"I have merely stated the facts and the conclusions one must naturally draw from them. It is for you to prove that my deductions are false. Now, do you still persist in declaring that you purchased the tickets in a cigar shop?" "No," was Adhémar's reluctant response. "I found them in a cab a fortnight ago." "And you kept them until now?" "I attached very little importance to the occurrence. Lottery tickets are seldom of any value." "Before the drawing, perhaps so; but afterwards when one of them has won a prize, it is very different." "I admit that I yielded to the temptation of trying to profit by what seemed almost a godsend; I had no idea of doing so until this morning, however, when a list of the winning numbers happened to fall into my hands. I had the tickets in my pocket at the time, and impelled by a very natural curiosity to compare them with the list, I saw that the first prize had been won by No. 115,815. I yielded to the temptation which I regret, and I am certainly sufficiently punished." "Why did you not inform Monsieur Robergeot of the finding of these tickets?" inquired the commissary, after a prolonged pause. "Who is Monsieur Robergeot?" "The investigating magistrate who sent for you on the day after the murder. I have his report here. You see I know everything." "But I had no reason to suppose that this ticket had ever belonged to Dargental. The magistrate said nothing that would lead me to think so. He only asked me what I saw on entering the room in which the body was lying, and what I thought of the valet's connection with the affair." "At that time the memorandum had not been found. But from what you say, the tickets were in your possession when you were first examined." Puymirol bit his lip, but it was too late to retract this imprudent admission. "Yes," he replied at last. "They had been in my possession since the previous day, though at the time I forgot all about them." "You picked them up in a cab you said. In that case, it is natural to suppose that the murderer dropped them there, or that he left them there intentionally. He certainly did not murder Monsieur Dargental to obtain possession of them. However, where did you take this cab?" "At the cab-stand near my house outside the Luxembourg." "And it took you where?" "To the Lion d'Or restaurant where Dargental had asked me to meet him. He was giving a lunch that day to several friends." "At what hour did you reach the restaurant?" "About noon." "And the crime must have been committed at about eleven o'clock. It is strange that the murderer should have driven back to the Odéon almost to your very door." Puymirol made no reply. He felt that he was not capable of contending with the commissary. "Did you take the number of this cab?" added the official. "No. I had no special reason for taking it."