The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-02-21
THE CRIME OF
THE BOULEVARD.
By JULES CLARETIE.
fCopyright. 1897. by R. r. Fenno 8 Col
~ IcoNTINUED.J

asked In that paper that short notice
should be inserted in the paper giving
the hour and date of the services and
giving him the simple title ex-consul.
az hope" went ON the writer, "to be
taken to the cemetery quietly and fol-
lowed by intimate friends, if any re-
main"
Intimate friends were scarce in that
crowd, without doubt, but the dead
mans wish could hardly be carried out.
Those obsequies which he had wished
TO be quiet became sort of fete, fune-
real and noisy, where the thousands of
people crowding the boulevard crushed
each other in their desire to see, and
pressed almost upon the draped funeral
car which the neighbors had covered
with flowers.
Everything is spectacle for Pari-
slams. The guardians of the peace strove
to keep back the crowds; some gamins
climbed into the branches of the trees.
The bier had been placed at the foot of
the staircase in the narrow corridor
opening upon the street. Nine. Moniche
had placed upon a table in the lodge
some loose leaves, where Rovere's un-
known friends could write their names.
Bernardet, alert, with his eyes wide
open, studying the faces searching the
eyes, mingled with the crowd, looked
at the file of people, scrutinized, one by
one, the signatures; Bernardet, in
mourning, wearing black gloves, SEEM
ed more like an undertaker's assistant
than police spy. Once he found him
self directly in front of the open door
of the lodge and the table where the
leaves lay covered with signatures
When in the half light of the corridor
draped with black, where the bier lay,
he saw "a man of about 80, pale and
very sad looking He had arrived in his
turn in the line at the table, where he
signed his name. Nine. Moniche, cloth
ed in black, with white handkerchief
in her hand although she was not weep
ing, found herself side by side with
Bernardet; in fact, their elbows touch
ed. When the man reached the table
coming from the semidarkness of the
passage, and stepped into the light
which fell on him from the window,
the FORTRESS involuntarily exclaimed,
"Ahp' She was evidently much excited
and caught the police officer by the
hand and said:
81 am afraid.
She spoke in such low tone that
Bernardet OWNED rather than heard
what she meant in that stifled cry. He
looked at her from the corner of his eye
He saw that she was CHASTITY, and again
she spoke in a low tone, "He, he whom
/ saw with NJ. Revere before the open
safe"
Bernardet gave the man one sweeping
glance of the eye. He fairly pierced him
through with his sharp look. The un-
known, half bent over the table where
on lay the papers, showed wide fore
head, slightly bald, and pointed beard,
little gray, which almost touched the
white paper as he wrote his name.
Suddenly the police officer experienced
q strange sensation. 1t seemed to him
that this face, the shape of the head, the
pointed beard, he had recently seen
somewhere, and that this human sill
houette recalled to him an image which
he had recently studied. The perception
of a possibility of proof gave him a
shock This man who was there made
him think suddenly of that phantom
discernible in the photographs taken of
the retina of the murdered mans eye.
"Who is that mann"
Bernardet shivered with pleasurable
excitement and insisted upon his own
impression that this unknown strongly
recalled the image obtained, and mental
ly he compared this living man, bending
over the table, writing his name, with
that specter which had the air Of a
trooper which had appeared in the pho
tograph. The contour was the same, not
only of the face, but the beard. This
man reminded one of seigneur OF the
time of Henry III, and Bernardet found
in that face something formidable. The
man had signed his name. He raised his
head, and his face, of dull white, was
turned full toward the police officer
Their looks crossed, keen on Bernardet'i
side, yelled in the unknown, but before
the fixity of the officers gaze the strange
man dropped his head for moment
then in his turn he fixed a piercing, al
most menacing, gaze on Bernardet
Then the latter slowly dropped his eye
and bowed. The unknown went on
quickly and was lost in the crowd be
fore the house.
"It is he; it is he, +" repeated the por
tress, who trembled as If she had seen
ghost.
Scarcely had the unknown disap
peared than the police officer took bu
two steps to reach the table, and, bend
ing over it in his turn, he read tn
name written by that man:
jacques Dantin."
The name awakened no remembrance
in Bernardet's mind, and now 1t was
living problem that he had to solve.
"Tell no one that you have seen tbs
man, " he hastily said to Nine Monich'
"No one. Do you hear7" And he hui
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