"I should like, before going further, to look at the car," he said,
suddenly coming to a conclusion.

M. Floçon readily agreed. "We will go together," he said, adding,
"Madame will remain here, please, until we return. It may not be for
long."

"And afterwards?" asked the Countess, whose nervousness had if anything
increased during the whispered colloquy of the officials.

"Ah, afterwards! Who knows?" was the reply, with a shrug of the
shoulders, all most enigmatic and unsatisfactory.

"What have we against her?" said the Judge, as soon as they had gained
the absolute privacy of the sleeping-car.

"The bottle of laudanum and the porter's condition. He was undoubtedly
drugged," answered the detective; and the discussion which followed took
the form of a dialogue between them, for the Commissary took no part in
it.

"Yes; but why by the Countess? How do we know that positively?"

"It is her bottle," said M. Floçon.

"Her story may be true--that she missed it, that the maid took it."

"We have nothing whatever against the maid. We know nothing about her."

"No. Except that she has disappeared. But that tells more against her