WITHIN AN INCH OF HIS LIFE

by Emile Gaboriau

PREPARER'S NOTE

This text was prepared from a 1913 edition, published by Charles
Scribner's Sons, New York.




FIRST PART--FIRE AT VALPINSON



These were the facts:--



I.

In the night from the 22nd to the 23rd of June, 1871, towards one
o'clock in the morning, the Paris suburb of Sauveterre, the principal
and most densely populated suburb of that pretty town, was startled by
the furious gallop of a horse on its ill-paved streets.

A number of peaceful citizens rushed to the windows.

The dark night allowed these only to see a peasant in his shirt sleeves,