THE CHAMPDOCE MYSTERY


by Emile Gaboriau



This novel is a sequel to Caught in the Net. [Etext #2451]




CHAPTER I.

A DUCAL MONOMANIAC.

The traveller who wishes to go from Poitiers to London by the shortest
route will find that the simplest way is to take a seat in the
stage-coach which runs to Saumur; and when you book your place, the
polite clerk tells you that you must take your seat punctually at six
o'clock. The next morning, therefore, the traveller has to rise from his
bed at a very early hour, and make a hurried and incomplete toilet, and
on arriving, flushed and panting, at the office, discover that there was
no occasion for such extreme haste.

In the hotel from whence the coach starts every one seems to be asleep,
and a waiter, whose eyes are scarcely open, wanders languidly about.
There is not the slightest good in losing your temper, or in pouring out
a string of violent remonstrances. In a small restaurant opposite a cup
of hot coffee can be procured, and it is there that the disappointed