"Well?" the priest asked sharply.
They had seated themselves before the fire, and the red light of it shone up into one face turned sideways, and full of shrinking inquiry as it looked into the other face, whose downcast eyes seemed to shun being so read.
"Mr. Schöninger was somewhere wandering about the city all that night," Mr. Macon said. "He was seen and recognized by two or three persons, all of whom noticed something odd in his manner. He was seen in the lane back of the house here as late as eleven o'clock, and appeared to be going toward the river, but came back to the street on finding himself observed. He was not at his boarding-house nor at any of the hotels that night. Moreover, the measure taken of the tracks near your house corresponds with the size of the boots he wore."
"I don't want to hear any more!" exclaimed F. Chevreuse passionately, and hid his face in his hands.
His companion glanced quickly at him, then looked into the fire, and remained silent.
After a moment, the priest lifted his face.
"You don't mean to say that the case is going against him?" he asked in a low voice that expressed both fear and incredulity.
"It looks a little like that now," was the quiet reply. "But we do not know what to-morrow may bring forth."
"I believe Jane was called to-day?" F. Chevreuse remarked after a moment.