had
broken his leg in getting out of his carriage?"

"Believe! I believed what they told me, because--" He paused, and
Tirauclair burst into a hearty fit of laughter.

"You believed it," he said, "because it was a very plausible story."

"What would you have believed had you been in my place?"

"Exactly the opposite of what they told me. I might have been mistaken;
but it would be the logical conclusion as my first course of reasoning."

This conclusion was so bold that Lecoq was disconcerted. "What!" he
exclaimed; "do you suppose that M. d'Escorval's fall was only a fiction?
that he didn't break his leg?"

Old Tabaret's face suddenly assumed a serious expression. "I don't
suppose it," he replied; "I'm sure of it."

XXIV

Lecoq's confidence in the oracle he was consulting was very great; but
even old Tirauclair might be mistaken, and what he had just said seemed
such an enormity, so completely beyond the bounds of possibility, that
the young man could not conceal a gesture of incredulous surprise.

"So, Monsieur Tabaret, you are ready to affirm that M. d'Escorval is
in quite as good health as Father Absinthe or myself; and that he has
confined himself to his room for a couple of months to give a semblance
of truth to a falsehood?"

"I would be willing to swear it."

"But what could possibly have been his object?"

Tabaret lifted his hands to heaven, as if imploring forgiveness for the
young man's stupidity. "And it was in you," he exclaimed, "in you that
I saw a successor, a disciple to whom I might transmit my method of
induction; and now, you ask me such a question as that! Reflect a
moment. Must I give you an example to assist you? Very well. Let it be
so. Suppose yourself a magistrate. A crime is committed; you are
charged with the duty of investigating it, and you visit the prisoner
to question him. Very well. This prisoner has, hitherto, succeeded in
concealing his identity--this was the case in the present instance, was
it not? Very well. Now, what would you do if, at the very first glance,
you recognized under the prisoner's disguise your best friend, or your
worst enemy? What would you do, I ask?"

"I should say to myself that a magistrate who is obliged to hesitate
between his duty and his inclinations, is placed in a very trying
position, and I should endeavor to avoid the responsibility."

"I understand that; but would you reveal this prisoner's
identity--remember, he might be your fr