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Updated: June 7, 2025
M. Domini was just going to send a mounted gendarme to Orcival to find out the cause of the delay, when those whom he awaited were announced. He quickly gave the order to admit them, and so keen was his curiosity, despite what he called his dignity, that he got up and went forward to meet them. "How late you are!" said he. "And yet we haven't lost a minute," replied M. Plantat.
With easy grace he dismissed himself and talked knowledgeably and informatively of the antiquities and the beauties of Auvergne. To most English folk it was an undiscovered country. We must steal a car and visit Orcival. Hadn't I heard of it? France's gem of Romanesque churches?
The mayor of Orcival occupies a handsome, pleasant mansion, at the upper end of the village. Formerly a manufacturer of dry goods, M. Courtois entered business without a penny, and after thirty years of absorbing toil, he retired with four round millions of francs. Then he proposed to live tranquilly with his wife and children, passing the winter at Paris and the summer at his country-house.
But the intensity of his mourning diminished, and the ills of idleness came. The justiceship of the peace at Orcival was vacant, and M. Plantat applied for and obtained it. Once installed in this office, he suffered less from ennui. This man, who saw his life drawing to an end, undertook to interest himself in the thousand diverse cases which came before him.
M. Lecoq hastened to throw a shawl which he saw on a chair about her shoulders, and passed her arm through M. Plantat's, saying to the latter: "Go, lead her away; my men have orders to let you pass, and Palot will lend you his carriage." "But where shall we go?" "To Orcival; Monsieur Courtois has been informed by a letter from me that his daughter is living, and he is expecting her.
He found deeds of the Morin property and of the Frapesle and Peyron lands; there were also two bonds, for one hundred and fifty and eight hundred and twenty francs, signed by two Orcival citizens in Robelot's favor. M. Plantat could scarcely conceal his disappointment. "Nothing of importance," whispered he in M. Lecoq's ear. "How do you explain that?" "Perfectly," responded the detective.
As for Papa Courtois, he has offered his beautiful domain at Orcival for sale; he proposes to settle in the middle of France, and is on the lookout for a commune in need of a good mayor.
P.S. If you had convinced me that I was staring hypnotically at a mare's nest, I should have had much pleasure in joining you on your excursion. I hope you went and enjoyed it and found Orcival exceeding my poor dithyrambic. I had to read over this preposterous epistle again before I fully grasped its significance.
These Orcival folks are positively charming; why, I've already made several friends, and am invited to dine this very evening." M. Domini did not like the police, and scarcely concealed it. He rather submitted to their co-operation than accepted it, solely because he could not do without them.
"Not at all. It's a present from our good Plantat." All Orcival knew that M. Plantat, a monomaniac on flowers, never gave them away to anyone except Mme. Laurence. Hector's evasion was an unhappy one, and Bertha was not deceived. "You promised me, Hector," said she, "not to see Laurence any more, and to give up this marriage." He tried to reply.
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