This eBook has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. When the nearby town turns out to put out a fire on the estate of Valpinson, they find the owner, Count Claudieuse, shot to dead. The testimony of a village idiot and other evidences points out to M. de Boiscoran, a neighbor of the Count. Boiscoran refuses to provide an alibi for himself despite the begging of his fiancée, so she goes on a quest to discover the truth.