Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV A MOUNTAIN VILLAGE, THE SAME EVENING The telegram from the Prefecture was posted up at the door. It was still daylight, I lingered to gaze at it. My cousin took me by the arm. " I say, come along in." There was no one there but Alfred Lecomte, the town clerk, a still youthful peasant of a thoughtful cast of countenance, and in a corner, the deputy mayor, an infirm old man who kept in the background. "Well, what the deuce are you doing, Alfred?" said the doctor. The other had got up, his pen behind his ear. "Good heavens, man!" continued my cousin, "can't you realise that there's anything to be done?" "What should there be?" "What should there be? You must send word first to La Ferriere and Tarins!" Lecomte tossed his head: " Send word! That would mean a nice lot of running about! They've had the bells rung: it is up to the people to come and find out what it is about." My cousin began to get angry: "You idiot, Alfred. How do you imagine they'll suspect anything of the kind! You must send Machurot to them." He was the local policeman. "He'll he having a drink." "AtTronquiere's?" "Probably." A boy, who stuck his nose in, was sent to look for him. My cousin undertook to draw up the proclamation destined for the neighbouring populace. He dashed it down without any scratchings out, and gave it to me to run through. "Excellent!" I exclaimed. Somewhat pretentious, it had a great effect on Alfred and the old deputy. The boy brought Machurot back, and it was put into his hands. The old dog was as drunk as a pig, but he declaimed it, all the same, head-in-air, scanning all the syllables but breathing out of time. They traced a detailed route on the paper, for him, and let him loose in the growing dusk. The news had sp...