understand why I'm interested in that Japanese print."

Tignol sprang to his feet, then checked himself with a half-ashamed smile.

"You're mocking me, you've looked behind the picture."

Coquenil shook his head solemnly. "On my honor, I have not been near the
picture, I know nothing about the picture, but unless there is some flaw in
my reasoning----"

"I'll give my tongue to the cats to eat!" burst out the other, "if ever I
saw a man lie on a sofa and blow blue circles in the air and spin pretty
theories about what is back of a picture when----"

"When what?"

"When all he had to do for proof was to reach over and--and lift the darn
thing off its nail."

Coquenil smiled. "I've thought of that," he drawled, "but I like the
suspense. Half the charm of life is in suspense, Papa Tignol. However, you
have a practical mind, so go ahead, lift it off."

The old man did not wait for a second bidding, he stepped forward quickly
and took down the picture.

"_Tonnere de Dieu!_" he cried. "It's true! There are _two_ holes."

Sure enough, against the white wall stood out not one but two black holes
about an inch in diameter and something less than three inches apart.
Around the left hole, which was close to the sideboard, were black dots
sprinkled over the painted woodwork like grains of pepper.

"Powder marks!" muttered Coquenil, examining the hole. "He fired at close
range as Martinez looked into this room from the other side. Poor chap!
That's how he was shot in the eye." And producing a magnifying glass, the
detective made a long and careful examination of the holes while Papa
Tignol watched him with unqualified disgust.

"Asses! Idiots! That's what we are," muttered the old man. "For half an
hour we were in that room, Gibelin and I, and we never found those holes."

"They were covered by the sofa hangings."

"I know, we shook those hangings, we pressed against them, we did
everything but look behind them. See here, did _you_ look behind them?"

"No, but I saw something on the floor that gave me an idea."

"Ah, what was that?"

"Some yellowish dust. I picked up a little of it. There." He unfolded a
paper and showed a few grains of coarse brownish powder. "You see there are
only board partitions between these rooms, the boards are about an inch
thick, so a sharp auger would make the holes quickly. But there would be
dust and chips."

"Of course."

"Well, this is some of the dust. The woman probably threw