And how did the law accept its trust? Sourly, as represented by Dr Bonito. This ugly visitation, indeed, was the least agreeable to his schemes. He saw on the instant how, were Cartouche to stand convicted of the crime, his own hold on Madame Saint-Péray would be loosened for ever. If, on the other hand, he were to reveal a certain secret, of which likely only he and the deposed Prefect were cognisant, the indictment of the actual murderer would end, only the more certainly, his chances of extortion—perhaps, even, would be used to claim him as an after accessory to the deed. He was in a villainous quandary, that was the truth. This accursed accident had confounded all his plans.
And to increase his perplexity, the new Prefect—who once secure in his promotion, was already showing an aggravating tendency towards self-importance and independence—betrayed what he thought was an unwarrantable officiousness in taking the matter promptly and masterfully into his own hands. He had Jacques Balmat brought before him at once.
“You have no doubt,” he demanded, “that this body, so astonishingly brought to light, is the body of the late Marquess di Rocco?”
“No doubt whatever, Monsieur.”
“Nor that Monsignore met his death by foul means?”
“Not even he, Monsieur, could resist the full length of that blade. It lies buried in him to the hilt.”
“And it is by that hilt that you identify it?”
“Precisely so, Monsieur.”
“How?”
“It was familiar to me of old, as to many others, in the hand of M. Trix, Monsignore’s protégé. The haft was of jade, surmounted by a golden rat’s head. It was Monsieur’s hunting-knife, well-known.”