United States or Indonesia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
If Daniel dies, you will be bound to release that scamp, the wretched murderer whom you keep imprisoned, that man Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet; for there will be no evidence. Or, if you send him before a court, he will be declared guilty of involuntary homicide. And yet you know, as well as I do, he has wantonly fired at one of the noblest creatures I have ever known.
"He knows that Drouet was killed while searching for a packet of letters, which would have compromised most seriously a great lady; he knows that M. Vantine was killed while endeavouring to open the drawer after its secret had been revealed to him by the maid of that same great lady, who was hoping to get a reward for them; Morel met death directly at the hands of Crochard because he was a traitor and deserved it."
Godfrey laughed shortly. "It was a wild-goose chase," he said, "cooked up by our friend Crochard. But even then, I'd have got back, if we hadn't punctured a tire when we were five miles from anywhere. I knew what was up but there I was. Oh, he's made fools of us all, Lester. I told you he would!" "Then you didn't get my message?"
Vantine was passed without question!" "Yes," agreed M. Pigot, a little bitterly. "It was a most clever plan; and now, no doubt, Crochard can sell the brilliants at his leisure." "Not if you've got a good description of them," protested Grady. "I'll make it a point to warn every dealer in the country; I'll keep my whole force on the job; I'll get Chief Wilkie to lend me some of his men...."
It was Crochard himself!" And he stalked out, slamming the door behind him. Whatever may have been Grady's defects of insight and imagination, he was energetic enough when thoroughly aroused. Almost before the echo of that slamming door had died away, he was beside the sergeant's desk. "Get out the reserves," he ordered, "and have the other wagon around.
The lawyer shrugged his shoulders; and, looking very sternly at Crochard, he said, "I have before compelled you to make a certain confession. I mean to do so again and again. You will gain nothing, believe me, by struggling against justice; and you cannot save the wretches who tempted you to commit this crime. There is only one way left to you, if you wish for mercy; and that is frankness.
"One day I happened to be on a yardarm, side by side with Crochard, helping the sailors to furl a sail, when I saw him drop a huge block, which fell upon Lieut. Champcey, and knocked him down. "No one else had noticed it; and Crochard instantly pulled up the block again.
"Let us leave that question, then, since it seems to irritate you, and let us go on to your residence here. How have you supported yourself at Saigon?" "By my work, forsooth! I have two arms; and I am not a good-for- nothing." "You have found employment, you say, as engraver on metal?" "No." "But you said" Evariste Crochard, surnamed Bagnolet, could hardly conceal his impatience.
And is not that the history of thousands of dead men, thousands of sick men, thousands of old men?" "Poor Caroline!" cried Bianchon. As he heard the name the Count shuddered, and grasped the doctor's arm with the grip of an iron vise, as it seemed to Bianchon. "Her name is Caroline Crochard?" asked the President, in a voice that was evidently broken.
The wealth enjoyed by Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille, whom Madame Crochard, in obedience to the traditions of the older opera, never allowed herself to speak of by the affectionate name of daughter, almost justified the four women in their scheme of dividing among themselves the old woman's "pickings."
Word Of The Day