And, silencing the murmur of satisfaction which arose among them at this
good news, he went on to say,--

"Because, after all, serious as the wound is, it is nothing in
comparison with what it might have been; and what is more, gentlemen, I
have the _corpus delicti_."

He raised in the air, as he said this, a spherical ball, which he held
between his thumb and forefinger.

"Another instance," he said, "to be added to those mentioned by our
great masters of surgery, of the oddities of projectiles. This one,
instead of pursuing its way straight through the body of our poor
friend, had turned around the ribs, and gone to its place close by the
vertebral column. There I found it, almost on the surface; and nothing
was needed to dislodge it but a slight push with the probe."

The shot-gun taken from the hands of the murderer had been deposited
in a corner of the large room: they brought it up, tried the ball, and
found it to fit accurately.

"Now we have a tangible proof," exclaimed a young ensign, "an
unmistakable proof, that the wretch whom our men have caught is Daniel's
murderer. Ah, he might as well have kept his confession!"

But the old surgeon replied with a dark frown,--

"Gently, gentlemen, gently! Don't let us be over-hasty in accusing a
poor fellow of such a fearful crime, when, perhaps, he is guilty only of
imprudence."

"O doctor, doctor!" protested half a dozen voices.

"I beg your pardon! Don't let us be hasty, I say; and let us consider,
For an assassination there must be a motive, and an all-powerful motive;
for, aside from the scaffold which he risks, no man is capable of
killing another man solely for the purpose of shedding his blood. Now,
in this case, I look in vain for any reason, which could have induced
the man to commit a murder. He certainly did not expect to rob our poor
comrade. But hatred, you say, or vengeance, perhaps! Well, that may be.
But, before a man makes up his mind to shoot even the man he hates like
a dog, he must have been cruelly offended by him; and, to bring this
about, he must have been in contact, or must have stood in some relation
to him. Now, I ask you, is it not far more probable that the murderer
saw our friend Champcey this morning for the first time?"

"I beg your pardon, commandant! He knew him perfectly well."

The man who interrupted the doctor was one of the sailors to whom the
prisoner had been intrusted to carry him to prison. He came forward,
twisti