"Yes, yes, I know, but he did not come back with you."

"No, I left him with the corpse."

"You left him! . . . Alone?"

"I said to him, 'Stay here . . . don't move.'"

"And was there no one about? Did you see no one?"

"In the passage? No."

"But in the other attics? . . . Or else, look here, round that corner: was there no one hiding there?"

M. Lenormand seemed greatly excited. He walked up and down, he opened the doors of the rooms. And, suddenly, he set off at a run, with an agility of which no one would have thought him capable. He rattled down the six storeys, followed at a distance by the manager and the examining-magistrate. At the bottom, he found Gourel in front of the main door.

"Has no one gone out?"

"No, chief."