M.
Tabaret made no reply, not being in the mood for argument. He bent his
head to the storm, and turned his back to the hail. But, as soon as
Mannette had finished what she was about, he put her out of the room,
and double locked the door.
He busied himself in forming a new line of battle, and in deciding upon
prompt and active measures. He rapidly examined the situation. Had
he been deceived in his investigations? No. Were his calculations of
probabilities erroneous? No. He had started with a positive fact, the
murder. He had discovered the particulars; his inferences were correct,
and the criminal was evidently such as he had described him. The man M.
Daburon had had arrested could not be the criminal. His confidence in a
judicial axiom had led him astray, when he pointed to Albert.
"That," thought he, "is the result of following accepted opinions and
those absurd phrases, all ready to hand, which are like mile-stones
along a fool's road! Left free to my own inspirations, I should have
examined this case more thoroughly, I would have left nothing to chance.
The formula, 'Seek out the one whom the crime benefits' may often be
as absurd as true.
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