq had continued his investigations,
lifting the furniture, studying the fractures, examining the
smallest pieces, as if they might betray the truth. Now and then,
he took out an instrument-case, from which he produced a shank,
which he introduced and turned in the locks. He found several keys
on the carpet, and on a rack, a towel, which he carefully put one
side, as if he deemed it important. He came and went from the
bedroom to the count's cabinet, without losing a word that was said;
noting in his memory, not so much the phrases uttered, as the
diverse accents and intonations with which they were spoken. In an
inquest such as that of the crime of Orcival, when several officials
find themselves face to face, they ho