," said the advocate.

"The difference in the effect shows that the two shots were fired from
different distances, the second much nearer than the first."

"I know, I know!"

"Excuse me. If I refer to these details, it is because they are
important. When I was sent for in the middle of the night to come and
see Count Claudieuse, I at once set to work extracting the particles
of lead that had lodged in his flesh. While I was thus busy, M. Galpin
arrived. I expected he would ask me to show him the shot: but no, he did
not think of it; he was too full of his own ideas. He thought only of
the culprit, of _his_ culprit. I did not recall to him the A B C of his
profession: that was none of my business. The physician has to obey the
directions of justice, but not to anticipate them."

"Well, then?"

"Then M. Galpin went off to Boiscoran, and I completed my work. I have
extracted fifty-seven shot from the count's wound in the side, and a
hundred and nine from the wound on the shoulder and the neck; and, when
I had done that, do you know what I found out?"

He paused, waiting to see the effect of his words; and, when everybody's
attention seemed to him fully roused, he went on,--

"I found out that the shot in the two wounds was not alike."

M. de Chandore and M. Folgat exclaimed at one time,--

"Oh!"

"The shot that was first fired," continued Dr. Seignebos, "and which
has touched the side, is the very smallest sized 'dust.' That in the
shoulder, on the other hand, is quite large sized, such as I think is
used in shooting hares. However, I have some samples."

And with these words, he opened a piece of white paper, in which were
ten or twelve pieces of lead, stained with coagulated blood, and showing
at once a considerable difference in size. M. Folgat looked puzzled.

"Could there have been two murderers?" he asked half aloud.

"I rather think," said M. de Chandore, "that the murderer had, like
many sportsmen, one barrel ready for birds, and another for hares or
rabbits."

"At all events, this fact puts all premeditation out of question. A man
does not load his gun with small-shot in order to commit murder."

Dr. Seignebos thought he had said enough about it, and was rising to
take leave, when M. de Chandore asked him how Count Claudieuse was
doing.

"He is not doing well," replied the doctor. "The removal, in spite of
all possible precautions, has worn him out completely; for he is here in
Sauveterre since