"Come! my boy," said he, "have you lost your
wits? This is losing time, it seems to me. The authorities will arrive
in a few hours, and what report shall we be able to give them! As for
me, if you desire to go to sleep, I shall pursue the investigation
alone."
Disappointed as he was, the young police officer could not repress a
smile. He recognized his own exhortation of a few moments before. It
was the old man who had suddenly become intrepid. "To work, then!" he
sighed, like a man who, while foreseeing defeat, wishes, at least, to
have no cause for self-reproach.
He found it, however, extremely difficult to follow the footprints in
the open air by the uncertain light of a candle, which was extinguished
by the least breath of wind. "I wonder if there is a lantern in the
house," he said. "If we could only lay our hands upon one!"
They searched everywhere, and, at last, upstairs in the Widow Chupin's
own room, they found a well-trimmed lantern, so small and compact that
it certainly had never been intended for honest purposes.
"A regular burglar's implement," said Father Absinthe, with a coarse
laugh.
The implement was useful in any case; as both men agreed when
they returned to the garden and recommenced their investigations
systematically. They advanced very slowly and with extreme caution. The
old man carefully held the lantern in the best position, while Lecoq,
on his knees, studied each footprint with the attention of a chiromancer
professing to read the future in the hand of a rich client.
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