The Count of Monte Cristo

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which was opened, and again closed after his entrance. This late arrival
had attracted much suspicion, and the young man being no other than
Andrea, the commissary and gendarme, who was a brigadier, directed their
steps towards his room.

They found the door ajar. "Oh, ho," said the brigadier, who thoroughly
understood the trick; "a bad sign to find the door open! I would rather
find it triply bolted." And, indeed, the little note and pin upon the
table confirmed, or rather corroborated, the sad truth. Andrea had fled.
We say corroborated, because the brigadier was too experienced to be
convinced by a single proof. He glanced around, looked in the bed, shook
the curtains, opened the closets, and finally stopped at the chimney.
Andrea had taken the precaution to leave no traces of his feet in the
ashes, but still it was an outlet, and in this light was not to be
passed over without serious investigation.

The brigadier sent for some sticks and straw, and having filled the