“You found nothing suspicious?”
“Nothing whatever to connect with his presence here.”
“Found nothing at all?”
“Yes, I did: I found this.”
The Baron took from a pocket a common horn coat-button, and handed it to the other, who received it and turned it over in silence.
“I picked it up,” said Le Sage, “near the tree where the gun had stood.”
“Why,” said the detective, looking up rather blackly, “didn’t you produce this at the Inquest?”
“I never supposed for the moment it could be of any importance.”
“H’mph!” grunted the Sergeant, and after a darkling moment, put the button into his own pocket. “I don’t know; it may or may not be; but you should have told me about it, sir. For the present, by your leave, I’ll take charge of the thing. And now, if you’ve nothing more to show me——”
“Nothing.”