CHAPTER III (Continued).

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 140, 6 February 1886, Page 3

CHAPTER 111 (Continued).

THfcKK were already four or five persons in the office, among whom Edmond recognised Vereoix, who looked extremely pale from the fatigue and emotions of the past night. The fat Baron was also there, panting still from the exertion of mounting the steep staircase of the police-office, ■while the commissary of Saint Cloud was explaining complaisantly the ovents of the affair to a fourth person. The latter, dressed in black from beadto foot, carefully shaved, and decorated with the rosette of an officer, had an official mien and an intelligent face. The Viscount divined that this must be a physician, and he understood, at the same time, what was to take place Thoy had evidently called the three witnesses of the affair^ together to be present at a medical examination of the head, and Edmond fait a shudder of repugnance in thinking of the spectacle that awaited him. Versoix and the Baron came forward and shook hands with him ; they were both quite calm, and could not, of course, suspect the anguish that Sartilly had been suffering, as they were ignorant of the scenes that had taken place in the De Mensignac and the De Noreff mansions. Indeed, he thought it useless to ppeak to them of it, and limited hia conversation to the common-place remarks that are generally exchanged after an event of this kind. " Gentlemen," said the chief, who wished to fcranquilise the minda of the lookers on upon the extent of the unpleasant task that he had exacted of them, "I am obliged te present to you again a very disagreeable spectacle, but it will be sufficient for you to recognise the identity of the hesd — you will not be obliged to be present at the postmortem examination . The unpleasant duty will soon bo over, as the doctor is ready, and if you will come with me, I will take you to the room." After having made a sign to Jottrat to join them, he opened a door, and pagsed through a long corridor, at the end of which was the room used for operations of this kind, that were rarely done at the policeoffice, and only on exceptional cases like the present one. The room they entered was a large one, paved with flagstones, walls carefully whitewashed, and two very large ■windows. In the middle of the room, on a large stone table was an object, the outline of whos9 form could be distin guished under its black envelope. On the right was a fountain with a basin half filled with water, and at the end of the room six cane chairs were ranged against the wall. One felt a contraction of the heart on entering this cold, bare place. On ita threshold all conversation ceased, and the Viscount and his friends uncovered their heads. The dead was there. Jottrat locked the door and joined the group that surrounded the table. The doctor removing the covering, the head appeared, and the features, exposed to the full light of day, caused a general murmur of admiration, while an exclamation of astonishment escaped from the lips of the chief of the detective police. Sartilly had succeeded in controlling his feelings, but the officer, struck by the strange resemblance between the dead one and Madame de Noreff. looked alternately at the pale head and at the Viscount, deadly paU also. "Ahl- I understand the mistake, ho baid, as if speaking to himself. Edmond wondered no Icnger, and a slow work was going on in his mind ; he saw again, in his thoughts, the woman of the Champs Elysees and the woman of the De Noreff mansion, and the question rose in his mind, " Which was she ?" "Gentlemen," said the officer, addressing him=elf to the Viscount and his friends, 11 you recognise that thia head is that which was found by you this morning in the Bois de Boulogne, under the circumstances which you have declared to the commissary." "Certainly," said, at the same time, the Baron and Versoix, while Sartilly merely gave an affirmative gesture. " Will you sign, immediately, the official report?" said the functionary, "and while waiting, the doctor will proceed with his first statements, and if you wish, gentlemen, you are at liberty to remain." No one made a motion to leave, while the doctor was examining the head with nice attention, feeling and turning it in every way, with the indifference habit gives to those engaged in anatomical examinations " This person was in the full strength of youth, remarkably well constituted and formed," he said, in the calm tone of a professor giving a lesson, "and was a woman of twenty two or three years of age, probably born in the north of Europe, if I can judc»e from the peculiar form of the Bkull." * "Do you think it possible, doctor, to indicate the manner of her death ?" the officer, who had Eeemed for some minutes deeply preoccupied, suddenly asked, ** I do not think about it, for I am sure that this woman has been guillotined," answered the doctor, quietly. " Guillotined !" cried the astonished lookers-on. " Beheaded, if you like the word better," said the unmoved phyeician, "but certainly by a mechanism similar to the guillotine." " Pardon me, doctor," said the officer, "but this is a very serious matter, and if you can explain how these things take place, it would be very important for us to know." " First of all, there is full evidence that the head was not detached from the body after death, as the anatomical marks of the wound give on this point an absolute certainty. Still more, the separation is entire, and the skin cut without an abrasion of any kind, the blow coming down as high as the fourth vertebra of the spinal column, as generally takes place in criminal executions. A sword or hatchet could not have made so smooth a decapitation." " It is incredible,*' said the officer, in a low voice. " And look," continued the doctor, examining the neck nearer, " I Bee very well how the separation has been made." There was a thrill of curiosity among the lookers-on, while the physician continued impnrturbably, " The blow haß been given from left to right, and not from above." " I do not understand it very well," said Jottrat, approaching the table, and looking at the examination with feverish attention. **It is very simple nevertheless. Suppose a knife was horizontal instead of vertical, as in the guillotine." "I have seen shears of that kind in forges," Baid the officer, as if speaking te himself. " It is true, and as enormous bars of iron are cut by this method, you can easily un deretand that it would not be difficult te cat off a head with one of those f ormidabl< mechanisms."

" The crime, then, must have been committed in a forge," said the Baron, stupidly, "and I own one in the Oise — * 41 Pardon me," said the doctor, " I have advanced nothing of that kind ; and moreover, judicial reasonings are not in my line ; — I prove all, but suppose nothing ; besides, there may exist other inetruments that might produce the same result." "But what are they ?" persisted the too inquisitive Baron "They may exist, but I do not know them," answered the physician, rather coldly. " Excuse me, doctor," said Jottrat, timidly, " but I want to ask you if science could furnish any nieanß of knowing how the murderer acted. Did he surprise hie victim, or did he murder her after a struggle ?" "That is a question more difficult to decide; nevertheless, the probabilities are greater that the victim has boen beheaded unawares, and I want to show you why I think so. First of all, the face does not bear marks of any excoriation, and more than that, the features have retained that placidity of oppression peculiar to thoee who meet their death-blow unexpectedly ; and besides, what is still more conclusive, the hair is not even out of order— look, the plaits are carefully arranged, and one might almost aiiirm that the crime had taken place in the evening, for the hair is dressed in this manner in the morning. While speaking thus, the physician calmly passed his hand over the superb goldencoloured hair of the dead. Sarfcilly shuddered from head to foot. Pale, with haggard eyes and contracted lips, ho looked on without saying a word during the funereal works to which the man of science abandoned himself. Each one of the cold words that fell from the physician reached his heart, awakening in his mind a thousand mournful thoughtp.and involuntarilyhecon. nected together the ingenious deductions he had just heard with the circumstances known only to himself, and sought to combine them with the events of the fatal night ; but the more he thought of Jeanne's recital, the more he felt the impossibility of reconciling it with the facts that the doctor had pointed out. His ideas became obscured to such a degree that he would willingly have attempted to give to the frightful reality before him a supernatural explanation. There could not be, ho thought, in this world, beings who inflicted death by these strange means, and man had not the power to invent such unknown tortures. Then the imago of the woman in red rose up before his troubled imagination, and he felt his bloodcurdling in hia veins. While the doctor was speaking, Sartilly had turned away from the pale face of the dead ; but when he was silent, he still saw the bio 3d y remains, that subjected him to a horrible fascination ; a3 the eyes of the victim were op9n, and the immovable eyeballs appeared to be looking at him, while the lips, half closed, eeemed to be speaking, and Sartilly, carried away by his emotion almost expectod to hear them pronounce the name of the murderer. Tbe cold and monotonous voice of the physician drew him from this gloomy reverie. "Look," said the docter, "hero is another proof in support of my theory — one of the tresses of her hair has been cut entirely off ; and it is now evident that this woman was suddenly struck, and did nut try to defend herself. Her head, seized, doubtless, by come mechanism similar to one of those I have described to you, fell without her being able to make a motion to save it." A keen emotion seized Sartilly, for he had with him the cad relic he had picked up in the library, and the circumstances in which he found it coming back to hia memory, his first impulse naturally show to was it, and bring this material proof to support the researches of tho police ; but he reflected that in acting thus he would give to their investigations the mysteries of the De Mensignac mansion, and perhaps the secrets of the family. It would be also renouncing the mission that he had mentally taken upon himself, and to accept definitely the auxiliaries he dreaded. "No, no," murmured he, "I will act alone." " I think,'' said the chief of the detective police, " these first examinations will suffice ; when our informatian ia a little more advanced we will have recourse again to the doctor. Now I shall be occupied in having the head embalmed, as it is the only convincing proof we have, but it is worth more than any other," said the officer, half smiling. I "Do you really hopo to discover the murderer ?" Versoix asked rather foolishly. "I never despair, and I have unravelled affairs more complicated than this." The physician had finished his examination, and was busy wrapping the head in the envelope, with a coldness which contrasted strongly with the deep emotion that might be seen on the faces of all present. " Come, gentlemen," said the officer, going toward the door. Sartilly, slowly following the little group, could not avoid casting a look back on the black veil which showed so plainly the form of the unknown head, when a voice murmured in his ear, " Sir, v? ill you permit me to come and see you V He turned, and recognised the agent whose face he had been so much struck with. Jottrat looked at him humbly — his attitude and the expression of his eyes Baid so plainly, f< Do not disdain my Berviceß," that Sartilly determined not to refuse this unexpected aid. "To-morrow, at my houee, at twelve o'clock," he said, briefly, adding in a low voice. " God has perhaps sent this man to me that this crime may not remain unpunished. "