Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: July 10, 2025
Lecoq's confidence in the oracle he was consulting was very great; but even old Tirauclair might be mistaken, and what he had just said seemed such an enormity, so completely beyond the bounds of possibility, that the young man could not conceal a gesture of incredulous surprise.
"Sacrebleu!" he exclaimed, "that method was infallible, and so simple too! Ah! I shall never forgive myself for my stupidity as long as I live!" "Gently, gently!" interrupted old Tirauclair. "You are going too far, my dear boy. Stupidity is not the proper word at all; you should say carelessness, thoughtlessness. You are young what else could one expect?
You locked the door, and threw away the key. Arrived at the Seine, you threw the bundle into the water, then hurried off to the railway station on foot, and at eleven o'clock you reappeared amongst your friends. Your game was well played; but you omitted to provide against two adversaries, a detective, not easily deceived, named Tirauclair, and another still more clever, named chance.
I believed what they told me, because " He paused, and Tirauclair burst into a hearty fit of laughter. "You believed it," he said, "because it was a very plausible story." "What would you have believed had you been in my place?" "Exactly the opposite of what they told me. I might have been mistaken; but it would be the logical conclusion as my first course of reasoning."
At the name of Gerdy, M. Tabaret's face assumed a most comical expression of uneasiness. "Confound it," cried he, "the very thing I most dreaded." "What?" asked M. Daburon. "The necessity for the examination of those letters. Noel will discover my interference. He will despise me: he will fly from me, when he knows that Tabaret and Tirauclair sleep in the same nightcap.
Tirauclair, you are an immense wonder; and I bow before you." And at the same time, he raised his hat ironically. "Don't crush me," replied the old fellow. "As you know, in spite of my grey hairs, I am young in the profession. Because chance served me three or four times, I became foolishly proud.
No, he returned on foot by the shortest way, which borders the river. Now on reaching the Seine, unless he is more knowing than I take him to be, his first care was to throw this tell-tale bundle into the water." "Do you believe so, M. Tirauclair?" asked Gevrol.
M. Tabaret, surnamed Tirauclair, stood at the threshold, and bowed almost to the ground, bending his old back into an arch, and in the humblest of voices asked, "The investigating magistrate has deigned to send for me?" "Yes!" replied M. Daburon, adding under his breath; "and if you are a man of any ability, there is at least nothing to indicate it in your appearance."
He pretended to hesitate; but it was only because he enjoyed prolonging the old amateur's discomfiture. "Come," said he at last, "cheer up, old Tirauclair. I'm a good fellow at heart, and I'll give you a lift. That's kind, isn't it? But, to-day, I'm too busy, I've an appointment to keep. Come to me to-morrow morning, and we'll talk it over.
On a large canopied bed, sweating and panting beneath the weight of numerous blankets, lay the two-faced oracle Tirauclair, of the Prefecture Tabaret, of the Rue Saint Lazare. It was impossible to believe that the owner of such a face, in which a look of stupidity was mingled with one of perpetual astonishment, could possess superior talent, or even an average amount of intelligence.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking