The prisoner seemed so overcome with emotion that, after uttering a long sigh like a death rattle, he sank, a dead weight, into the arms of his jailors.
They were forced to support him. They carried him to the courtyard of the Council of War. Some, whose curiosity was aroused by the unusual pallor of the prisoner, wished to follow, but the jailors closed the great doors of the courtyard.
Before leading him to his cell, they dumped their inanimate prisoner on a chair in the porter"s lodge.... The porter brought vinegar. They rubbed Butler-Vinson"s temples with it. A jailor slapped his hands. In vain! The prisoner showed no signs of life!
"You had better take him to his cell," advised the porter. "Perhaps he will come to his senses if laid on his pallia.s.se? In any case, run for the medical officer."
The jailors, who could make nothing of their prisoner"s mysterious condition, transported him to cell 27. They laid him on his pallia.s.se.
"Lieutenant Servin?"
"Commandant?"
"Will you help me to reduce these papers to order? It is half-past eleven: I want to go to breakfast!"
The lieutenant brought a pile of doc.u.ments to his superior"s table and rapidly cla.s.sified them.
His superior, Commandant Dumoulin, had been chief a.s.sistant at the Second Bureau. He had pa.s.sed long years at his post there. Previous to that, he had acted as Government Commissioner on the Councils of War in the various garrisons where he had been stationed.... Some six months ago Dumoulin had sent in his request to the Minister of War for a change of billet. His record being an excellent one, the Minister had appointed him Government Chief-commissioner attached to the Princ.i.p.al Council of War, sitting in Paris.
Dumoulin had recently taken up his new duties, and was counting on getting peacefully into the run of things, when, the evening before, he had been warned at his own home by a private note from the Minister, that a deserter, accused of treason, had been arrested, and that Corporal Vinson was the man in question.
At the sight of this name Commandant Dumoulin thrilled with excitement. As former Under-Secretary at the Second Bureau he had the affair at his finger ends, and well knew how tangled, how obscure it was, how bristling with dangers, how rich in complications.... The Vinson affair, it was the Captain Brocq affair, the singer Nichoune affair ... the story of a plan of mobilisation stolen, of a gun piece lifted from the a.r.s.enal!... He was in for a big affair--a sensational case!...
The commandant pa.s.sed a wakeful night and arrived early at his office.
He must get to work! Fortunately, among his deputies he had found a competent and zealous helper in Lieutenant Servin. He turned to him now.
"Our next proceeding will be to establish the ident.i.ty of Corporal Vinson. We must examine him on that point without delay.... Send for him immediately, Lieutenant!... According to the prison register, he occupies cell 26."
"Excuse me, Commandant; Vinson, who was registered this morning at the Cherche-Midi prison, must actually be in the Council buildings, where he occupied cell 27."
The commandant adjusted his eye-gla.s.ses, looked closely at a yellow paper, and corrected in his turn:
"That is an error: in cell 27 is an individual named Butler."
"Yes, Commandant: Butler--he is Vinson!"
"I do not understand," objected Dumoulin. "You must have made a mistake. Corporal Vinson was arrested yesterday at the Saint Lazare station: he was brought here and was registered for cell 26; besides, I was immediately informed of this arrest by a private telegram."
"Commandant," persisted the lieutenant: "Corporal Vinson, who hid himself under the name of Butler, was arrested early this morning at the Calais station, when he landed from England. The arrest was effected by Inspector Juve, who took his prisoner to Cherche-Midi about six o"clock; and this Vinson occupied cell 27."
"Come, now, Lieutenant, you have lost your head!" grumbled the commandant: "Since Vinson was arrested yesterday at the Saint Lazare station, it is evident that he was not arrested last night at Calais!
Vinson and Butler--that makes two."
"I beg your pardon, Commandant: that makes only one!"
The commandant looked severely at his subordinate.
"That is enough, Lieutenant!... Send for Corporal Vinson who occupied cell 26."
"Right, Commandant!"
Some minutes later there was a knock at the door: two warders with a prisoner stood on the threshold.
The commandant a.s.sured himself with a glance that the non-commissioned officer, acting as reporter, was at his post, and that Lieutenant Servin was seated at the desk next his own.
"Enter!" he commanded.
Dumoulin solemnly opened the voluminous bundle of papers set before him, looked through the doc.u.ments, affecting not to see the prisoner stationed before him.... Ready at length to begin the interrogation, the commandant raised his head, straightened himself, and ordered:
"Approach!"
The prisoner, a warder on each side of him, took a step forward.
"You are truly Corporal Vinson?"
"No, Commandant!"
Dumoulin was silent a moment, choking with anger, his hand trembling slightly--did the fellow mean to mock him?... He frowned. He did not like the manner of this fellow, with his bright, piercing eyes, his scornful looks. He repeated:
"Are you Corporal Vinson?"
"No, Commandant."
Dumoulin was boiling with rage: he was about to explode. Lieutenant Servin approached: in a low voice he said:
"Commandant! Someone wishes you to see him immediately."
Servin handed his superior a card. On it the commandant read:
_Inspector Juve, Detective Force, Police Headquarters._
"What does he want?"
"He is the detective who arrested Vinson."
"Well," exclaimed the exasperated Dumoulin, "he arrives at the right moment! Let him come in!"
Juve entered and saluted Dumoulin with an amiable smile. He did not take any notice of the prisoner, who was standing with his back to the light.
"It is I, Commandant, who arrested Corporal Vinson; consequently, I have come to place myself at your disposal."
"You have done the right thing!" cried Dumoulin. "Now, will you get this prisoner to own up? Make him tell us whether or no he is Corporal Vinson!"
Dumoulin pointed an irate finger at the prisoner.
Our detective stood rooted to the ground!... The prisoner moved quickly towards him.