In a couple of hours, an investigating magistrate can be here.

In the meanwhile, I will proceed to make a preliminary inquiry." "Shall I carry the letter ?" asked the corporal of gendarmes.
"No, send one of your men; you will be useful to me here in keeping these people in order, and in finding any witnesses I may want.

We must leave everything here as it is.

I will install myself in the other room." A gendarme departed at a run towards the station at Rueil; and the commissary commenced his investigations in regular form, as prescribed by law.
"Who was Widow Lerouge?
Where did she come from?
What did she do?
Upon what means, and how did she live?
What were her habits, her morals, and what sort of company did she keep?
Was she known to have enemies?
Was she a miser?
Did she pass for being rich ?" The commissary knew the importance of ascertaining all this: but although the witnesses were numerous enough, they possessed but little information.

The depositions of the neighbours, successively interrogated, were empty, incoherent, and incomplete.