The Rome Express

youresided?"

  "Whom do you mean? The murdered man?"

  "Who else?"

  "No, not that I am aware of. At least I did not recognize him as afriend."

  "I presume, if he was among your friends--"

  "Pardon me, that he certainly was not," interrupted the Countess.

  "Well, among your acquaintances--he would probably have made himselfknown to you?"

  "I suppose so."

  "And he did not do so? He never spoke to you, nor you to him?"

  "I never saw him, the occupant of that compartment, except on that oneoccasion. I kept a good deal in my compartment during the journey."

  "Alone? It must have been very dull for you," said the Judge,pleasantly.

  "I was not always alone," said the Countess, hesitatingly, and with aslight flush. "I had friends in the car."

  "Oh--oh"--the exclamation was long-drawn and rather significant.

  "Who were they? You may as well tell us, madame, we should certainlyfind out."

  "I have no wish to withhold the information," she replied, now turningpale, possibly at the imputation conveyed. "Why should I?"

  "And these friends were--?"

  "Sir Charles Collingham and his brother. They came and sat with meoccasionally; sometimes one, sometimes the other."

  "During the day?"

  "Of course, during the day." Her eyes flashed, as though the questionwas another offence.

  "Have you known them long?"

  "The General I met in Roman society last winter. It was he whointroduced his brother."

  "Very good, so far. The General knew you, took an interest in you. Thatexplains his strange, unjustifiable conduct just now--"

  "I do not think it was either strange or unjustifiable," interrupted theCountess, hotly. "_He_ is a gentleman."

  "Quite a _preux cavalier_, of course. But we will pass on. You are not agood sleeper, I believe, madame?"

  "Indeed no, I sleep badly, as a rule."

  "Then you would be easily disturbed. Now, last night, did you hearanything strange in the car, more particularly in the adjoiningcompartment?"

  "Nothing."

  "No sound of voices raised high, no noise of a conflict, a struggle?"

  "No, monsieur."

  "That is odd. I cannot understand it. We know, beyond all question,from the appearance of the body,--the corpse,--that there was a fight,an encounter. Yet you, a wretched sleeper, with only a thin plank ofwood between you and the affray, hear nothing, absolutely nothing. It is_most_ extraordinary."

  "I was asleep. I must have been asleep."

  "A light sleeper would certainly be awakened. How can you explain--howcan you reconcile that?" The question was blandly put, but the Judge'sincredulity verged upon actual insolence.

  "Easily: I had taken a soporific. I always do, on a journey. I amobliged to keep something, sulphonal or chloral, by me, on purpose."

  "Then this, madame, is yours?" And the Judge, with an air of undisguisedtriumph, produced the small glass vial which M. Flocon had picked up inthe sleeping-car near the conductor's seat.

  The Countess, with a quick gesture, put out her hand to take it.

  "No, I cannot give it up. Look as near as you like, and say is ityours?"

  "Of course it is mine. Where did you get it? Not in my berth?"

  "No, madame, not in your berth."

  "But where?"

  "Pardon me, we shall not tell you--not just now."

  "I missed it last night," went on the Countess, slightly confused.

  "After you had taken your dose of chloral?"

  "No, before."

  "And why did you want this? It is laudanum."

  "For my nerves. I have a toothache. I--I--really, sir, I need not tellyou all my ailments."

  "And the maid had removed it?"

  "So I presume; she must have taken it out of the bag in the firstinstance."

  "And then kept it?"

  "That is what I can only suppose."

  "Ah!"

  CHAPTER VII

  When the Judge had brought down the interrogation of the Countess to theproduction of the small glass bottle, he paused, and with a long-drawn"Ah!" of satisfaction, looked round at his colleagues.

  Both M. Flocon and the Commissary nodded their heads approvingly,plainly sharing his triumph.

  Then they all put their heads together in close, whispered conference.

  "Admirable, M. le Juge!" said the detective. "You have been most adroit.It is a clear case."

  "No doubt," said the Commissary, who was a blunt, rather coarse person,believing that to take anybody and everybody into custody is always thesafest and simplest course. "It looks black against her. I think sheought to be arrested at once."

  "We might, indeed we ought to have more evidence, more definiteevidence, perhaps?" The Judge was musing over the facts as he knew them."I should like, before going further, to look at the car," he said,suddenly coming to a conclusion.

  M. Flocon readily agreed. "We will go together," he said, adding,"Madame will remain here, please, until we return. It may not be forlong."

  "And afterwards?" asked the Countess, whose nervousness had if anythingincreased during the whispered colloquy of the officials.

  "Ah, afterwards! Who knows?" was the reply, with a shrug of theshoulders, all most enigmatic and unsatisfactory.

  "What have we against her?" said the Judge, as soon as they had gainedthe absolute privacy of the sleeping-car.

  "The bottle of laudanum and the porter's condition. He was undoubtedlydrugged," answered the detective; and the discussion which followed tookthe form of a dialogue between them, for the Commissary took no part init.

  "Yes; but why by the Countess? How do we know that positively?"

  "It is her bottle," said M. Flocon.

  "Her story may be true--that she missed it, that the maid took it."

  "We have nothing whatever against the maid. We know nothing about her."

  "No. Except that she has disappeared. But that tells more against hermistress. It is all very vague. I do not see my way quite, as yet."

  "But the fragment of lace, the broken beading? Surely, M. le Juge, theyare a woman's, and only one woman was in the car--"

  "So far as we know."

  "But if these could be proved to be hers?"

  "Ah! if you could prove that!"

  "Easy enough. Have her searched, here at once, in the station. There isa female searcher attached to the detention-room."

  "It is a strong measure. She is a lady."

  "Ladies who commit crimes must not expect to be handled with kidgloves."

  "She is an Englishwoman, or with English connections; titled, too. Ihesitate, upon my word. Suppose we are wrong? It may lead tounpleasantness. M. le Prefet is anxious to avoid complications possiblyinternational."

  As he spoke, he bent over, and, taking a magnifier from his pocket,examined the lace, which still fluttered where it was caught.

  "It is fine lace, I think. What say you, M. Flocon? You may be moreexperienced in such matters."

  "The finest, or nearly so; I believe it is Valenciennes--the trimming ofsome underclothing, I should think. That surely is sufficient, M. leJuge?"

  M. Beaumont le Hardi gave a reluctant consent, and the Chief went backhimself to see that the searching was undertaken without loss of time.

  The Countess protested, but vainly, against this new indignity. Whatcould she do? A prisoner, practically friendless,--for the General wasnot within reach,--to resist was out of the question. Indeed, she wasplainly told that force would be employed unless she submitted with agood grace. There was nothing for it but to obey.

  Mother Tontaine, as the female searcher called herself, was anevil-visaged, corpulent old creature, with a sickly, soft, insinuatingvoice, and a greasy, familiar manner that was most offensive. They hadgiven her the scrap of torn lace and the debris of the jet as a guide,with very particular directions to see if they corresponded with anypart of the lady's apparel.
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  She soon showed her quality.

  "Aha! oho! What is this, my pretty princess? How comes so great a ladyinto the hands of Mother Tontaine? But I will not harm you, my beauty,my pretty, my little one. Oh, no, no, I will not trouble you, dearie.No, trust to me;" and she held out one skinny claw, and looked the otherway. The Countess did not or would not understand.

  "Madame has money?" went on the old hag in a half-threatening,half-coaxing whisper, as she came up quite close, and fastened on hervictim like a bird of prey.

  "If you mean that I am to bribe you--"

  "Fie,