However that might be, the examining magistrate did not pursue his
inquiry further in this direction. He was evidently convinced that
we had missed the man we were chasing and we had come upon the
keeper's body in our chase. This matter of the keeper was another
matter entirely. He wanted to satisfy himself about that without
any further delay. Probably it fitted in with the conclusions he
had already arrived at as to the keeper and his intrigues with the
wife of Mathieu, the landlord of the Donjon Inn. This Mathieu,
later in the afternoon, was arrested and taken to Corbeil in spite
of his rheumatism. He had been heard to threaten the keeper, and
though no evidence against him had been found at his inn, the
evidence of carters who had heard the threats was enough to justify
his retention.
The examination had proceeded thus far when, to our surprise,
Frederic Larsan returned to the chateau. He was accompanied by one
of the employes of the railway. At that moment Rance and I were in
the vestibule discussing Mathieu's guilt or innocence, while
Rouletabille stood apart buried, apparently, in thought.
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