FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154  
155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   >>  
ocked at the door. Nobody answered. Naturally, this did not surprise me. "He is evidently not there, otherwise he would have come out," said the reporter. "Let us carry him to the vestibule then." Since reaching the dead shadow, a thick cloud had covered the moon and darkened the night, so that we were unable to make out the features. Daddy Jacques, who had now joined us, helped us to carry the body into the vestibule, where we laid it down on the lower step of the stairs. On the way, I had felt my hands wet from the warm blood flowing from the wounds. Daddy Jacques flew to the kitchen and returned with a lantern. He held it close to the face of the dead shadow, and we recognised the keeper, the man called by the landlord of the Donjon Inn the Green Man, whom, an hour earlier, I had seen come out of Arthur Rance's chamber carrying a parcel. But what I had seen I could only tell Rouletabille later, when we were alone. Rouletabille and Frederic Larsan experienced a cruel disappointment at the result of the night's adventure. They could only look in consternation and stupefaction at the body of the Green Man. Daddy Jacques showed a stupidly sorrowful face and with silly lamentations kept repeating that we were mistaken--the keeper could not be the assailant. We were obliged to compel him to be quiet. He could not have shown greater grief had the body been that of his own son. I noticed, while all the rest of us were more or less undressed and barefooted, that he was fully clothed. Rouletabille had not left the body. Kneeling on the flagstones by the light of Daddy Jacques's lantern he removed the clothes from the body and laid bare its breast. Then snatching the lantern from Daddy Jacques, he held it over the corpse and saw a gaping wound. Rising suddenly he exclaimed in a voice filled with savage irony: "The man you believe to have been shot was killed by the stab of a knife in his heart!" I thought Rouletabille had gone mad; but, bending over the body, I quickly satisfied myself that Rouletabille was right. Not a sign of a bullet anywhere--the wound, evidently made by a sharp blade, had penetrated the heart. CHAPTER XXIII. The Double Scent I had hardly recovered from the surprise into which this new discovery had plunged me, when Rouletabille touched me on the shoulder and asked me to follow him into his room. "What are we going to do there?" "To think the matter over." I confess I
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154  
155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   >>  



Top keywords:
Rouletabille
 

Jacques

 

lantern

 

surprise

 

evidently

 
keeper
 
vestibule
 

shadow

 
snatching
 

exclaimed


gaping

 

Rising

 
suddenly
 

corpse

 
noticed
 

greater

 
undressed
 
barefooted
 

removed

 

clothes


flagstones

 

clothed

 

filled

 

Kneeling

 

breast

 

recovered

 

matter

 

Double

 

penetrated

 

CHAPTER


discovery

 
follow
 

plunged

 

touched

 

shoulder

 
thought
 

killed

 
bending
 

bullet

 
confess

quickly
 

satisfied

 
savage
 
stairs
 

helped

 

features

 
joined
 

flowing

 
wounds
 

unable