"What!" said François, approaching the other servants, "are there ghosts in this château, too?"
"Oh, no! Monsieur François; there’s no question of ghosts," replied the groom, "it’s just a light that I saw last night in the tower where no one sleeps."
"It was a reflection of the moon, that he took for a light," said Cunette; "I am the concierge, and I’ll answer for it that no suspicious person came into the château."
"Pardi!" said Jeannette, "if it was a ghost, do they come in through the doors?"
"Observe," continued the concierge, "that Benoît says that the light was up high at that window; that’s in the arsenal; what would any thieves go to the arsenal for, where there’s nothing but old rusty swords?"
"But suppose it wasn’t a thief?"
Vincent, who had not yet spoken, drew near at that moment with a mysterious air, and said:
"My children, all this reminds me of something I’d forgotten, which might have some connection with what Benoît saw."
All the servants crowded around Vincent and looked at him with interest.
"About five or six days ago," continued the gardener, "I don’t know just when it was, but it was night, and I was going to bed; I remembered that I needed my big pickaxe the next morning to work in this part of the garden. You know that I keep most of my tools in a little shed at the end of the broad path on the left."