and a big iron spoon, which was too much twisted and bent not to have been used as a weapon during the conflict.
It was evident that when the quarrel began the victims were regaling themselves with that mixture of water, wine and sugar, known along the barrière under the name of wine à la Française.
After the salad-bowl, the two men picked up five of those horrible glasses used in drinking-saloons, heavy and very thick at the bottom, which look as if they ought to contain half a bottle, but which, in reality, contain almost nothing. Three were broken, two were whole.
There had been wine in these five glasses the same wine à la Française. They could see it; but, for greater surety, Lecoq applied his tongue to the bluish mixture remaining in the bottom of each glass.
"The devil!" he murmured, with an astonished air.
Then he examined successively the bottoms of all the over-turned tables. Upon one of these, the one nearest the fireplace and the window, they could distinguish the still wet marks of the five glasses, of the salad-bowl, and even of the spoons.
This circumstance the young officer very properly regarded as a matter of the greatest importance, for it proved clearly that five persons had emptied the salad-bowl in company. But which persons?
"Oh! oh!" exclaimed Lecoq in two entirely different tones. "Then the two women could not have been with the murderer!"
A very simple mode of discovery had presented itself. It was to see what the other glasses had contained. They discovered one, similar in form to the others, but much smaller. It had contained brandy.
