第83章

To this M.Massol said "No; for M.Cornelis, who was very observant, and who, besides, was on his guard--this is evident from his last words when he left you--would have recognized him by his voice, his glance, and his attitude.A man cannot change his height and his figure, although he may change his face."M.Massol's theory of this disguise was that the wearer had adopted it in order to gain time to get out of France, should the corpse be discovered on the day of the murder.Supposing that a description of a man with a very brown complexion and a black beard had been telegraphed in every direction, the assassin, having washed off his paint, laid aside his wig and beard, and put on other clothes, might have crossed the frontier without arousing the slightest suspicion.There was reason to believe that the pretended Rochdale lived abroad.He had spoke in English at the hotel, and the people there had taken him for an American; it was therefore presumable either that he was a native of the United States, or that he habitually resided there.The criminal was, then, a foreigner, American or English, or perhaps a Frenchman settled in America.As for the motive of so complicated a crime, it was difficult to admit that it could be robbery alone."And yet," observed the Judge of Instruction, "we do not know what the note-case carried off by the assassin contained.But," he added, "the hypothesis of robbery seems to me to be utterly routed by the fact that, while Rochdale stripped the dead man of his watch, he left a ring, which was much more valuable, on his finger.From this I conclude that he took the watch merely as a precaution to throw the police off the scent.

My supposition is that the man killed M.Cornelis for revenge.

Then the former Judge of Instruction gave me some singular examples of the resentment cherished against medical experts employed in legal cases, Procureurs of the Republic, and Presidents of Assize.

His theory was, that in the course of his practice at the bar my father might have excited resentment of a fierce and implacable kind; for he had won many suits of importance, and no doubt had made enemies of those against whom he employed his great powers.

Supposing one of those persons, being ruined by the result, had attributed that ruin to my father, there would be an explanation of all the apparatus of this deadly vengeance.

M.Massol begged me to observe that the assassin, whether he were a foreigner or not, was known in Paris.Why, if this were not so, should the man have so carefully avoided being seen in the street?

He had been traced out during his first stay in Paris, when he bought the wig and the beard, and that time he put up at a small hotel in the Rue d'Aboukir under the name of Rochdale, and invariably went out in a cab."Observe also," said the Judge, "that he kept his room on the day before the murder, and on the morning of the actual day.He breakfasted in his apartment, having breakfasted and dined there the day before.But, when he was in London, and when he lived at the hotel to which your father addressed his first letters, he came and went without any precautions."And this was all.The addresses of three hotels--such were the meagre particulars that formed the whole of the information to which I listened with passionate eagerness; the magistrate had no more to tell me.He had small, twinkling, very light eyes, and his smooth face wore an expression of extreme keenness.His language was measured, his general demeanor was cold, obliging, and mild, he was always closely shaven, and in him one recognized at once the well-balanced and methodical mind which had given him great professional weight.He acknowledged that he had been unable to discover anything, even after a close analysis of the whole existing situation of my father, as well as his past.

"Ah, I have thought a great deal about this said he, adding that before he resigned his post as Judge of Instruction he had carefully reperused the notes of the case.He had again questioned the concierge of the Imperial Hotel and other persons.Since he had become Counsellor to the Court, he had indicated to his successor what he believed to be a clue; a robbery committed by a carefully made-up Englishman had led him to believe the thief to be identical with the pretended Rochdale.Then there was nothing more.

These steps had, however, been of use inasmuch as they barred the rule of limitation, and he laid stress on that fact.I consulted him then as to how much time still remained for me to seek out the truth on my own account.The last Act of Instruction dated from 1873, so that I had until 1883 to discover the criminal and deliver him up to public justice.What madness! Ten years had already elapsed since the crime, and I, all alone, insignificant, not possessed of the vast resources at the disposal of the police, Ipresumed to imagine that I should triumph, where so skillful a ferret as he had failed! Folly! Yes; it was so.

And still there was nothing, no indication whatever.Nevertheless, I tried.

I began a thorough and searching investigation of all the dead man's papers.With that unbounded tenderness of hers for my stepfather, which made me so miserable, my mother had placed all these papers in M.Termonde's keeping.Alas! Why should she have understood those niceties of feeling on my part, which rendered the fusion of her present with her past so repugnant to me, any more clearly on this point than on any other? M.Termonde had at least scrupulously respected the whole of those papers, from plans of association and prospectuses to private letters.Among the latter were several from M.Termonde himself, which bore testimony to the friendship that had formerly subsisted between my mother's first husband and her second.Had I not known this always? Why should Isuffer from the knowledge?

And still there was nothing, no indication whatever to put me on the track of a suspicion.