Within an Inch of His Life, Emile Gaboriau [thriller books to read txt] 📗

will please stay there till you are called. You need not trouble yourself about any thing. You shall have whatever you want, and they will pay you your wages as if you were in service.”

M. Folgat had not time to say more; for Dr. Seignebos rushed in like a tempest, and cried out at the top of his voice,—

“Victory! We are victorious now! Great Victory!”

But he could not speak before Suky and the agent. They were sent off; and, as soon as they had left the room, he said to M. Folgat,—

“I am just from the hospital. I have seen Goudar. He had done it. He had made Cocoleu talk.”

“And what does he say?”

“Well, exactly what I knew he would say, as soon as they could loose his tongue. But you will hear it all; for it is not enough that Cocoleu should confess it to Goudar: there must be witnesses present to certify to the confessions of the wretch.”

“He will not talk before witnesses.”

“He must not see them: they can be concealed. The place is admirably adapted for such a purpose.”

“But how, if Cocoleu refuses to talk after the witnesses have been introduced?”

“He will not. Goudar has found out a way to make him talk whenever he wants it. Ah! that man is a clever man, and understands his business thoroughly. Have you full confidence in him?”

“Oh, entire!”

“Well, he says he is sure he will succeed. ‘Come to-day,’ he said to me, ‘between one and two, with M. Folgat, the commonwealth attorney, and M. Galpin: put yourself where I will show you, and then let me go to work.’ Then he showed me the place where he wants us to remain, and told me how we should let him know when we are all ready.”

M. Folgat did not hesitate.

“We have not a moment to lose. Let me go at once to the court-house.”

But they were hardly in the passage when they were met by Mechinet, who came running up out of breath, and half mad with delight.

“M. Daubigeon sends me to say you must come to him at once. Great news! Great news!”

And immediately he told them in a few words what had happened in the morning,—Trumence’s statement, and the deposition of the maid of Countess Claudieuse.

“Ah, now we are safe!” cried Dr. Seignebos.

M. Folgat was pale with excitement. Still he proposed,—

“Let us tell the marquis and Miss Dionysia what is going on before we leave the house.”

“No,” said the doctor, “no! Let us wait till every thing is quite safe. Let us go quick; let us go at once.”

They were right to make haste. The magistrate and the commonwealth attorney were waiting for them with the greatest impatience. As soon as they came into the small room of the clerk’s office, M. Daubigeon cried,—

“Well, I suppose Mechinet has told you all?”

“Yes,” replied M. Folgat; “but we have some information of which you have heard as yet nothing.”

Then he told them that Suky Wood had arrived, and what she had given in as evidence.

M. Galpin had sunk into a chair, completely crushed by the weight of so many proofs of his misapprehension of the case. There he sat without saying a word, without moving a muscle. But M. Daubigeon was radiant.

“Most assuredly,” he cried, “Jacques must be innocent!”

“Most assuredly he is innocent!” said Dr. Seignebos; “and the proof of it is, that I know who is guilty.”

“Oh!”

“And you will know too, if you will take the trouble of following me, with M. Galpin, to the hospital.”

It was just striking one; and not one of them all had eaten any thing that morning. But they had no time to think of breakfast.

Without a shadow of hesitation, M. Daubigeon turned to M. Galpin, and said,—

“Will you come, Galpin?”

The poor magistrate rose mechanically, after the manner of an automaton, and they went out, creating no small sensation among the good people of Sauveterre, when they appeared thus all in a group.

M. Daubigeon spoke first to the lady superior of the hospital; and, when he had explained to her what their purpose was in coming there, she raised her eyes heavenward, and said with a sigh of resignation,—

“Well, gentlemen, do as you like, and I hope you will be successful; for it is a sore trial for us poor sisters to have these continual visitations in the name of the law.”

“Please follow me, then, to the Insane Ward, gentlemen,” said the doctor.

They call the Insane Ward at the Sauveterre hospital a small, low building, with a sanded court in front, and a tall wall around the whole. The building is divided into six cells, each of which has two doors,—one opening into the court, and the other an outside door for the assistants and servants.

It was to one of these latter doors that Dr. Seignebos led his friends. And after having recommended to them the most perfect silence, so as not to rouse Cocoleu’s suspicions, he invited them into one of the cells, in which the door leading into the court had been closed. There was, however, a little grated window in the upper part of the door, so that they could, without being seen, both see and hear all that was said and done in the court reserved for the use of the insane.

Not two yards from the little window, Goudar and Cocoleu were sitting on a wooden bench in the bright sunlight.

By long study and a great effort of will, Goudar had succeeded in giving to his face a most perfect expression of stupidity: even the people belonging to the hospital thought he was more idiotic than the other.

He held in his hand his violin, which the doctor had ordered to be left to him; and he accompanied himself with a few notes, as he repeated the same familiar song which he had sung on the New-Market Square when he first accosted M. Folgat.

Cocoleu, a large piece of bread-and-butter in one hand, and a big clasp-knife in the other, was finishing his meal.

But this music delighted him so intensely, that he actually forgot to eat, and, with hanging lip and half-closed eyes, rocked himself to and fro, keeping time with the measure.

“They look hideous!” M. Folgat could not keep from whispering. In the meantime Goudar, warned by the preconcerted signal, had finished his