Pardon me! I think I have evidence."

"Oh!"

"You shall, judge yourself. When Daniel fell, he said, 'This time, they
have not missed me!'"

"Did he say so?"

"Word for word. And Saint Edme, who was farther from him than I was,
heard it as distinctly as I did."

To the great surprise of the lieutenant, the chief surgeon seemed only
moderately surprised; his eyes, on the contrary, shone with that pleased
air of a man who congratulates himself at having foreseen exactly what
he now is told was the fact. He drew a chair up to the fireplace, in
which a huge fire had been kindled to dry his clothes, sat down, and
said,--

"Do you know, my dear lieutenant, that what you tell me is a matter
of the greatest importance? What may we not conclude from those words,
'This time they have not missed me'? In the first place, it proves that
Champcey was fully aware that his life was in danger. Secondly,
that plural, 'They have not,' shows that he knew he was watched and
threatened by several people: hence the scamp whom we caught must have
accomplices. In the third place, those words, 'This time,' establish the
fact that his life has been attempted before."

"That is just what I thought, doctor."

The worthy old gentleman looked very grave and solemn, meditating
deeply.

"Well, I," he continued slowly, "I had a very clear presentiment of
all that as soon as I looked at the murderer. Do you remember the man's
amazing impudence as long as he thought he could not be convicted of the
crime? And then, when he found that the calibre of his gun betrayed him,
how abject, how painfully humble, he became! Evidently such a man is
capable of anything."

"Oh! you need only look at him"--

"Yes, indeed! Well, as I was thus watching him, I instinctively
recalled the two remarkable accidents which so nearly killed our poor
Champcey,--that block that fell upon him from the skies, and that
shipwreck in the Dong-Nai. But I was still doubtful. After what you tell
me, I am sure."

He seized the lieutenant's hand; and, pressing it almost painfully, he
went on,--

"Yes, I am ready to take my oath that this wretch is the vile tool of
people who hate or fear Daniel Champcey; who are deeply interested in
his death; and who, being too cowardly to do their own business, are
rich enough to hire an assassin."

The lieutenant was evidently unable to follow.

"Still, doctor," he objected, "but just now you insisted"--

"Upon a diametrically oppos