Suddenly, he caught sight of a book on the floor and stooped to pick it up. But the girl darted forward with a quicker movement, seized the book and pressed it to her bosom with a fierce energy, as though prepared to defend it against any attempt to take hold of it.
"That's it," he said. "The money was offered her for the book, but she refused to part with it. Hence the scratches on the hands. The interesting thing would be to know why the murderer wished to possess the book. Was he able to look through it first?"
He said to Waldemar:
"My dear count, please give the order."
Waldemar made a sign to his men. Three of them threw themselves on the girl and, after a hard tussle, in which the poor thing stamped, writhed and screamed with rage, they took the volume from her.
"Gently, child," said Lupin, "be calm. . . . It's all in a good cause. . . . Keep an eye on her, will you? Meanwhile, I will have a look at the object in dispute."
It was an odd volume of Montesquieu's Voyage au temple de Guide, in a binding at least a century old. But Lupin had hardly opened it before he exclaimed:
"I say, I say, this is queer! There is a sheet of parchment stuck on each right hand page; and those sheets are covered with a very close, small handwriting."
He read, at the beginning:
"Diary of the Chevalier Gilles de Malrêche, French servant to His Royal Highness the Prince of Zweibruckenveldenz, begun in the Year of Our Lord 1794."