all, we beat the ground all day; and a man can't hide in a tuft of
grass, especially when he's wounded! It's witchcraft, that's what it
is!--"

Nor was this the last surprise awaiting Sergeant Quevillon. At dawn,
when they entered the oratory which had been used as a cell for
young Isidore Beautrelet, they realized that young Isidore
Beautrelet had vanished.

On a chair slept the village policeman, bent in two. By his side
stood a water-bottle and two tumblers. At the bottom of one of those
tumblers a few grains of white powder.

On examination, it was proved, first, that young Isidore Beautrelet
had administered a sleeping draught to the village policeman;
secondly, that he could only have escaped by a window situated at a
height of seven or eight feet in the wall; and lastly--a charming
detail, this--that he could only have reached this window by using
the back of his warder as a footstool.




CHAPTER TWO

ISIDORE BEAUTRELET, SIXTH-FORM SCHOOLBOY


From the Grand Journal.