ecoq, "and
that's why I said, 'not so stupid!' Well, let's see."

He lifted the clock with great care, and replaced it on the mantel,
being cautious to set it exactly upright. The hands continued to
point to twenty minutes past three.

"Twenty past three!" muttered he, while slipping a little wedge
under the stand. "People don't take tea at that hour. Still less
common is it that people are murdered at daylight."

He opened the clock-case with some difficulty, and pushed the longer
hand to the figure of half-past three.

The clock struck eleven!

"Good," cried M. Lecoq, triumphantly. "That is the truth!" and
drawing the lozenge-box from his pocket, he excitedly crushed a
lozenge between his teeth.

The simplicity of this discovery surprised the spectators; the idea
of trying the clock in this way had occurred to no one. M. Courtois,
especially, was bewildered.

"There's a fellow," whispered he to the doctor, "who knows what
he's about."

"Ergo," resumed M. Lecoq (who knew Latin), "we have here, not brutes,
as I thought at first, but rascals who looked beyond the end of their
knife. They intended to put us off the scent, by deceiving us as to
the hour."

"I don't see their object very clearly," said M. Courtois, timidly.

"Yet it is easy to see it," answered M. Domini. "Was it not for
their interest to make it appear that the crime was committed after
the last train for Paris had left? Guespin, leaving his companions
at the Lyons station at nine, might have reached here at ten,
murdered the count and countess, seized the money which he knew to
be in the count's possession, and returned to Paris by the last
train."

"These conjectures are very shrewd," interposed M. Plantat; "but
how is it that Guespin did not rejoin his comrades in the
Batignolles? For in that way, to a certain degree, he might have
provided a kind of alibi."

Dr. Gendron had been sitting on the only unbroken chair in the
chamber, reflecting on Plantat's sudden embarrassment, when he
had spoken of Robelot the bone-setter. The remarks of the judge
drew him from his revery; he got up, and said:

"There is another point; putting forward the time was perhaps
useful to Guespin, but it would greatly damage Bertaud, his
accomplice."

"But," answered M. Domini, "it might be that Bertaud was not
consulted. As to Guespin, he had no doubt good reasons for not
returning to the wedding. His restlessness, after such a deed,
would possibly have be