en examine together if the assumed guilt of the Count de
Tremorel explains all the circumstances of the crime at Valfeuillu."

He was about to continue when Dr. Gendron, who sat near the window,
rose abruptly.

"There is someone in the garden," said he.

All approached the window. The weather was glorious, the night
very clear, and a large open space lay before the library window;
they looked out, but saw no one.

"You are mistaken, Doctor," said Plantat, resuming his arm-chair.

M. Lecoq continued:

"Now let us suppose that, under the influence of certain events
that we will examine presently, Monsieur de Tremorel had made up
his mind to get rid of his wife. The crime once resolved upon, it
was clear that the count must have reflected, and sought out the
means of committing it with impunity; he must have weighed the
circumstances, and estimated the perils of his act. Let us admit,
also, that the events which led him to this extremity were such
that he feared to be disturbed, and that he also feared that a
search would be made for certain things, even should his wife die
a natural death."

"That is true," said M. Plantat, nodding his head.

"Monsieur de Tremorel, then, determined to kill his wife, brutally,
with a knife, with the idea of so arranging everything, as to make
it believed that he too had been assassinated; and he also decided
to endeavor to thrust suspicion on an innocent person, or at least,
an accomplice infinitely less guilty than he.

"He made up his mind in advance, in adopting this course, to
disappear, fly, conceal himself, change his personality; to suppress,
in short, Count Hector de Tremorel, and make for himself, under
another name, a new position and identity. These hypotheses, easily
admitted, suffice to explain the whole series of otherwise
inconsistent circumstances. They explain to us in the first place,
how it was that on the very night of the murder, there was a large
fortune in ready money at Valfeuillu; and this seems to me decisive.
Why, when a man receives sums like this, which he proposes to keep
by him, he conceals the fact as carefully as possible. Monsieur de
Tremorel had not this common prudence. He shows his bundles of
bank-notes freely, handles them, parades them; the servants see
them, almost touch them. He wants everybody to know and repeat
that there is a large sum in the house, easy to take, carry off,
and conceal. And what time of all times, does he choose for t