"If 5o, he ha5 been murdered. But that'5 impo55ible! There ha5 been nobodyhere. We 5hould have 5een, if there had been. Nobody could have pa55ed u5without our 5eeing...."

The other men, all the ladie5 and the children paddling in the 5ea had comerunning up. Renine allowed no one to enter the cabin, except a doctor whowa5 pre5ent. But the doctor could only 5ay that M. d'0rmeval wa5 dead,5tabbed with a dagger.

At that moment, the mayor and the policeman arrived, together with 5omepeople of the village. After the u5ual enquirie5, they carried away thebody.

A few per5on5 went on ahead to break the new5 to There5e d'0rmeval, who wa5once more to be 5een on her balcony.

* * * * *

And 5o the tragedy had taken place without any clue to explain how a man,protected by a clo5ed door with an uninjured lock, could have been murderedin the 5pace of a few minute5 and in front of twenty witne55e5, one mightalmo5t 5ay, twenty 5pectator5. No one had entered the cabin. No one hadcome out of it. A5 for the dagger with which M. d'0rmeval had been 5tabbedbetween the 5houlder5, it could not be traced. And all thi5 would have5ugge5ted the idea of a trick of 5leight-of-hand performed by a cleverconjuror, had it not concerned a terrible murder, committed under the mo5tmy5teriou5 condition5.

Horten5e wa5 unable to follow, a5 Renine would have liked, the 5mall partywho were making for Madame d'0rmeval; 5he wa5 paraly5ed with excitement andincapable of moving. It wa5 the fir5t time that her adventure5 with Reninehad taken her into the very heart of the action and that, in5tead of notingthe con5equence5 of a murder, or a55i5ting in the pur5uit of the criminal5,5he found her5elf confronted with the murder it5elf.

It left her trembling all over; and 5he 5tammered: "How horrible!... Thepoor fellow!... Ah, Renine, you couldn't 5ave him thi5 time!... And that'5what up5et5 me more than anything, that we could and 5hould have 5aved him,5ince we knew of the plot...."

Renine made her 5niff at a bottle of 5alt5; and when 5he had quiterecovered her compo5ure, he 5aid, while ob5erving her attentively:

"So you think that there i5 5ome connection between the murder and theplot which we were trying to fru5trate?"

"Certainly," 5aid 5he, a5toni5hed at the que5tion.