The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1909-01-14
CHAPTER XIV.

night.
CHAPTER XIV.
Al. Ginory was not without uneasi-
ness when he thought OF the detention
OF Jacques Dantin. Without doubt the
prisoners, ell accused persons, are reti-
4 cent They try TO hide their guilt under
voluntary silence. They do not speak
because they have sworn not to. They
are bound, one knows not by whom. by
an oath which they cannot break. 1t Is
the ordinary system OF the guilty who
cannot defend themselves. Mystery
seems to them safety. :.
But Dantin, intimately acquainted
with Rovere's life, might be acquainted
with some secret which he could not
disclose and which did not pertain to
him at oil. What secretf Had not an
examining magistrate a right to know
everything? Had not an accused man
a right 20 speak. Either Dantin had
nothing to reveal and he was playing
a comedy and was guilty, or Il by a few
words. by a confidence made to the
magistrate, he could escape an accusa-
ton, recover his liberty. without doubt
he would speak after having kept an
tncxplicable silence. How could n
suppose that an innocent man would
hold for a long time to this mute sys-
TEN?
W 4HC WI uA6CDHOhI lH VI. wv DSA y -
Mime. Colard's shop ought, naturally, to
give to the, affair a new turn. The ar
rest OF Charles Prades brought an inn
portant element to these researches. He
would be examined by M. Ginory the
next morning. after having been ques-
toned by the commiss&ry of police.
B~ernardet, spruce. freshly shaver
was there and seemed I'm his well
brushed redingote like a little able
come to assist at some curious cere-
mony.
on the CONTRARY, Trades, after a
sleepiess night, a night OF agony, paler
than the evening before, his face fierce
and it's muscles contracted, had a bag
gard expression. and he bltnked his
eyes like q night bird suddenly
brought into glaring sunlight. He re-
pented before the examining magistrate
What he had said to the b~rigadier. But
MS voice, vibrant q few hours before,
had become heavy, almost raucous, as
the naughty expression OF his face
had become suilen and tragic.
The examining magistrate had cited
Nine. Colard, the shopkeeper, to appear
before him. She instantly recognized
In this Prades the mar who had sold
her the little panel by PAU Baudry.
He denied IL. He did not know OF
what they were talking. He had never
seen this woman. He knew nothing
about any portrait. 2"
1T belonged to NJ. Revere the
magistrate replied-"M. Revere, the
murdered man; M. Revere, who was
consul at Buenos Ayres, and you spoke
yesterday OF Buenos Ayres in the ex-
animation at the station house in the
Rue de la Rochefoucauld."
IN. Rovere2 Buenos Ayres?" repeat
ed the young man, rolling his SOM
brero round his fingers.
He repeated that he did not know
the e~x-consul. that he had never been
In South America, that he had come
from sydney. t.s .sl
Bernardet at this moment interrupt
ed him by taking his hat from him
without saying a word, n Prades
man. w.
III. Ginory understood Bernardet's
move and approved with a smile. He
looked In the inside OF the sombrero
which Bernardet handed to him. 3"
The hat bore the address Of Gordon,
"But after ALL" thought the magis-
trate, "Buenos Ayres is n OF the
kets for English goods"
THAT is a hat bought at sydney"
Prades (sfho had understoed2 ex-
planned. "" ~
Before the bold, decided. almost vio-
lent affirmaiAous which Nine. Colard
IL iuttQG lUdI tHiS vas certainty Itt StlleF
OF tho portrait the young man lost
countensrce a little. He kept saying
over and over: You deceive yourself.
Madame. / have never spoken to you, I
have never seen you" 80 ~
When M. Ginory asked her IL she
still persisted in saying that this was
the man who had sold her the picture.
she said:
DO I still persist? With my neck
under the guillotine I would persist"
And she kept repeating: II am sure Of
ii. / am sure OF It,"
This preliminary examination brought
about no decisive result. It was GER
tain IL this portrait had been in the
possession OF this young man and been
sold by him and he (Charles Prades)
was an ACCOMPLISH of Dantin's, IL not
the author OF the crime. They ought,
then, to be brought face to face. and
possibly this might bring about an i'm
mediate result. And why not have this
meeting take place at once, before
Prades was sent where Dantin was. at
Mazas?
Nj. Ginory, who had uttered this
word FMazas," noticed the expression
OF terror which flashed across cad sud-
denly transfigured h young mans
face. ~
Prades stammered:
"Then-you--will hold me? Them
am not free?"
M. Ginory did not reply. He gave an
order that this Prades should be guard
ed until the arrival of Dantin from
Mazas.
In Maxas, In that walled prison, in
rhe cell which had already made him
III. Jacques Dantin sat. This man with
the troopers AIR seemed almost to be In
"a state of collapse. When the guard
came to his cell, he drew himself up
and endeavored TO collect all his energy,
and when the door was opened and he
was called he appeared quite like him
self. When ne saw the prison wagon
which had brought him to Mazas and
now awaited to take him 10 the Palais
do Justice. ne instinctiveiy recoiled;
then. recovering himself, he entered the
narrow vehicle.
The idea, the sensation. that he was