return
next day at an early hour. The doctor and the cure went to their
respective homes, while Renardet, after a long walk through the meadows,
returned to the wood where he remained walking till nightfall with slow
steps, his hands behind his back.

He went to bed early, and was still asleep next morning when the
examining magistrate entered his room. He rubbed his hands together with
a self-satisfied air. He said:

"Ha! ha! You're still sleeping. Well, my dear fellow, we have news this
morning."

The Mayor sat up on his bed.

"What, pray?"

"Oh! Something strange. You remember well how the mother yesterday
clamored for some memento of her daughter, especially her little cap?
Well, on opening her door this morning, she found on the threshold, her
child's two little wooden shoes. This proves that the crime was
perpetrated by some one from the district, some one who felt pity for
her. Besides, the postman, Mederic comes and brings the thimble, the
knife and the needle case of the dead girl. So then the man in carrying
off the clothes in order to hide them, must have let fall the articles
which were in the pocket. As for me, I attach special importance about
the wooden shoes, as they indicate a certain moral culture and a faculty
for tenderness on the part of the assassin. We will therefore, if I have
no objection, pass in review together the principal inhabitants of your
district."

The Mayor got up. He rang for hot water to shave with, and said:

"With pleasure, but it will take rather a long time, and we may begin at
once."

M. Putoin had sat astride on a chair, thus pursuing even in a room, his
mania for horsemanship.

Renardet now covered his chin with a white lather while he looked at
himself in the glass; then he sharpened his razor on the strop and went
on:

"The principal inhabitant of Carvelin bears the name of Joseph Renardet,
Mayor, a rich landowner, a rough man who beats guards and coachmen--"

The examining magistrate burst out laughing:

"That's enough; let us pass on to the next."

"The second in importance is ill. Pelledent, his deputy, a rearer of
oxen, an equally rich landowner, a crafty peasant, very sly, very
close-fisted on every question of money, but incapable in my opinion, of
having perpetrated such a crime."

M. Putoin said:

"Let us pass on."

Then, while continuing to shave and wash himself, Renardet went on with
the moral inspection of all the inhabitants of Carvelin.