JOSEPH ROULETABILLE APPEARS
Here Rouletabille turning towards Madame Mathieu, with a bow, said:—
"The footprints of Madame bear a strange resemblance to the neat footprints of the murderer."
Madame Mathieu trembled and looked at him with wide eyes as if in wonder at what he would say next.
"Madame has a shapely foot, long and rather large for a woman. The imprint, with its pointed toe, is very like that of the murderer's."
A movement in the court was repressed by Rouletabille. He held their attention at once.
"I hasten to add," he went on, "that I attach no importance to this. Outward signs like these are often liable to lead us into error, if we do not reason rightly. Monsieur Robert Darzac's footprints are also like the murderer's, and yet he is not the murderer!"
The President turning to Madame Mathieu asked:—
"Is that in accordance with what you know occurred?"
"Yes, Monsieur President," she replied, "it is as if Monsieur Rouletabille had been behind us."
"Did you see the murderer running towards the end of the right wing?"
"Yes, as clearly as I saw them afterwards carrying the keeper's body."
"What became of the murderer?—You were in the courtyard and could easily have seen.
"I saw nothing of him, Monsieur President. It became quite dark just then."
"Then Monsieur Rouletabille," said the Presi-
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