By the light of his tiny dark lantern Fandor studied afresh the plan of the Palais, and tried to identify the various chimneys about him. He soon picked out the orifice of Marie Antoinette"s chimney. After a considering glance at it, he remarked:
"That"s odd! Here is the only chimney whose opening is below the ledge of the roofs! It is certain that unless one had been warned, and had examined this roof from some neighbouring building, the orifice of this chimney would not be noticed. If Jacques Dollon pa.s.sed out by it, no one would notice his exit!"
Our journalist continued his examination, full of excitement. Surely he was on the right track!
"Ah! Ah! Here are stones freshly sc.r.a.ped and scratched!" he cried delightedly. "And this white mark is just the kind of mark which would be made by a cord sc.r.a.ping against the wall! And look what a size this chimney is! It"s not only one Jacques Dollon who could pa.s.s out by it, but two! But three! A whole army! Ah, ha, I believe I am on the right track! Now for it!"
Fandor bent over and looked down the interior of the chimney; and, at the risk of toppling over, he managed to reach something he saw shining in the darkness of the opening; he drew himself up, radiant:
"By Jove! There are irons fixed in the walls of the chimney to climb up and down by; and, what is more, they bear traces of a recent pa.s.sage--the rust has been rubbed off here and there!... Yes, it is by this way Dollon has come out!... To whom else could it be an advantage to use this as an exit from the interior of the Palais, on to the roofs?"
Fandor was keen on the scent! Here, indeed, was matter for an article which would bring him into notice--good business for a journalist!
"If Dollon had been alive," reflected Fandor, "it is evident that, once on the roofs, he had a choice of three ways to escape: he could do what I have just done, but the other way about; he could break a skylight, jump into a garret, and lie hidden under the tiles, awaiting the propitious moment when he could gain the corridors below and, mingling with the crowd, slip un.o.bserved into the street; or, he could hide among the roofs, and stay there; or, he could search for an opening--one of those air holes which put the cellars and drains in communication with the exterior.... But I have come to the conclusion that Dollon is dead!
Then his corpse could only remain up here; or, it has been put down into some place where n.o.body goes. The garrets of the Palais are so incessantly visited by the clerks and registrars that no corpse could remain undiscovered in any of them. Therefore, either Jacques Dollon"s corpse is somewhere on the roofs of the Palais, or there is some sort of communication between the roofs and the drains--it is obvious!"
Evidently the next step was to search every hole and corner of these same roofs. Armed with revolver and lantern, Fandor started on his tour of investigation; but prudently, for he was now almost certain that there were a number of accomplices involved in this Dollon affair.
To go carefully over the enormous roof of the Palais de Justice was no light task! One has only to consider the immensity of this monumental pile, its complicated architecture, the numberless little courts enclosed within its vast confines, to understand the difficulties with which our intrepid journalist had to contend. But Jerome Fandor was not the man to be discouraged in the face of difficulties: he was determined to brave them--conquer them! He examined, minutely, the entire roofing of the Palais; he did not leave a corner or a morsel of shadow unexplored; there was not a gutter which he had not searched from end to end. When, after two hours of strenuous exertion, he returned to his starting-point, the chimney of Marie Antoinette, he was fain to confess that if Jacques Dollon had mounted to the roof of the Palais de Justice he certainly had not remained there.
Fandor unfolded his plan once more. It fluttered in the night breeze, as he carefully numbered all the chimneys opening on to this roof; then, one by one, he identified them with the real chimneys before his eyes.
He exclaimed joyfully:
"There, now! It"s just what I suspected!"
He had discovered there was one chimney not down on the plan: "Whither did it lead?" At all costs he must find out--make sure. He hastened to this extra chimney. Its orifice was large enough to allow of the pa.s.sage of a man; also, here again, stones had been recently loosened, and a rope had rubbed against them:
"What the deuce is this chimney?" thought Fandor. "Another mystery! This chimney is not a chimney; there is not a trace of soot on it, even old soot!"
After a moment"s reflection, he added:
"Can it be for ventilation only? But a ventilation hole could only communicate with one of the apartments in the Palais itself, and how the deuce could they drop a corpse down there? It would have been in the highest degree imprudent to attempt it! No, it is not by that road they have carried off Dollon"s body! But then by what way?"
He glued his ear to the chimney. After a while, Fandor could make out a vague, intermittent sound--could catch a little, far-away, plashing sound.
"Can the chimney communicate with the Seine?" he asked himself. "No, we are too far off it. Why this opening, then?... Ah, I have it! It is a drain, a sewer, it communicates with!"
To verify that, there was nothing for it but to descend this chimney, which was no chimney! So be it!... Fandor took off his coat, and uncovered the long, fine cord, rolled round and round his middle.
Weighting the cord with a flint, he let it slide down the chimney, testing the straightness of the descent by the balanced oscillations of the stone, and so ascertaining the even size of the opening, as far as the line would go. This was the work of a few minutes.
Fandor did not hesitate: he was eager to embark on the descent.
"After all," he murmured, "though I may find myself face to face with a band of a.s.sa.s.sins--what of it? It is all in the night"s risks!"
He fastened the end of the cord to one of the neighbouring chimneys--fastened it firmly; then, his revolver handily stuck in his belt, Fandor seized the cord, twisted it round his legs, and let himself slowly down through the narrow opening.
It was a perilous descent! Fandor did not know whether his cord was long enough, and, lost in the darkness, with only the gleam of light from his lantern to guide him, he was naturally afraid of reaching the end of his rope unawares, and of falling into the black void beneath. But what he observed in the course of his descent excited him so much that he almost forgot the danger he was running. To those at all practised in police detective work, it was clear as daylight that men had pa.s.sed this way, and recently.
"Here is a dislodged stone," muttered Fandor. "And here are sc.r.a.pes and scratches--fresh ... and ... that mark looks like blood!"
Pushing his knees and his shoulders against the wall to support himself and stay his movements, he examined the mark. There was no doubt possible: Fandor"s sharp eyes and the lantern"s light had picked out a little red patch, which sullied one of the projecting stones in the chimney walls:
"This," reflected our amateur detective, "only confirms Dollon"s death: if the wound which caused this mark had been made by a living body, the mark would have been larger, and there would have been others, for it must come from an abrasion of the skin made during the descent. But this blood mark has resulted from a dead body knocking against the stones of the wall: it is not a mark make by flowing blood, but by blood crushed out."
He descended a few yards further:
"Here"s a find!" he cried. He had just perceived some hairs sticking to the rough surface of the stones. Again, with arched shoulders and bent knees, he supported himself against the wall, examined his discovery, left half the hairs where they were, took the rest, and carefully placed them in his pocket-book:
"The police must not be able to say that I have arranged this for their benefit," Fandor remarked. "Cost what it may, if I do not come across Dollon"s corpse below, I must find out to-morrow whether these hairs resemble his."
Fandor went on descending, and first in one place, then in another, he saw on the walls of this chimney whitish patches such as might have been caused by the pa.s.sage of a heavy ma.s.s or body, hanging at the end of a rope, and striking against the walls on its way down. Whilst he still believed himself to be some distance off the end of his downward journey, he felt a point of resistance beneath his feet. At first he mistook it for firm ground, much to his surprise. He was about to leave go of his cord when a remnant of prudence restrained him:
"How do I know there is not an abyss depths upon depths below me--down into the very bowels of the earth! I had better take care!"
What Fandor had taken for firm ground was nothing but an iron staple projecting from the wall. Fandor seized it, stopped for a minute or two"s breathing s.p.a.ce, ascertained, by drawing it up, that of his cord there were only a few yards remaining; but he also perceived, and with what relief, that from where he was resting, downwards the chimney was, as far as he could see by his lantern"s light, marked off into regular s.p.a.ces by these iron staples which are sometimes placed there for the use of chimney cleaners and masons. Fandor found them a most convenient kind of ladder. The descent now became easy, and in a short time our adventurous journalist reached the bottom of the chimney. At first he could not understand where he had got to. In the thick gloom around him his lantern"s gleam of light showed him a kind of vaulted wall of ma.s.sive masonry. He advanced a step or two with noiseless tread, listening, on the alert. Not a sound could he hear: he decided to expose the full light of his lantern.
The brighter light showed him that the chimney from which he was now standing some yards away ended in a kind of sewer, evidently no longer in use; and the plashing sound he had heard on the far up heights of the Palais roofs proceeded from a thin and muddy stream of water flowing in the middle of the sewer channel in the direction of the Seine. Kneeling at the foot of the chimney Fandor could distinguish marks of steps made by human feet; much deeper and very different indentations were visible also:
"Not only have men pa.s.sed this way but a short while ago," he murmured, "but they were carrying a heavy burden: there are two kinds of footmarks, made by two kinds of shoes, and the heels have made much deeper marks in the soil than have the tips--yes, these men bore a heavy burden!"
Fandor was so pleased that he mentally rubbed his hands over this discovery. His quest was a success so far: he was on the track of Dollon"s body! And what copy for _La Capitale_! Then a sad thought came to dim his delight:
"Poor, poor Elizabeth Dollon! I swore to her I would get at the truth--and a lamentable truth it is! Her brother is dead: he died in the Depot: he was done to death--it was no suicide!"
Whilst talking to himself Fandor was scrutinising every inch of the ground as he moved forward: there might be fresh clues:
"It"s a queer kind of sewer," he went on. "This streamlet is as much mud as water, is almost stagnant. Evidently this underground sewer way is no longer used--has been abandoned!"
A horrid spectacle struck him motionless. His lantern made visible a struggling, heaving ma.s.s of rats, fighting tooth and claw, enormous rats devouring some hidden thing!
Fandor"s stomach rose at the sight.
Oh, horror! Could it be Jacques Dollon"s body?
Fandor s.n.a.t.c.hed up a stone and flung it furiously among the unclean beasts. They fled. On the ground he could distinguish a ma.s.s, a red, formless ma.s.s, saturated with congealed blood:
"a.s.suredly, if the corpse has disappeared, it is there the a.s.sa.s.sins must have cut it in pieces, that they might carry it more easily, and those vile creatures are in the thick of feasting on the poor victim"s remains!... Pouah!"
Fandor moved on, only to discover another pool of blood almost as large, also besieged by rats:
"Evidently I shall find nothing else," thought Fandor: "the corpse no longer exists!"
He continued his advance, determined to find out what this underground way ended in. His lantern was flickering to a finish when he arrived at the end of the sewer and found, as he had foreseen, that its opening had been cut in the steep bank of the Seine:
"That"s a bit of luck! I can get out this way instead of having to climb back the way I came, up to the Palais roof and down again!"
It was still night; darkness reigned save on the far horizon, where a faint, whitish line indicated the early dawn of an April day.