"Monsieur le docteur," said the little man with a slight bow, "I have come in answer to the telephone message, from which I understand that there has been a fire here, and that it is probably the work of an incendiary."
"Pardon, monsieur, who told you that?"
"One of the firemen who assisted in extinguishing the flames—am I right in my suspicions?"
"Perfectly," replied Villebois, "but that is only a trifle."
"Only a trifle?" replied Monsieur Biron, astonished. "Arson is not regarded as a trifling matter by the law."
"That is so, but I fear a murder has been committed as well."
"Oh! oh!! oh!!!" cried the commissaire in an ascending scale, tapping his two fingers on the table.
He remained silent for a few moments, and then he called his two satellites. "You, Georges, go round to the front gate, and you, Raoul, go to the back of the house and see that no one passes out without my permission.
"Now, Monsieur Villebois, let us go together and see the victim."