A THOUSAND FRANCS REWARD.
By Emile Gaboriau.
Translated by Laura E. Kendall.
CONTENTS
THE FANTASSIN, OR FOOT-SOLDIER.
THE SOLDIER OF THE LIGHT INFANTRY;
A THOUSAND FRANCS REWARD.
I.
It’s a very short time ago, yesterday as it were, that one Sundayafternoon about four o’clock, the whole Quartier du Marais was in anuproar.
Rumor asserted that one of the most respectable merchants in the HueBoi-de-Sicile had disappeared, and all efforts to find him continuedfruitless.
The strange event was discussed in all the shops in the neighborhood;there were groups at the doors of all the fruit-sellers, every moment someterrified housewife arrived, bringing fresh particulars.
The grocer on the corner had the best and latest news, the most reliable,too, for he received his information from the lips of the cook who livedin the house.
“So,” said he, “yesterday evening, after dinner, our neighbor, MonsieurJandidier, went down to his cellar to get a bottle of wine, and was neverseen again. He disappeared, vanished, evaporated!”
It occasionally happens that mysterious disappearances are mentioned. Thepublic becomes excited, and prudent people buy sword-canes.
Policemen hear absurd reports, and shrug their shoulders. They know thewrong side of the carefully embroidered canvas. They investigate, andfind, instead of artless falsehoods, the truth; instead of romances,sorrowful stories. Yet, up to a certain point, the grocer of the RueSaint Louis told the truth.
M. Jandidier, manufacturer of imitation jewelry, had not been at home forthe last twenty-four hours.
M. Theodore Jandidier was a man fifty-eight years old, very stout and verybald, who had made a large fortune in business. He was supposed to have aconsiderable income from stocks and bonds, and his business brought himannually, on an average, fifty thousand francs. He was beloved andrespected in his neighborhood, and justly so; his honesty was abovesuspicion, his morality rigid. Married late in life to a pennilessrelative, he had made her perfectly happy. He had an only daughter, apretty, graceful girl, named Thérèse, whom he worshiped. She had beenengaged to the eldest son of Schmidt the banker—member o