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one of the witnesses (Montani, the confectioner,) as an expression of
remonstrance or expostulation. Upon these two words, therefore, I have
mainly built my hopes of a full solution of the riddle. A Frenchman
was cognizant of the murder. It is possible--indeed it is far more
than probable--that he was innocent of all participation in the bloody
transactions which took place. The Ourang-Outang may have escaped from
him. He may have traced it to the chamber; but, under the agitating
circumstances which ensued, he could never have re-captured it. It is
still at large. I will not pursue these guesses--for I have no right to
call them more--since the shades of reflection upon which they are based
are scarcely of sufficient depth to be appreciable by my own intellect,
and since I could not pretend to make them intelligible to the
understanding of another. We will call them guesses then, and speak
of them as such. If the Frenchman in question is indeed, as I suppose,
innocent of this atrocity, this advertisement which I left last night,
upon our return home, at the office of 'Le Monde,' (a paper devoted to
the shipping interest, and much sought by sailors,) will bring him to
our residence."
He handed me a paper, and I read thus:
CAUGHT--In the Bois de Boulogne, early in the morning of the--inst.,
(
the morning of the murder,) a very large, tawny Ourang-Outang of
the Bornese species. The owner, (who is ascertained to be a sailor,
belonging to a Maltese vessel,) may have the animal again, upon
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