te of the attitude in which they
found the body, since the unfortunate man, who was still alive when the
police entered the cabin, had been moved before he expired.

"Approach, sergeant," ordered the commissary, "and look carefully at
this man."

It was with very evident repugnance that the old soldier obeyed.

"What is the uniform that he wears?"

"It is the uniform of the 2d battalion of the 53d regiment of the line."

"Do you recognize him?"

"Not at all."

"Are you sure that he does not belong to your regiment?"

"I can not say for certain: there are some conscripts at the Depot whom
I have never seen. But I am ready to swear that he had never formed
part of the 2d battalion--which, by the way, is mine, and in which I am
sergeant-major."

Lecoq, who had hitherto remained in the background, now stepped forward.
"It might be as well," he suggested, "to note the numbers marked on the
other articles of clothing."

"That is a very good idea," said the commissary, approvingly.

"Here is his shako," added the young police agent. "It bears the number
3,129."

The officials followed Lecoq's advice, and soon discovered that each
article of clothing worn by the unfortunate man bore a different number.

"The deuce!" murmured the sergeant; "there is every indication--But it
is very singular."

Invited to consider what he was going to say, the brave trooper
evidently made an effort to collect his intellectual faculties. "I would
stake my epaulets that this fellow never was a soldier," he said at
last. "He must have disguised himself to take part in the Shrove Sunday
carnival."

"Why do you think that?"

"Oh, I know it better than I can explain it. I know it by his hair, by
his nails, by his whole appearance, by a certain _je ne sais quoi_; in
short, I know it by everything and by nothing. Why look, the poor devil
did not even know how to put on his shoes; he has laced his gaiters
wrong side outwards." Evidently further doubt was impossible after this
evidence, which confirmed the truth of Lecoq's first remark to Inspector
Gevrol.

"Still, if this person was a civilian, how could he have procured this
clothing?" insisted the commissary. "Could he have borrowed it from the
men in your company?"

"Yes, that is possible; but it is difficult to believe."

"Is there no way by which you could ascertain?"

"Oh! very easily. I have only to run over to the fort and order an
inspection of clothing."

"Do so," ap