Perrichet was a young, thick-set man, with, a red, fair face, and
a moustache and hair so pale in colour that they were almost
silver. He came into the room with an air of importance.
"Aha!" said Hanaud, with a malicious smile. "You went to bed late
last night, my friend. Yet you were up early enough to read the
newspaper. Well, I am to have the honour of being associated with
you in this case."
Perrichet twirled his cap awkwardly and blushed.
"Monsieur is pleased to laugh at me," he said. "But it was not I
who called myself intelligent. Though indeed I would like to be
so, for the good God knows I do not look it."
Hanaud clapped him on the shoulder.
"Then congratulate yourself! It is a great advantage to be
intelligent and not to look it. We shall get on famously. Come!"
The four men descended the stairs, and as they walked towards the
villa Perrichet related, concisely and clearly, his experience of
the night.
"I passed the gate of the villa about half-past nine," he said.
"The gate was dosed. Above the wall and bushes of the garden I saw
a bright light in the room upon the first floor which faces the
road at the south-western comer of the villa. The lower windows I
could not see. More than an hour afterwards I came back, and as I
passed the villa again I noticed that there was now no light in
the room upon the first floor, but that the gate was open. I
thereupon went into the garden, and, pulling the gate, let it
swing to and latch. But it occurred to me as I did so that there
might be visitors at the villa who had not yet left, and for whom
the gate had been set open. I accordingly followed the drive which
winds round to the front door. The front door is not on the side
of the villa which faces the road, but at the back. When I came to
the open space where the carriages turn, I saw that the house was
in complete darkness. There were wooden latticed doors to the long
windows on the ground floor, and these were closed. I tried one to
make certain, and found the fastenings secure. The other windows
upon that floor were shuttered. No light gleamed anywhere. I then
left the garden, closing the gate behind me. I heard a clock
strike the hour a few minutes afterwards, so that I can be sure of
the time. It was now eleven o'clock. I came round a third time an
hour after, and to my astonishment I found the gate once more
open. I had left it closed and the house shut up and dark. Now it
stood open! I looked up to the windows and I saw that in a room on
the second floor, close beneath the roof, a light was burning
brightly. That room had been dark an hour before. I stood and
watched the light for a few minutes, thinking that I should see it
suddenly go out. But it did not: it burned quite steadily. This
light and the gate opened and reopened aroused my suspicions. I
went again into the garden, but this time with greater caution. It
was a clear night, and, although there was no moon, I could see
without the aid of my lantern. I stole quietly along the drive.
When I came round to the front door, I noticed immediately that
the shutters of one of the ground-floor windows were swung back,
and that the inside glass window which descended to the ground
stood open. The sight gave me a shock. Within the house those
shutters had been opened. I felt the blood turn to ice in my veins
and a chill crept along my spine. I thought of that solitary light
burning steadily under the roof. I was convinced that something
terrible had happened."