He heard Rouletabille call out to him to fire, and he had fired.

He believed he had killed the man until he learned, after Rouletabille had uncovered the body, that the man had died from a knife thrust.

Who had given it he could not imagine.

"Nobody could have been near the spot without my seeing him." When the examining magistrate reminded him that the spot where the body was found was very dark and that he himself had not been able to recognise the keeper before firing, Daddy Bernier replied that neither had they seen the other body; nor had they found it.

In the narrow court where five people were standing it would have been strange if the other body, had it been there, could have escaped.