Mondoubleau. Well, what's the latest about the Irissary murder?
Mouzon. So far there's nothing new. I've questioned the accused—an ugly-looking fellow and a poor defence. He simply denied everything and flew into a temper. I had to send him back to the cells without getting anything out of him.
Mondoubleau. Are you perfectly sure you've got the right man?
Mouzon. Certain—no; but I should be greatly surprised if I were mistaken.
Mondoubleau. I saw Monsieur Delorme yesterday. He's a little better.
Mouzon. So I hear. He thinks the murderer was a tramp. Now there, my dear sir, is one of the peculiarities to which we examining magistrates are subject. We always find it the very devil to abandon the first idea that pops into our minds. Personally I do my best to avoid what is really a professional failing. I am just going to examine Etchepare, and I am waiting for the results of a police inquiry. If all this gives me no result, I shall set the man at liberty and look elsewhere for the culprit—but I repeat, I firmly believe I am on the right scent.
Mondoubleau. Monsieur Delorme is a magistrate of long experience and a very shrewd one, and I will not deny that the reasons he has given me are—
Mouzon. I know my colleague is extremely intelligent. And, once more, I don't say that he's wrong. We shall see. At present I am only morally certain. I shall be materially certain when I know the antecedents of the accused and have established an obvious motive for his action. At the moment of your arrival I was about to open my mail. Here is a letter from the Court of Pau; it gives our man's judicial record. [He takes a paper-knife in order to open the envelope]
Mondoubleau. A curious paper-knife.
Mouzon. That? It's the blade of the knife that brought the pretty Toulouse woman to the guillotine at Bordeaux. Pretty weapon, eh? I had it made into a paper-knife. [He opens the envelope] There—there you are! Four times sentenced for assaulting and wounding. You see—