Prosper shook his head sadly.

“If it were known, monsieur, I would not be here, but at liberty.”

This device had often been used by the judge, and generally succeeded; but, with a man so thoroughly master of himself, there was small chance of success.  It had been used at a venture, and failed.

“Then you persist in accusing M. Fauvel?”

“Him, or someone else.”

“Excuse me:  no one else, since he alone knew the word.  Had he any interest in robbing himself?”

“I can think of none.”

“Well, now I will tell you what interest you had in robbing him.”

M. Patrigent spoke as a man who was convinced of the facts he was about to state; but his assurance was all assumed.

He had relied upon crushing, at a blow, a despairing wretched man, and was nonplussed by seeing him appear as determined upon resistance.

“Will you be good enough to tell me,” he said, in a vexed tone, “how much you have spent during the last year?”

Prosper did not find it necessary to stop to reflect and calculate.

“Yes, monsieur,” he answered, unhesitatingly:  “circumstances made it necessary for me to preserve the greatest order in my wild career; I spent about fifty thousand francs.”

“Where did you obtain them?”

“In the first place, twelve thousand francs were left to me by my mother.  I received from M. Fauvel fourteen thousand francs, as my salary, and share of the profits.  By speculating in stocks, I gained eight thousand francs.  The rest I borrowed, and intend repaying out of the fifteen thousand francs which I have deposited in M. Fauvel’s bank.”

The account was clear, exact, and could be easily proved; it must be a true one.

“Who lent you the money?”

“M.  Raoul de Lagors.”

This witness had left Paris the day of the robbery, and could not be found; so, for the time being, M. Patrigent was compelled to rely upon Prosper’s word.

“Well,” he said, “I will not press this point; but tell me why, in spite of the formal order of M. Fauvel, you drew the money from the Bank of France the night before, instead of waiting till the morning of the payment?”

“Because M. de Clameran had informed me that it would be agreeable, necessary even, for him to have his money early in the morning.  He will testify to that fact, if you summon him; and I knew that I should reach my office late.”

“Then M. de Clameran is a friend of yours?”

“By no means.  I have always felt repelled by him; but he is the intimate friend of M. Lagors.”

While Sigault was writing down these answers, M. Patrigent was racking his brain to imagine what could have occurred between M. Bertomy and his son, to cause this transformation in Prosper.

“One more thing,” said the judge:  “how did you spend the evening, the night before the crime?”

“When I left my office, at five o’clock, I took the St.-Germain train, and went to Vesinet, M. de Lagors’s country seat, to carry him fifteen hundred francs which he had asked for; and, finding him not at home, I left it with his servant.”