"If I meet Dugrival in the next world, what message am I to give him from you?"
She shrugged her shoulders and put the barrel of the revolver to Lupin's temple.
"That's it," he said, "and be sure your hand doesn't shake, my dear lady. It won't hurt you, I swear. Are you ready? At the word of command, eh? One ... two ... three...."
The widow pulled the trigger. A shot rang out.
"Is this death?" said Lupin. "That's funny! I should have thought it was something much more different from life!"
There was a second shot. Gabriel snatched the weapon from his aunt's hands and examined it:
"Ah," he exclaimed, "the bullets have been removed!... There are only the percussion-caps left!..."
His aunt and he stood motionless, for a moment, and confused:
"Impossible!" she blurted out. "Who could have done it?... An inspector?... The examining-magistrate?..."
She stopped and, in a low voice: