All the spectators, from the governor of the prison to the keepers, had witnessed many other incidents equally absurd; and no one thought of inquiring the detective"s motive. This much was known already; that the prisoner was trying to conceal his ident.i.ty. Now it was necessary to establish it, at any cost, and Lecoq had probably discovered some means of attaining this end.
The operation was soon concluded; and Lecoq swept the dust off the paper into the palm of his hand. He divided it into two parts, enclosing one portion in a sc.r.a.p of paper, and slipping it into his own pocket. With the remainder he formed a package which he handed to the governor, saying: "I beg you, sir, to take charge of this, and to seal it up here, in presence of the prisoner. This formality is necessary, so that by and by he may not pretend that the dust has been changed."
The governor complied with the request, and as he placed this "bit of proof" (as he styled it) in a small satchel for safe keeping, the prisoner shrugged his shoulders with a sneering laugh. Still, beneath this cynical gaiety Lecoq thought he could detect poignant anxiety. Chance owed him the compensation of this slight triumph; for previous events had deceived all his calculations.
The prisoner did not offer the slightest objection when he was ordered to undress, and to exchange his soiled and bloodstained garments for the clothing furnished by the Government. Not a muscle of his face moved while he submitted his person to one of those ignominous examinations which make the blood rush to the forehead of the lowest criminal. It was with perfect indifference that he allowed an inspector to comb his hair and beard, and to examine the inside of his mouth, so as to make sure that he had not concealed either some fragment of gla.s.s, by the aid of which captives can sever the strongest bars, or one of those microscopical bits of lead with which prisoners write the notes they exchange, rolled up in a morsel of bread, and called "postilions."
These formalities having been concluded, the superintendent rang for one of the keepers. "Conduct this man to No. 3 of the secret cells," he ordered.
There was no need to drag the prisoner away. He walked out, as he had entered, preceding the guard, like some old habitue, who knows where he is going.
"What a rascal!" exclaimed the clerk.
"Then you think-" began Lecoq, baffled but not convinced.
"Ah! there can be no doubt of it," declared the governor. "This man is certainly a dangerous criminal-an old offender-I think I have seen him before-I could almost swear to it."
Thus it was evident these people, with their long, varied experience, shared Gevrol"s opinion; Lecoq stood alone. He did not discuss the matter-what good would it have done? Besides, the Widow Chupin was just being brought in.
The journey must have calmed her nerves, for she had become as gentle as a lamb. It was in a wheedling voice, and with tearful eyes, that she called upon these "good gentlemen" to witness the shameful injustice with which she was treated-she, an honest woman. Was she not the mainstay of her family (since her son Polyte was in custody, charged with pocket-picking), hence what would become of her daughter-in-law, and of her grandson Toto, who had no one to look after them but her?
Still, when her name had been taken, and a keeper was ordered to remove her, nature rea.s.serted itself, and scarcely had she entered the corridor than she was heard quarreling with the guard.
"You are wrong not to be polite," she said; "you are losing a good fee, without counting many a good drink I would stand you when I get out of here."
Lecoq was now free until M. d"Escorval"s arrival. He wandered through the gloomy corridors, from office to office, but finding himself a.s.sailed with questions by every one he came across, he eventually left the Depot, and went and sat down on one of the benches beside the quay. Here he tried to collect his thoughts. His convictions were unchanged. He was more than ever convinced that the prisoner was concealing his real social standing, but, on the other hand, it was evident that he was well acquainted with the prison and its usages.
He had also proved himself to be endowed with far more cleverness than Lecoq had supposed. What self-control! What powers of dissimulation he had displayed! He had not so much as frowned while undergoing the severest ordeals, and he had managed to deceive the most experienced eyes in Paris.
The young detective had waited during nearly three hours, as motionless as the bench on which he was seated, and so absorbed in studying his case that he had thought neither of the cold nor of the flight of time, when a carriage drew up before the entrance of the prison, and M. d"Escorval alighted, followed by his clerk.
Lecoq rose and hastened, well-nigh breathless with anxiety, toward the magistrate.
"My researches on the spot," said this functionary, "confirm me in the belief that you are right. Is there anything fresh?"
"Yes, sir; a fact that is apparently very trivial, though, in truth, it is of importance that-"
"Very well!" interrupted the magistrate. "You will explain it to me by and by. First of all, I must summarily examine the prisoners. A mere matter of form for to-day. Wait for me here."
Although the magistrate promised to make haste, Lecoq expected that at least an hour would elapse before he reappeared. In this he was mistaken. Twenty minutes later, M. d"Escorval emerged from the prison without his clerk.
He was walking very fast, and instead of approaching the young detective, he called to him at some little distance. "I must return home at once," he said, "instantly; I can not listen to you."
"But, sir-"
"Enough! the bodies of the victims have been taken to the Morgue. Keep a sharp lookout there. Then, this evening make-well-do whatever you think best."
"But, sir, I must-"
"To-morrow!-to-morrow, at nine o"clock, in my office in the Palais de Justice."
Lecoq wished to insist upon a hearing, but M. d"Escorval had entered, or rather thrown himself into, his carriage, and the coachman was already whipping up the horse.
"And to think that he"s an investigating magistrate," panted Lecoq, left spellbound on the quay. "Has he gone mad?" As he spoke, an uncharitable thought took possession of his mind. "Can it be," he murmured, "that M. d"Escorval holds the key to the mystery? Perhaps he wishes to get rid of me."
This suspicion was so terrible that Lecoq hastened back to the prison, hoping that the prisoner"s bearing might help to solve his doubts. On peering through the grated aperture in the door of the cell, he perceived the prisoner lying on the pallet that stood opposite the door. His face was turned toward the wall, and he was enveloped in the coverlid up to his eyes. He was not asleep, for Lecoq could detect a strange movement of the body, which puzzled and annoyed him. On applying his ear instead of his eye to the aperture, he distinguished a stifled moan. There could no longer be any doubt. The death rattle was sounding in the prisoner"s throat.
"Help! help!" cried Lecoq, greatly excited. "The prisoner is killing himself!"
A dozen keepers hastened to the spot. The door was quickly opened, and it was then ascertained that the prisoner, having torn a strip of binding from his clothes, had fastened it round his neck and tried to strangle himself with the a.s.sistance of a spoon that had been left him with his food. He was already unconscious, and the prison doctor, who immediately bled him, declared that had another ten minutes elapsed, help would have arrived too late.
When the prisoner regained his senses, he gazed around him with a wild, puzzled stare. One might have supposed that he was amazed to find himself still alive. Suddenly a couple of big tears welled from his swollen eyelids, and rolled down his cheeks. He was pressed with questions, but did not vouchsafe so much as a single word in response. As he was in such a desperate frame of mind, and as the orders to keep him in solitary confinement prevented the governor giving him a companion, it was decided to put a straight waistcoat on him. Lecoq a.s.sisted at this operation, and then walked away, puzzled, thoughtful, and agitated. Intuition told him that these mysterious occurrences concealed some terrible drama.
"Still, what can have occurred since the prisoner"s arrival here?" he murmured. "Has he confessed his guilt to the magistrate, or what is his reason for attempting so desperate an act?"
VIII
Lecoq did not sleep that night, although he had been on his feet for more than forty hours, and had scarcely paused either to eat or drink. Anxiety, hope, and even fatigue itself, had imparted to his body the fict.i.tious strength of fever, and to his intellect the unhealthy acuteness which is so often the result of intense mental effort.
He no longer had to occupy himself with imaginary deductions, as in former times when in the employ of his patron, the astronomer. Once again did the fact prove stranger than fiction. Here was reality-a terrible reality personified by the corpses of three victims lying on the marble slabs at the Morgue. Still, if the catastrophe itself was a patent fact, its motive, its surroundings, could only be conjectured. Who could tell what circ.u.mstances had preceded and paved the way for this tragical denouement?
It is true that all doubt might be dispelled by one discovery-the ident.i.ty of the murderer. Who was he? Who was right, Gevrol or Lecoq? The former"s views were shared by the officials at the prison; the latter stood alone. Again, the former"s opinion was based upon formidable proof, the evidence of sight; while Lecoq"s hypothesis rested only on a series of subtle observations and deductions, starting from a single sentence that had fallen from the prisoner"s lips.
And yet Lecoq resolutely persisted in his theory, guided by the following reasons. He learnt from M. d"Escorval"s clerk that when the magistrate had examined the prisoner, the latter not only refused to confess, but answered all the questions put to him in the most evasive fashion. In several instances, moreover, he had not replied at all. If the magistrate had not insisted, it was because this first examination was a mere formality, solely intended to justify the somewhat premature delivery of the order to imprison the accused.
Now, under these circ.u.mstances, how was one to explain the prisoner"s attempt at self-destruction? Prison statistics show that habitual offenders do not commit suicide. When apprehended for a criminal act, they are sometimes seized with a wild frenzy and suffer repeated nervous attacks; at others they fall into a dull stupor, just as some glutted beast succ.u.mbs to sleep with the blood of his prey still dripping from his lips. However, such men never think of putting an end to their days. They hold fast to life, no matter how seriously they may be compromised. In truth, they are cowards.
On the other hand, the unfortunate fellow who, in a moment of frenzy, commits a crime, not unfrequently seeks to avoid the consequences of his act by self-destruction.
Hence, the prisoner"s frustrated attempt at suicide was a strong argument in favor of Lecoq"s theory. This wretched man"s secret must be a terrible one since he held it dearer than life, since he had tried to destroy himself that he might take it unrevealed to the grave.
Four o"clock was striking when Lecoq sprang from his bed on which he had thrown himself without undressing; and five minutes later he was walking down the Rue Montmartre. The weather was still cold and muggy; and a thick fog hung over the city. But the young detective was too engrossed with his own thoughts to pay attention to any atmospherical unpleasantness. Walking with a brisk stride, he had just reached the church of Saint Eustache, when a coa.r.s.e, mocking voice accosted him with the exclamation: "Ah, ha! my fine fellow!"
He looked up and perceived Gevrol, who, with three of his men, had come to cast his nets round about the markets, whence the police generally return with a good haul of thieves and vagabonds.
"You are up very early this morning, Monsieur Lecoq," continued the inspector; "you are still trying to discover our man"s ident.i.ty, I suppose?"
"Still trying."
"Is he a prince in disguise, or only a marquis?"
"One or the other, I am quite certain."
"All right then. In that case you will not refuse us the opportunity to drink to your success."
Lecoq consented, and the party entered a wine-shop close by. When the gla.s.ses were filled, Lecoq turned to Gevrol and exclaimed: "Upon my word, General, our meeting will save me a long walk. I was going to the prefecture to request you, on M. d"Escorval"s behalf, to send one of our comrades to the Morgue this morning. The affair at the Poivriere has been noised about, and all the world will be there, so he desires some officer to be present to watch the crowd and listen to the remarks of the visitors."
"All right; Father Absinthe shall be there when the doors open."
To send Father Absinthe where a shrewd and subtle agent was required was a mockery. Still Lecoq did not protest, for it was better to be badly served than to be betrayed; and he could at least trust Father Absinthe.
"It doesn"t much matter," continued Gevrol; "but you should have informed me of this last evening. However, when I reached the prefecture you had gone."
"I had some work to do."
"Yes?"
"At the station-house near the Barriere d"Italie. I wanted to know whether the floor of the cell was paved or tiled." So saying, Lecoq paid the score, saluted his superior officer, and went out.
"Thunder!" exclaimed Gevrol, striking his gla.s.s violently upon the counter. "Thunder! how that fellow provokes me! He does not know the A B C of his profession. When he can"t discover anything, he invents wonderful stories, and then misleads the magistrates with his high-sounding phrases, in the hope of gaining promotion. I"ll give him advancement with a vengeance! I"ll teach him to set himself above me!"
Lecoq had not been deceived. The evening before, he had visited the station-house where the prisoner had first been confined, and had compared the soil of the cell floor with the dust he had placed in his pocket; and he carried away with him, as he believed, one of those crushing proofs that often suffice to extort from the most obstinate criminal a complete confession. If Lecoq was in haste to part company with Gevrol, it was because he was anxious to pursue his investigations still further, before appearing in M. d"Escorval"s presence. He was determined to find the cab-driver who had been stopped by the two women in the Rue du Chevaleret; and with this object in view, he had obtained at the prefecture the names and addresses of all the cab-owners hiring between the road to Fontainebleau and the Seine.
His earlier efforts at investigation proved unsuccessful. At the first establishment he visited, the stable boys, who were not yet up, swore at him roundly. In the second, he found the grooms at work, but none of the drivers had as yet put in an appearance. Moreover, the owner refused to show him the books upon which are recorded-or should be recorded-each driver"s daily engagements. Lecoq was beginning to despair, when at about half-past seven o"clock he reached an establishment just beyond the fortifications belonging to a man named Trigault. Here he learned that on Sunday night, or rather, early on Monday morning, one of the drivers had been accosted on his way home by some persons who succeeded in persuading him to drive them back into Paris.
This driver, who was then in the courtyard harnessing his horse, proved to be a little old man, with a ruddy complexion, and a pair of small eyes full of cunning. Lecoq walked up to him at once.
"Was it you," he asked, "who, on Sunday night or rather on Monday, between one and two in the morning, drove a couple of women from the Rue du Chevaleret into Paris?"
The driver looked up, and surveying Lecoq attentively, cautiously replied: "Perhaps."
"It is a positive answer that I want."
"Aha!" said the old man sneeringly, "you know two ladies who have lost something in a cab, and so-"
The young detective trembled with satisfaction. This man was certainly the one he was looking for. "Have you heard anything about a crime that has been committed in the neighborhood?" he interrupted.
"Yes; a murder in a low wine-shop."
"Well, then, I will tell you that these two women are mixed up in it; they fled when we entered the place. I am trying to find them. I am a detective; here is my card. Now, can you give me any information?"
The driver had grown very pale. "Ah! the wretches!" he exclaimed. "I am no longer surprised at the luck-money they gave me-a louis and two five-franc pieces for the fare-thirty francs in all. Cursed money! If I hadn"t spent it, I"d throw it away!"
"And where did you drive them?"
"To the Rue de Bourgogne. I have forgotten the number, but I should recognize the house."
"Unfortunately, they would not have let you drive them to their own door."
"Who knows? I saw them ring the bell, and I think they went in just as I drove away. Shall I take you there?"
Lecoq"s sole response was to spring on to the box, exclaiming: "Let us be off."
It was not to be supposed that the women who had escaped from the Widow Chupin"s drinking-den at the moment of the murder were utterly devoid of intelligence. Nor was it at all likely that these two fugitives, conscious as they were of their perilous situation, had gone straight to their real home in a vehicle hired on the public highway. Hence, the driver"s hope of finding them in the Rue de Bourgogne was purely chimerical. Lecoq was fully aware of this, and yet he did not hesitate to jump on to the box and give the signal for starting. In so doing, he obeyed a maxim which he had framed in his early days of meditation-a maxim intended to a.s.sure his after-fame, and which ran as follows: "Always suspect that which seems probable; and begin by believing what appears incredible."
As soon as the vehicle was well under way, the young detective proceeded to ingratiate himself into the driver"s good graces, being anxious to obtain all the information that this worthy was able to impart.
In a tone that implied that all trifling would be useless the cabman cried: "Hey up, hey up, Cocotte!" and his mare p.r.i.c.ked up her ears and quickened her pace, so that the Rue de Choisy was speedily reached. Then it was that Lecoq resumed his inquiries.
"Well, my good fellow," he began, "you have told me the princ.i.p.al facts, now I should like the details. How did these two women attract your attention?"
"Oh, it was very simple. I had been having a most unfortunate day-six hours on a stand on the Boulevards, with the rain pouring all the time. It was simply awful. At midnight I had not made more than a franc and a half for myself, but I was so wet and miserable and the horse seemed so done up that I decided to go home. I did grumble, I can tell you. Well, I had just pa.s.sed the corner of the Rue Picard, in the Rue du Chevaleret, when I saw two women standing under a lamp, some little distance off. I did not pay any attention to them; for when a man is as old as I am, women-"
"Go on!" said Lecoq, who could not restrain his impatience.
"I had already pa.s.sed them, when they began to call after me. I pretended I did not hear them; but one of them ran after the cab, crying: "A louis! a louis for yourself!" I hesitated for a moment, when the woman added: "And ten francs for the fare!" I then drew up."
Lecoq was boiling over with impatience; but he felt that the wisest course was not to interrupt the driver with questions, but to listen to all he had to say.
"As you may suppose," continued the coachman, "I wasn"t inclined to trust two such suspicious characters, alone at that hour and in that part of the city. So, just as they were about to get into the cab, I called to them: "Wait a bit, my little friends, you have promised papa some sous; where are they?" The one who had called after the cab at once handed me thirty francs, saying: "Above all, make haste!""
"Your recital could not be more minute," exclaimed Lecoq, approvingly. "Now, how about these two women?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean what kind of women did they seem to be; what did you take them for?"
"Oh, for nothing very good!" replied the driver, with a knowing smile.
"Ah! and how were they dressed?"
"Like most of the girls who go to dance at the Rainbow. One of them, however, was very neat and prim, while the other-well! she was a terrible dowdy."
"Which ran after you?"
"The girl who was neatly dressed, the one who-" The driver suddenly paused: some vivid remembrance pa.s.sed through his brain, and, abruptly jerking the rains, he brought his horse to a standstill.
"Thunder!" he exclaimed. "Now I think of it, I did notice something strange. One of the two women called the other "Madame" as large as life, while the other said "thee" and "thou," and spoke as if she were somebody."
"Oh! oh! oh!" exclaimed the young detective, in three different keys. "And which was it that said "thee" and "thou"?"
"Why, the dowdy one. She with shabby dress and shoes as big as a gouty man"s. You should have seen her shake the prim-looking girl, as if she had been a plum tree. "You little fool!" said she, "do you want to ruin us? You will have time to faint when we get home; now come along. And then she began to sob: "Indeed, madame, indeed I can"t!" she said, and really she seemed quite unable to move: in fact, she appeared to be so ill that I said to myself: "Here is a young woman who has drunk more than is good for her!""
These facts confirmed even if they corrected Lecoq"s first suppositions. As he had suspected, the social position of the two women was not the same. He had been mistaken, however, in attributing the higher standing to the woman wearing the shoes with the high heels, the marks of which he had so particularly noticed in the snow, with all the attendant signs of precipitation, terror, and weakness. In reality, social preeminence belonged to the woman who had left the large, broad footprints behind her. And not merely was she of a superior rank, but she had also shown superior energy. Contrary to Lecoq"s original idea, it now seemed evident that she was the mistress, and her companion the servant.
"Is that all, my good fellow?" he asked the driver, who during the last few minutes had been busy with his horses.
"Yes," replied the cabman, "except that I noticed that the shabbily dressed woman who paid me had a hand as small as a child"s, and in spite of her anger, her voice was as sweet as music."