"Well, Elizabeth Dollon can settle the question for us. There may be some physical peculiarity, some mark by which she can identify her brother's body!"
But Fandor was examining the body very carefully. Suddenly he rose from his stooping posture, exclaiming:
"I know who it is!"
"Who?"
"Jules! None other than Madame Bourrat's servant, Jules!... That is to say, an accomplice whom the bandits we are after wanted to be rid of. He might give them away when brought up for examination. That was why they managed his escape: they killed him afterwards, because he had served their turn, and was now an encumbrance."
"Your explanation is plausible, Fandor; but how about the truth of it?"
"This proves the truth of it!" cried Fandor, pointing to a cicatrice on the back of the neck of the murdered man: it was the clear mark of where an abscess had been.
"I am certain I noticed a similar mark on the neck of Jules. He sat in front of me the other day, and I particularly noticed this mark. The dead man is Jules. I am certain it is Jules!"
Monsieur Havard was silent. Presently he said:
"If it is Jules ... it must be admitted that we are no further forward!"