Messengers of Evil

r had passed

the darkness and the glimmering dawn. Then he had fallen into a heavy sleep, which had left him on awaking broken with fatigue. He had given himself a

that head. Since the guilty person thinks it necessary to ask me to keep quiet, it is evident he fears my intervention; if he is afraid of that it is because it mus

follow more closely the vicissitudes of the rue Norvins drama, a

o Elizabeth Dollon that h

fore him the tall, graceful, fair and fascinating sister of the vanished artist.... All Fandor would admit to

table, his head between his hands, smoking cigarette after cig

t. It is the first discovery to be made, the first impossi

whistled a few bars of a popular melody, and in his exuberant g

ucceed," cried he; "but that still leaves me twenty chances o

g off, he called to t

ay have to leave Paris for awhile, so would you be kind enough to pay particular at

him. He turned back. He had someth

ther anyone called to se

eur Fandor

very carefully at him, Madame Oudry. I have a colleague or two who are

ving set his portress on the alert.

Library! And as q

ick from the cloak-room of the National Library: he had handed it in there some hours ago. H

fine cord, please; very strong

stared at the s

for, sir?... I have

d as if it were the most natural

my friends: he wan

the amused shopkeeper forthwith displayed various samples

said our journalist. He en

lock-a small one-th

larum, Fandor looke

f-past three!" he cried. H

Justice! As hard

icle, he drew down the blinds; took off

ight, and gained the little lobby in which the cloak-room is. He quietly entered it. Barristers were coming and going, full of business, throwing off their gowns, inspecting the letters put aside durin

Marguerit

sieur, she is

ten obtained an interview for our journalist with one or other of the big-wigs of the bar, who generally object strongly

ere is someone you wish to see, and

e these gentlemen of the Court of Justice robe and

onish Madame Margu

it would be ten times quicker for you to go and see him at his own home:

me where these worthy guardians of order, defenders of

oung journalist's ridiculous questions and absurd

id she, "is in one of the outer offices

istant in that r

onsieur

ning with satisfaction, made off in the direction of the Court of Assizes. He r

Guéchand see me

e President

rectness of Madame Marguerite's information. All round the room Fandor saw the little presses where the men of law

hink of some other name. He noticed the visiting cards nailed to each

me-could he possibly? Will you ask h

me shall

ase say it is with reference to the-er-P

e," said the mess

or walked up and down in th

my good fellow! You will have a nice kind of rec

m the importunate young man that he could not possibly be received by Jus

xpect he was one of those lawyer's clerks-confound them! A nice fool I shou

aving ascertained that it was four o'clock, and therefore he had still an ho

t room. And this obscurity lent an added terror to a silence as profound as the grave, a silence which, with the falling shades

e his rounds, and had gone away, double locking the doors behind him. After this the chamber had gradually sunk into complete

echoed and re-echoed the whole day through in the galleries o

ches who had slunk in to warm themselves at the heating apparatus in the halls had shuffled back to

began to

han in the Court of Assizes itself, under the monumental desk, before which the justices sat in st

elected this spot that he might indulge, all undisturbed, in a revivifying sleep, evidently took no pains to smother the sound of

!... I'm aching all over!... The floor is strewn with peach kernels-surely?... At any rate, it's

eeper

it!" A match was struck, and a tiny flare of ligh

in-and I shall need all of it, for I've a rough night

ind a comfortable position on what he christen

disappeared. Yesterday, at half-past five, La Capitale announced that he had a very pretty sister.... To-night at ten past eleven behold me, shut up quite alone in th

been obliged to open, and verify, the contents of all the robing-rooms of all the judges, he would never have finished. As for me, in my cupboard, I followed all the go

taper from his pocket an

this way-what of it?... In any case, even if this reporting job fails, I shall make a story out o

rance, the only one with double doors. He seized the heavy iron bar placed across the door and worked it loose. He drew the two leav

his he mounted with vigorous determination. There was no likelihood of chance encounters, for there was not a soul in the vast building: the police were making their rounds outside it. Our adventurous journalist did not make his way upwards with stealt

Under the roof he caught sight of a skylight, rested his

f roofs about him, by a gulf of empty space, and beyond, by a dark blur-the two arms of the Seine flowing on either side of the Palais de Justice.... The mys

om his pocket-book he drew a paper, which he spread out

plete and detailed plan of the Palais de Justice! Withou

arious landmarks; then refolding it, he gained one of t

do not get out of the cells of the Dép?t, nor out of the Palais!... Well, now-to carry off Dollon, dead or living, by way of the Palais Square, or by the boulevard, is out of the question: there are too many people about!... To carry him off by one of the

ns to light a cigarette: smoking

een anywhere about the Dép?t. It is also certain that he is not inside the Palais, because the only means of communication between the Dép?t and the Palais is a single staircase, and it is certain that a corpse

man through the pipes which join the main sewers; but, as a set-off to that, there is a chimney-the ancient chimney of Marie Antoinette-which commu

, and tried to identify the various chimneys about him. He soon picked out the ori

t unless one had been warned, and had examined this roof from some neighbouring building, the orifice

amination, full of excitement.

rk which would be made by a cord scraping against the wall! And look what a size this chimney is! It's not only one Jacque

at the risk of toppling over, he managed to reach something he saw

races of a recent passage-the rust has been rubbed off here and there!... Yes, it is by this way Dollon has come ou

as matter for an article which would bring hi

with the crowd, slip unobserved into the street; or, he could hide among the roofs, and stay there; or, he could search for an opening-one of those air holes which put the cellars and drains in communication with the exterior.... But I have come to the conclusion that Dollon is dead! Then his corpse could only remain up here; or, it has been put

revolver and lantern, Fandor started on his tour of investigation; but prudently, for he w

pid journalist had to contend. But Jér?me Fandor was not the man to be discouraged in the face of difficulties: he was determined to brave them-conquer them! He examined, minutely, the entire roofing of the Palais; he did not leave a corner or a morsel of shadow unexplored; there was not a g

refully numbered all the chimneys opening on to this roof; then, one by one, h

It's just wha

t find out-make sure. He hastened to this extra chimney. Its orifice was large enough to allow of the pa

"Another mystery! This chimney is not a chimney; t

nt's reflect

e Palais itself, and how the deuce could they drop a corpse down there? It would have been in the highest degre

Fandor could make out a vague, intermittent soun

lf. "No, we are too far off it. Why this opening, then?... A

fine cord, rolled round and round his middle. Weighting the cord with a flint, he let it slide down the chimney, testing the straightness of the descent by

te: he was eager to e

myself face to face with a band of assassin

firmly; then, his revolver handily stuck in his belt, Fandor seized the cord, tw

as naturally afraid of reaching the end of his rope unawares, and of falling into the black void beneath. But what he observed in the course of his descent excited him so m

or. "And here are scrapes and scratches-fr

he examined the mark. There was no doubt possible: Fandor's sharp eyes and the lantern's light h

ark would have been larger, and there would have been others, for it must come from an abrasion of the skin made during the descent. But this blo

d a few yar

. Again, with arched shoulders and bent knees, he supported himself against the wall, examined his disc

efit," Fandor remarked. "Cost what it may, if I do not come across Dollon's

or body, hanging at the end of a rope, and striking against the walls on its way down. Whilst he still believed himself to be some distance off the end of his downward journey, he fe

upon depths below me-down into the very bo

e chimney was, as far as he could see by his lantern's light, marked off into regular spaces by these iron staples which are sometimes placed there for the use of chimney cleaners and masons. Fandor found them a most convenient kind of ladder. The descent now became easy, and in a short time our adventurous journalist reached the bott

nd he had heard on the far up heights of the Palais roofs proceeded from a thin and muddy stream of water flowing in the middle of the sewer channel in the direction of

g a heavy burden: there are two kinds of footmarks, made by two kinds of shoes, and the heels

ry. His quest was a success so far: he was on the track of Dollon's body!

he truth-and a lamentable truth it is! Her brother is dead: h

tinising every inch of the ground as he m

s as much mud as water, is almost stagnant. Evidently this

de visible a struggling, heaving mass of rats, fighting

omach rose

ld it be Jacque

nclean beasts. They fled. On the ground he could distinguish

ve cut it in pieces, that they might carry it more easily, and those vile cr

er another pool of blood almost

ing else," thought Fandor: "

His lantern was flickering to a finish when he arrived at the end of the sewer and fo

y instead of having to climb back the way I

n the far horizon, where a faint, whitish l

he sewer, his body bending far forward over the inky waters of the Seine. Before he had time to turn, before he could re