From that moment Perenna heard and saw nothing.  The door was shut.  The Prefect must afterward have given some order through the outside, through the communication with the front door offered by the garden, for the two detectives came and took up their positions in the hall, at the entrance to the passage, on the right and left of the dividing curtain.

“One thing’s certain,” thought Don Luis.  “My shares are not booming.  What a state Alexandre must be in!  Oh, what a state!”

At twelve o’clock Silvestre brought him some food on a tray.

And the long and painful wait began anew.

In the study and in the house, the inquiry, which had been adjourned for lunch, was resumed.  Perenna heard footsteps and the sound of voices on every side.  At last, feeling tired and bored, he leaned back in his chair and fell asleep.

* * * * *

It was four o’clock when Sergeant Mazeroux came and woke him.  As he led him to the study, Mazeroux whispered: 

“Well, have you discovered him?”

“Whom?”

“The murderer.”

“Of course!” said Perenna.  “It’s as easy as shelling peas!”

“That’s a good thing!” said Mazeroux, greatly relieved and failing to see the joke.  “But for that, as you saw for yourself, you would have been done for.”

Don Luis entered.  In the room were the public prosecutor, the examining magistrate, the chief detective, the local commissary of police, two inspectors, and three constables in uniform.

Outside, on the Boulevard Suchet, shouts were raised; and, when the commissary and his three policemen went out, by the Prefect’s orders, to listen to the crowd, the hoarse voice of a newsboy was heard shouting: 

“The double murder on the Boulevard Suchet!  Full particulars of the death of Inspector Verot!  The police at a loss!—­”

Then, when the door was closed, all was silent.

“Mazeroux was quite right,” thought Don Luis.  “It’s I or the other one:  that’s clear.  Unless the words that will be spoken and the facts that will come to light in the course of this examination supply me with some clue that will enable me to give them the name of that mysterious X, they’ll surrender me this evening for the people to batten on.  Attention, Lupin, old chap, the great game is about to commence!”

He felt that thrill of delight which always ran through him at the approach of the great struggles.  This one, indeed, might be numbered among the most terrible that he had yet sustained.

He knew the Prefect’s reputation, his experience, his tenacity, and the keen pleasure which he took in conducting important inquiries and in personally pushing them to a conclusion before placing them in the magistrate’s hands; and he also knew all the professional qualities of the chief detective, and all the subtlety, all the penetrating logic possessed by the examining magistrate.