Monsieur Lecoq

M. Lecoq, the famous detective, while wandering about Paris, heard shots coming from an ill-favored inn, run by Mother Chupin, who called her house the Pepperbox. With several gendarmes Lecoq captured a man while on the ground were lying the bodies of two notorious criminals. The slayer did not deny his guilt, but said that he had shot in self-defense, his story being borne out by Mother Chupin. Fresh elements of mystery were added by the finding of a diamond earring on the floor of the inn, and later, after the two prisoners had been removed, the detective found outside the footprints of a woman, traced them some distance, and found that the woman had been joined by a man. One of the man's footprints was much more pronounced than the other, which convinced the detective that he limped, some brown wool which had rubbed off against a tree where he had been leaning gave the texture of his overcoat, and from the place where it was found it was an easy matter to deduce his height. When these facts were narrated to the official charged with collecting facts and testimony, and in preparing cases for presentation to the court, it developed that a man answering that description had been found outside the police station, apparently hopelessly drunk, and had been locked in the same cell with the slayer. Lecoq hurried to the station, but was not surprised to find that the supposed drunkard had regained his senses, made a pitiful plea to the jailer and had been set free. Lecoq knew that the man was an accomplice of the prisoner, and had planned to be locked up so that he could map out a line of defense for the prisoner to follow. Later developments proved the correctness of this theory. Lecoq found himself blocked at every turn. The detective finally had the prisoner removed to a solitary cell, and watched the prisoner through a peephole. In this way he discovered that the prisoner was communicating with someone outside. Lecoq intercepted one of the notes. The communication from the prisoner explained that he believed that he could escape by the window of his cell if he had the tools. Lecoq arranged with the judge to allow the prisoner to get away, assuring him that he (Lecoq) would always be at his heels. The judge agreed, although he was not the judge who had originally taken up the case. The prisoner got away as per schedule, but was dismayed not to find his friend awaiting him as he had expected. Then the realization came to him that he had been deliberately set f