about nine o'clock in the morning
A few seconds elapsed . Then Perenna declared , deliberately : `` Looking at things all round , Alexandre , I admit that you have seen the position clearly and that your fears are fully justified . If I do not manage to hand over the murderer or murderers of Hippolyte Fauville and his son to the police in a few hours from now , it is I , Don Luis Perenna , who will be lodged in durance vile on the evening of this Thursday , the first of April . '' It was about nine o'clock in the morning when the Prefect of Police entered the study in which the incomprehensible tragedy of that double murder had been enacted . He did not even bow to Don Luis ; and the magistrates who accompanied him might have thought that Don Luis was merely an assistant of Sergeant Mazeroux , if the chief detective had not made it his business to tell them , in a few words , the part played by the stranger . M. Desmalions briefly examined the two corpses and received a rapid explanation from Mazeroux . Then , returning to the hall , he went up to a drawing-room on the first floor , where Mme. Fauville , who had been informed of his visit , joined him almost at once .