The poor woman might, perhaps,
never recover, and it was none of our business to lift the veil of
a secret the preservation of which she had paid for so dearly.
Arthur Rance told everybody, in a manner so natural that it
astonished me, that he had last seen the keeper towards eleven
o'clock of that fatal night. He had come for his valise, he said,
which he was to take for him early next morning to the Saint-Michel
station, and had been kept out late running after poachers. Arthur
Rance had, indeed, intended to leave the chateau and, according to
his habit, to walk to the station.
Monsieur Stangerson confirmed what Rance had said, adding that he
had not asked Rance to dine with him because his friend had taken
his final leave of them both earlier in the evening. Monsieur
Rance had had tea served him in his room, because he had complained
of a slight indisposition.
Bernier testified, instructed by Rouletabille, that the keeper had
ordered him to meet at a spot near the oak grove, for the purpose
of looking out for poachers. Finding that the keeper did not keep
his appointment, he, Bernier, had gone in search of him.
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