seen the man turning over his manure heap. His wife had joined him shortly after. They wore an air of secrecy, spoke in low tones and looked furtively about them as though fearful of being watched.

A visit was made to the house that morning by the gendarmes, but I know not why-perhaps for fear of soiling their uniforms-they did not touch the manure heap, although they had been instructed to make a search there. Perhaps, also, the corporal, being related to Grenielle's wife, had conducted only a perfunctory and apologetic search.

*

That same day, in response to a telegram, I arrived at Barneville at one o'clock in the afternoon. My first step was to summon to the luggage-room where I had installed myself with my clerk, the assistant-stationmaster, Sénéchal, and the two porters.

"The thief," I said, looking at them sternly, "is one of you three. You shall not leave this room without my having made an arrest." Then, profiting by their stupefaction, I went on: "Come, speak, whom do you suspect, Grenielle?"

"No one, monsieur le juge." "And you, Sénéchal, whom do suspect?"

you

The stationmaster answered brusquely, and in a resolute tone:

"If I must accuse some one, I say that I should be inclined to suspect Grenielle, who knows where the cashier hangs his key in the stationmaster's office."

"You know, too!" retorted Grenielle, with sudden anger. "Quite true."

"And you?" I asked Langevin, “do you know where the key hangs?" "No, monsieur; I never clean the offices; Grenielle has charge of them." "Also quite true," remarked the stationmaster.

"Which do you suspect? Your chief

or your comrade?" I asked Langevin, "speak frankly."

Langevin, a big, sturdy, dull-witted fellow, remained a long time in indicision, turning his head from side to side, looking first at Sénéchal, then at Grenielle. At last he said, slowly:

"Monsieur Sénéchal cannot be a thief, that is quite certain."

"And Grenielle?"

"Or Grenielle-either-"

There was a peculiar tone in his assertion of Grenielle's innocence. Langevin's manner was by no means as assured as before. I was struck by it and so was my clerk. Unfortunately, there is nothing so dry as a procès verbal. It is a thing without life, reproducing neither the faces of the individuals nor their tones or accent.

Alas! I am no writer, Monsieur le President, or I could find words to make you see this Grenielle-a cunning, close-mouthed fellow, his face disfigured by a scar. He had been drinking before coming to make his deposition, and poisoned the air with the fumes of brandy. The scoundrel! On the other hand, the refined face of the stationmaster, Sénéchal bespoke honesty and sincerity. His gestures were quiet and self-contained. He expressed himself without a shadow of hesitation, and answered my questions at once, even when he saw me deliberate long before putting them.

When I was informed of the peculiar actions which Grenielle's neighbors had noticed early that morning, I questioned him, asking him why he had risen so early.

"Because I had an attack of colic," was the reply.

"And your wife-why did she come down?"

"Because I was so long in coming back."

"You were talking in low tones?" "Dame-when one has a stomach-ache

one does not shout it from the housetops."

I then sent for the gendarmes and asked whether they had examined Grenielle's manure heap. On their reply in the negative, I asked the mayor for two laborers who, in my presence, turned over the pile from top to bottom. The men found nothing; but I must record the fact which I omitted to enter in the dossier-they declared that the manure pile seemed to have been freshly turned. I requested the mayor to instruct the neighbors to watch Grenielle carefully. This they were all the more willing to do as they disliked the fellow, who had many times robbed them of rabbits and poultry. But it seems that the rascal has the faculty of at once disposing of every trace of his ill-gotten gains. The surveillance on which I had counted so much, resulted in nothing; the neighbors must have been indiscreet for Grenielle, for two days, did not stir out of his house except to go to the station and back. He doubtless knew that he was watched.

We already know that on the following day, that is, Wednesday, the rifled cash box was found in the river, a kilometre distant. It was evident that neither Sénéchal nor Grenielle could have placed it there, both having remained at home, but Grenielle's wife had been absent for an hour on Tuesday, ostensibly to gather food for her rabbits. A girl who was watching her testified, however, that on her return she had only a small handful of dandelions. This is suspicious, doubly so, as a neighbor, who had seen her start, deposed that her skirt was more distender than usual and that she walked awkwardly. On the other hand, no one had seen Mlle. Sénéchal leave the house. I forgot to mention that Sénéchal is a bachelor and lives with his sister. (It seems that this poor young girl, prostrated by the charge against her brother, passes the entire day in weeping, and

does not dare to show herself. It is true that the search made by the gendarmes was conducted in a most brutal fashion. The corporal was doubtless angry because I had publicly reprimanded him for the carelessness with which he had searched the Grenielle house.)

That evening I went myself to the house of the porter. I ordered all the flooring in the room to be torn up, in order to see if there were not some hiding place. We found a hole near the chimney, but it was empty. Grenielle declared that the hiding-place, if it were one, was there when he moved into the house. I thought that as he said this he exchanged a furtive glance with his wife, and that when I said, "It is possible," there was a suspicion of a grin on his face.

To sum the matter up. I recognized, as I took the train at nine o'clock that night to return to Lesieux, that the affair would have to be added to the category already too long, alas of crimes which there is no means of solving save by deduction, based on probability. It was something, however, to be certain that the perpetration of the crime lay between one of two men, Sénéchal and Grenielle, since upon me devolved the task of fixing the guilt upon one or the other.

parents, small farmers at Tourville-laBaignarde, have taken out of pity. Grenielle's record with the company is bad. He is reported to be deeply in debt. A year ago he was sold out by the sheriff. He is evidently an irresponsible fellow. If he has been retained by the company, he owes it solely to the protection of a deputy whose name it is best not to mention here.

On the other hand, Sénéchal's reputation is above reproach. He lives very quietly with a younger sister. He had been employed for a long time by the East Algerian R. R. Co., which he left with excellent references. He has had a good education. He writes well, and can draw up an excellent report. He is extremely steady in his habits. The only luxury in which he and his sister indulge is a piano. Except that he is looked upon as holding himself above his position, Sénéchal is well enough liked. He would shortly have been promoted to the position of head stationmaster. How can one believe that such a man, free from debt, whose position was about to be sensibly improved, would, out of pure covetousness risk a felon's cell?

It was plain that between these two I could not hesitate. On Tuesday evening, therefore, on leaving, I gave orders to the corporal of gendarmes for the arrest of Grenielle, announcing that I would continue the examination at Lesieux. I left, absolutely convinced of the guilt of this man. And yet, today Grenielle is at liberty and Sénéchal is to take his place on the bench of shame!

What extraordinary occurrence, you ask, has taken place to totally change the aspect of affairs? Only this: Mme. Engelback, the ticket-agent has testified that she saw Sénéchal in the cashier's office at the moment the robbery was committed.

Have I mentioned that on the 14th,

at Barneville, the deposition made by this same woman was comparatively unimportant? At quarter of ten she had heard a noise in the cashier's office, and had called to the porter Langevin to go and see what was wrong. Langevin went at once, stopping only to light his lantern, and met Sénéchal outside the office door.-Yes, I have already made a note of this.-Ah, Monsieur le President, I am exhausted by this lengthy document, which I am forced to write in such haste, having learned that the case was to come up much sooner than I had expected.

We now come to the very different deposition which Mme. Engelbach made on the 15th in my office. I repeat it verbatim.

"Monday night, a little before ten, I went up to my rooms-I live on the top floor-and returned immediately to my office. I was not absent more than three minutes. I opened the slide, arranged the tickets and got my change in readiness. A soldier came to the window and bought a ticket to Caen. Seeing no other pasengers, I sat down at the back of the office near the glass partition that separates my office from M. Buisson's. I was scarcely seated when I heard a sound like that of a drawer being pulled open. I thought that it must be M. Buisson who had come back to work. But as the noise was repeated, and it struck me that an effort was being made to muffle the sound, and, moreover, as the gas was not lighted, I got up and went to look for some one in the baggage-room. I found Langevin. 'Go and see what is going on in the cashier's office,' I said. The man lighted his lantern leisurelyhe is never in a hurry; I then returned to my office and going to the glass partition I peeped through a place from which the paint had been scratched. I saw some one, M. Sénéchal, going out hastily; he scarcely stopped to fasten the door behind him. He turned to the

Sénéchal was at once arrested and taken to Lisieux in the custody of two gendarmes. On being brought to my office his indignation was extreme, although he strove to control himself. I confronted him with Mme. Engelbach, who reiterated her accusation.

"And you dare, madame," he exclaimed, "to assert that you saw me take the box?"

"I did not see you take it, monsieur, and I did not say so," she retorted, vehemently. "I say that I saw you in the cashier's office; I say that I saw you go out hastily, but I do not know what you were doing there."

"You have been talking with Grenielle."

"Oh, every one knows the story. Last year Grenielle happened to find out something that was not to Mme. Engelbach's credit-"

"It is abominable! It is a lie!" the ticket agent cried, with a scarlet face. "You are a coward to say such a thing; it is fortunate for you that my husband does not hear you!" . .

...

"And so," Sénéchal went on ironically and without heeding her, "it was necessary to save Grenielle, for, if Grenielle were arrested and condemned he would talk, and, on the day of his summons before the Assizes, he would proclaim the scandal before the world, and Mme. Engelbach would be discharged. Moreover, the husband of this woman is violent, and does not trifle over a matter of honor; and so-she remembers just in time that she has seen me steal-Madame," he continued, fiercely, "you are a miserable woman! You are trying to ruin an innocent man that you may retain your position!"

I, Monsieur le President, I who was present at this scene, I who saw with what an air of sincerity Sénéchal spoke -But no, I am in too great a hurry to proclaim his innocence; I forget that I must first prove it to you. I forget that I myself began by not seeing that innocence that none the less must have shone before my eyes.

I set about trying to find out if there were any truth in the story about Mme. Engelbach. Several persons declared that they had heard something against her, not from Grenielle himself, who is a taciturn individual, but from a man named Souprisset, a former employee of the company and a comrade of Grenielle's.

It was of the utmost importance that I should find Souprisset; in his hands was the key to this mysterious affair.

I learned that on leaving the company he had gone to Brionne, where he

had secured a position as sergeant de ville. I ordered him to be summoned at once. Alas! Souprisset was dead. The death of Souprisset removed all hope of unmasking this woman, who was unquestionably perjuring herself. I, therefore, saw myself forced to record her testimony and communicate it, such as it was, to the procureur of the Republic.

*

Little by little, moreover, the charges grew. Sénéchal was down, and all who chose were free to cast a stone at him. For instance, it was now remembered that for a month past he had been much preoccupied, and that often on being spoken to he had failed to reply. From this it was naturally concluded that he was meditating some piece of villainy.

Then, another porter thought he remembered that a few days before the robbery, he had seen Sénéchal enter the cashier's office at the very hour at which the robbery was committed the following week. A sort of preliminary experiment as it were!

Finally, even the soldier who had bought the only ticket that had been sold that evening remembered a week later that he, too, knew something. He says that after having bought his ticket seeing that he still had several minutes to spare, he left the waiting-room and walked towards the iron gates which are flanked on either side, both within and without the station, by masses of shrubbery. There he saw a woman who seemed to be trying to escape observation-a woman rather slight, dressed in black, and this woman would seem to resemble Sénéchal's sister. He believed that he identified her when I, perforce, had them brought face to face.

This soldier had at first inspired me with confidence, and this partially explains my uncertainty of mind; but I learned a short time ago that he is

looked upon by his regiment as а mauvais sujet, and his captain has told me that he considers him an arrant liar.

All these depositions, taken by themselves, when one has not before one the faces of those who make them, go to swell, you will say, a formidable total, and I am forced to admit that the Chambre des Mises en Accusation could not do otherwise that send Sénéchal up before the Assizes.

One thing, however, is not possible, and that is to condemn this man, for, after all, there is reasonable doubt.

Monsieur le President I now bring to a close this long and incoherent letter. Permit an old man who has spent thirty-two years in harness, of which twenty-four have been devoted to the grave duties of juge d'instruction, to adjure you, by all that is most sacred, by the great name of justice whose supreme representative you will be tomorrow, to see to it that the real culprit takes the place of the unfortunate Sénéchal at the bar of the Court of Assizes.

One word, I beg of you, Monsieur le President, a word that will reassure me by showing that you have received this communication in time and that you have been able to give it your attention. Respectfully,

L. Carpentier.

Document No. 2 (Telegram).

To M. L. Carpentier, honorary magistrate, La Mare-aux-Clercs, near Coutances (Manche).

Letter received. Read with interest. Will telegraph verdict day after tomorrow morning.

De Maucourcy..

Document No. 3 (Telegram).

To M. L. Carpentier, etc.