Such is the prisoner's position, and yet despite the fact that the
two adversaries are so unequally armed, the man in the secret cell not
unfrequently wins the victory. If he is sure that he has left behind
him no proof of his having committed the crime; if he has no guilty
antecedents to be afraid of, he can--impregnable in a defense of
absolute denial--brave all the attacks of justice.
Such was, at this moment, the situation of May, the mysterious murderer;
as both M. Segmuller and Lecoq were forced to admit, with mingled grief
and anger. They had hoped to arrive at a solution of the problem by
examining Polyte Chupin and his wife, and they had been disappointed;
for the prisoner's identity remained as problematical as ever.
"And yet," exclaimed the magistrate impatiently, "these people know
something about this matter, and if they would only speak--"
"But they won't."
"What motive is it that keeps them silent? This is what we must
discover. Who will tell us the price that has been promised Polyte
Chupin for his silence? What recompense can he count upon? It must be a
great one, for he is braving real danger!"
Lecoq did not immediately reply to the magistrate's successive queries,
but it was easy to see from his knit brows that his mind was hard at
work. "You ask me, sir," he eventually remarked, "what reward has
been promised Chupin? I ask on my part who can have promised him this
reward?"
"Who has promised it? Why, plainly the accomplice who has beaten us on
every point.
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