Segmuller's implied
doubt. What! were his subordinates suspected? Was his own professional
honesty impugned? He could not help lifting his hands to heaven in mute
protest against such an unjust charge.
"Am I sure?" he exclaimed. "Then you can never have visited the secret
cells. You have no idea, then, of their situation; you are unacquainted
with the triple bolts that secure the doors; the grating that shuts out
the sunlight, to say nothing of the guard who walks beneath the windows
day and night. Why, a bird couldn't even reach the prisoners in those
cells."
Such a description was bound to reassure the most skeptical mind, and M.
Segmuller breathed again: "Now that I am easy on that score," said he,
"I should like some information about another prisoner--a fellow named
Chupin, who isn't in the secret cells. I want to know if any visitor
came for him yesterday."
"I must speak to the registrar," replied the governor, "before I can
answer you with certainty. Wait a moment though, here comes a man who
can perhaps tell us. He is usually on guard at the entrance. Here,
Ferraud, this way!"
The man to whom the governor called hastened to obey the summons.
"Do you know whether any one asked to see the prisoner Chupin
yesterday?"
"Yes, sir, I went to fetch Chupin to the parlor myself."
"And who was his visitor?" eagerly asked Lecoq, "wasn't he a tall man;
very red in the face--"
"Excuse me, sir, the visitor was a lady--his aunt, at least so Chupin
told me.
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