lozenge between his teeth.

The simplicity of this discovery surprised the spectators; the idea
of trying the clock in this way had occurred to no one. M. Courtois,
especially, was bewildered.

"There's a fellow," whispered he to the doctor, "who knows what
he's about."

"Ergo," resumed M. Lecoq (who knew Latin), "we have here, not brutes,
as I thought at first, but rascals who looked beyond the end of their
knife. They intended to put us off the scent, by deceiving us as to
the hour."

"I don't see their object very clearly," said M. Courtois, timidly.

"Yet it is easy to see it," answered M. Domini. "Was it not for
their interest to make it appear that the crime was committed after
the last train for Paris had left? Guespin, leaving his companions
at the Lyons station at nine, might have reached here at ten,
murdered the count and countess, seized the money which he knew to
be in the count's possession, and returned to Paris by the last
train."

"These conjectures are very shrewd," interposed M. Plantat; "but
how is it that Guespin did not rejoin his comrades in the
Batignolles? For in that way, to a certain degree, he might have
provided a kind of alibi."

Dr. Gendron had been sitting on the only unbroken chair in the