The Project Gutenberg EBook of Within an Inch of His Life, by Emile Gaboriau

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Title: Within an Inch of His Life

Author: Emile Gaboriau

Release Date: April 6, 2006 [EBook #3336]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITHIN AN INCH OF HIS LIFE ***

Produced by Dagny; John Bickers

WITHIN AN INCH OF HIS LIFE

by Emile Gaboriau

PREPARER'S NOTE

This text was prepared from a 1913 edition, published by Charles
Scribner's Sons, New York.

FIRST PART--FIRE AT VALPINSON

These were the facts:--

I.

In the night from the 22nd to the 23rd of June, 1871, towards one
o'clock in the morning, the Paris suburb of Sauveterre, the principal
and most densely populated suburb of that pretty town, was startled by
the furious gallop of a horse on its ill-paved streets.

A number of peaceful citizens rushed to the windows.

The dark night allowed these only to see a peasant in his shirt sleeves,
and bareheaded, who belabored a large gray mare, on which he rode
bareback, with his heels and a huge stick.

This man, after having passed the suburbs, turned into National Street,
formerly Imperial Street, crossed New-Market Square, and stopped at last
before the fine house which stands at the corner of Castle Street.

This was the house of the mayor of Sauveterre, M. Seneschal, a former
lawyer, and now a member of the general council.

Having alighted, the peasant seized the bell-knob, and began to ring so
furiously, that, in a few moments, the whole house was in an uproar.

A minute later, a big, stout servant-man, his eyes heavy with sleep,
came and opened the door, and then cried out in an angry voice,--

"Who are you, my man? What do you want? Have you taken too much wine?
Don't you know at whose house you are making such a row?"

"I wish to see the mayor," replied the peasant instantly. "Wake him up!"

M. Seneschal was wide awake.

Dressed in a large dressing-gown of gray flannel, a candlestick in his
hand, troubled, and unable to disguise his trouble, he had just come
down into the hall, and heard all that was said.

"Here is the mayor," he said in an ill-satisf