FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86  
87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   >>   >|  
ared Floriani. "What!" "If the transom is too small to admit a man, it must have been a child." "A child!" "Did you not say that your friend Henriette had a son?" "Yes; a son named Raoul." "Then, in all probability, it was Raoul who committed the theft." "What proof have you of that?" "What proof! Plenty of it....For instance---" He stopped, and reflected for a moment, then continued: "For instance, that gangway or bridge. It is improbable that the child could have brought it in from outside the house and carried it away again without being observed. He must have used something close at hand. In the little room used by Henriette as a kitchen, were there not some shelves against the wall on which she placed her pans and dishes?" "Two shelves, to the best of my memory." "Are you sure that those shelves are really fastened to the wooden brackets that support them? For, if they are not, we could be justified in presuming that the child removed them, fastened them together, and thus formed his bridge. Perhaps, also, since there was a stove, we might find the bent poker that he used to open the transom." Without saying a word, the count left the room; and, this time, those present did not feel the nervous anxiety they had experienced the first time. They were confident that Floriani was right, and no one was surprised when the count returned and declared: "It was the child. Everything proves it." "You have seen the shelves and the poker?" "Yes. The shelves have been unnailed, and the poker is there yet." But the countess exclaimed: "You had better say it was his mother. Henriette is the guilty party. She must have compelled her son---" "No," declared the chevalier, "the mother had nothing to do with it." "Nonsense! they occupied the same room. The child could not have done it without the mother's knowledge." "True, they lived in the same room, but all this happened in the adjoining room, during the night, while the mother was asleep." "And the necklace?" said the count. "It would have been found amongst the child's things." "Pardon me! He had been out. That morning, on which you found him reading, he had just come from school, and perhaps the commissary of police, instead of wasting his time on the innocent mother, would have been better employed in searching the child's desk amongst his school-books." "But how do you explain those two thousand francs that Henriette recei
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86  
87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

mother

 

shelves

 

Henriette

 
bridge
 
fastened
 

Floriani

 
instance
 

declared

 

transom

 

school


chevalier
 

compelled

 

experienced

 

anxiety

 

surprised

 
returned
 

Everything

 

proves

 

exclaimed

 
countess

confident

 
unnailed
 

guilty

 

commissary

 

police

 

wasting

 

reading

 
innocent
 

employed

 

thousand


francs

 

explain

 

searching

 

morning

 

nervous

 

happened

 

adjoining

 

knowledge

 

Nonsense

 

occupied


things

 

Pardon

 

necklace

 

asleep

 

carried

 

improbable

 
brought
 

observed

 

gangway

 

continued