"Oh, how awful!" said the civil engineer, in a hoarse tone. "Where did
the inspector find it?"

He dropped into his chair again, but only for a moment; then, drawing
himself up, he hurried toward the door with a jerky step.

"I'm going, Monsieur le Préfet, I'm going. To-morrow morning I'll show
you.... I shall have all the proofs.... And the police will protect
me.... I am ill, I know, but I want to live! I have the right to
live ... and my son, too.... And we will live.... Oh, the scoundrels!--"

And he ran, stumbling out, like a drunken man.

M. Desmalions rose hastily.

"I shall have inquiries made about that man's circumstances.... I shall
have his house watched. I've telephoned to the detective office already.
I'm expecting some one in whom I have every confidence."

Don Luis said:

"Monsieur le Préfet, I beg you, with an earnestness which you will
understand, to authorize me to pursue the investigation. Cosmo
Mornington's will makes it my duty and, allow me to say, gives me the
right to do so. M. Fauville's enemies have given proofs of extraordinary
cleverness and daring. I want to have the honour of being at the post of
danger to-night, at M. Fauville's house, near his person."

The Prefect hesitated. He was bound to reflect how greatly to Don Luis
Perenna's interest it was that none of the Mornington heirs should be