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Article THE LUCKY INHERITANCE. ← Page 18 of 19 →
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The Lucky Inheritance.
lock Avas shot . We walked round the narrow parapet to see if there Avere any other entrance , but we completed the circuit without finding any . It Avas suggested by Monsieur Penhoen , either that the mill had not been A'isited by the proprietor , or that he had left it as he found it . But in that case , the gendarme demanded , AA'here he had gone to , and why Avas his
companion alone at Guerande in the dead of the night ? While this question Avas being discussed , the humpbacked tailor had not been idle ; after prying about in various directions , he Avent doAvn on all fours , and placed his face close to the bottom of the mill-door . Presently he uttered a sharp cry , and thrust his long lean hand through a narrow crevice , between the door and the wall ; a moment afterwards he withdrew it , covered tvith Hood !
The truth now flashed upon us all : Monsieur Roqueplan had been murdered ! In an instant every man ' s shoulder was against the door , and it fleAv open . A ghastly spectacle presented itself . There ivas the unfortunate proprietor lying on his . back , his head hanging down , his legs and arms extended , and his body crushed beneath
the ponderous weight of the upper mill-stone , which had fallen upon him . Was his death accidental ? With the activity of an ape the tailor scrambled up a ladder that conducted to the machinery of the mill ; he seized the cord by which the stone had been suspended , and looked at it closely ; it was nearly a new oneand had been cut through Avith a very sharp
instru-, ment . There coidd be no doubt of the fact , for , close at hand , on aheap of rubbish , was found a keen razor-blade firmly set in a strong wooden handle . It was an aAvful task , that of remoAdng the mill-stone from off the body of the poor old man , but Ave at last accomplished it . Its enormous Aveight had preserved what property there Avas
about him ; some money was in his pockets , together Avith a large key A ery much bent ; it Avas the one that belonged to his house in the Rue de Guenic : that which opened the mill had , Ave supposed , been carried off by the murderer , after doublelocking the door . I thought of the last words which-1 had heard the little gamepurveyor utter : " Ah ! que c ' est beau que d ' avoir un moulin . " '
After repeating my deposition before the juge de paix of the district , I left Guerande the same day , nor have I been there since . But only a few months back I read in the Gazette des Tribunaux a trial which had just taken place at the Assizes of the Department of the Loire Infeiieure , in Avhich a man , Avho ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Lucky Inheritance.
lock Avas shot . We walked round the narrow parapet to see if there Avere any other entrance , but we completed the circuit without finding any . It Avas suggested by Monsieur Penhoen , either that the mill had not been A'isited by the proprietor , or that he had left it as he found it . But in that case , the gendarme demanded , AA'here he had gone to , and why Avas his
companion alone at Guerande in the dead of the night ? While this question Avas being discussed , the humpbacked tailor had not been idle ; after prying about in various directions , he Avent doAvn on all fours , and placed his face close to the bottom of the mill-door . Presently he uttered a sharp cry , and thrust his long lean hand through a narrow crevice , between the door and the wall ; a moment afterwards he withdrew it , covered tvith Hood !
The truth now flashed upon us all : Monsieur Roqueplan had been murdered ! In an instant every man ' s shoulder was against the door , and it fleAv open . A ghastly spectacle presented itself . There ivas the unfortunate proprietor lying on his . back , his head hanging down , his legs and arms extended , and his body crushed beneath
the ponderous weight of the upper mill-stone , which had fallen upon him . Was his death accidental ? With the activity of an ape the tailor scrambled up a ladder that conducted to the machinery of the mill ; he seized the cord by which the stone had been suspended , and looked at it closely ; it was nearly a new oneand had been cut through Avith a very sharp
instru-, ment . There coidd be no doubt of the fact , for , close at hand , on aheap of rubbish , was found a keen razor-blade firmly set in a strong wooden handle . It was an aAvful task , that of remoAdng the mill-stone from off the body of the poor old man , but Ave at last accomplished it . Its enormous Aveight had preserved what property there Avas
about him ; some money was in his pockets , together Avith a large key A ery much bent ; it Avas the one that belonged to his house in the Rue de Guenic : that which opened the mill had , Ave supposed , been carried off by the murderer , after doublelocking the door . I thought of the last words which-1 had heard the little gamepurveyor utter : " Ah ! que c ' est beau que d ' avoir un moulin . " '
After repeating my deposition before the juge de paix of the district , I left Guerande the same day , nor have I been there since . But only a few months back I read in the Gazette des Tribunaux a trial which had just taken place at the Assizes of the Department of the Loire Infeiieure , in Avhich a man , Avho ,