"What was it?"
"This"—and from under his coat he drew out carefully the white stone with its red-brown spots, and from his pocket the button and the scrap of blue cloth. And those at the back stood up, with much noise, to see.
The men at the table looked at these scraps of possible evidence with interest, as they were placed before them.
"Where did you find these things?"
"Between Plaisance and the Coupée."
"What do you make of them?"
"Seemed to me those red spots might be blood. The other's a button torn off some one's coat."
"Have you any idea whose blood and whose coat?"
"The blood I don't know. The button, I believe, is off Mr. Gard's coat,"—at which another growl and hum went round.
"And you know nothing more about the matter?"