"The servants?"
He nodded: "Or anybody."
"Then you have guessed--?"
"Broadly speaking, everything, I fancy. Not in any detail, naturally.
But one puts two and two together ... I may as well tell you to begin
with: I was wakeful last night, and finding no cigarettes in my room,
came down here to get some. I left my candle on the table--there. As
soon as my back was turned, somebody took it away and put it out. A few
minutes later, while I was trying to steal out of the room, I ran into
a fist..."
"Yes," she said thoughtfully; and with some hesitation added: "I, too,
found it not easy to sleep. But I heard nothing till that chair
crashed. Then I got up to investigate ... and found you lying there,
senseless. In falling your head must have struck the leg of the table."
"You came down here--alone?"
"I listened first, heard no sound, saw no light; but I had to know what
the noise meant..."
"Still, you came downstairs alone!"
"But naturally, monsieur."
"I don't believe," said Duchemin sincerely, "the world holds a woman
your peer for courage."
"Or curiosity?" she laughed.
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