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diff --git a/28093-8.txt b/28093-8.txt
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/28093-8.txt
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+Project Gutenberg's The Confessions of Arsène Lupin, by Maurice Leblanc
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Confessions of Arsène Lupin
+
+Author: Maurice Leblanc
+
+Release Date: February 15, 2009 [EBook #28093]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONFESSIONS OF ARSÈNE LUPIN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Meredith Bach, and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "_Suddenly he rushed at her and caught her by the arm_"]
+
+
+
+
+    THE INTERNATIONAL
+    ADVENTURE LIBRARY
+
+
+    THREE OWLS EDITION
+
+     THE CONFESSIONS
+     OF ARSÈNE LUPIN
+
+    An Adventure Story
+
+           BY
+     MAURICE LEBLANC
+ Author of "Arsène Lupin"
+
+   W. R. CALDWELL & CO.
+         NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+ _Copyright, 1912, 1913, by_
+ Maurice Leblanc
+
+ _All rights reserved, including that of
+ translation into foreign languages,
+ including the Scandinavian_
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                               PAGE
+
+    I. TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND FRANCS REWARD!               1
+
+    II. THE WEDDING-RING                                36
+
+    III. THE SIGN OF THE SHADOW                         66
+
+    IV. THE INFERNAL TRAP                              101
+
+    V. THE RED SILK SCARF                              138
+
+    VI. SHADOWED BY DEATH                              177
+
+    VII. A TRAGEDY IN THE FOREST OF MORGUES            210
+
+    VIII. LUPIN'S MARRIAGE                             228
+
+    IX. THE INVISIBLE PRISONER                         266
+
+    X. EDITH SWAN-NECK                                 291
+
+
+
+
+THE CONFESSIONS OF ARSÈNE LUPIN
+
+
+
+
+THE CONFESSIONS OF ARSÈNE LUPIN
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND FRANCS REWARD!...
+
+
+"Lupin," I said, "tell me something about yourself."
+
+"Why, what would you have me tell you? Everybody knows my life!" replied
+Lupin, who lay drowsing on the sofa in my study.
+
+"Nobody knows it!" I protested. "People know from your letters in the
+newspapers that you were mixed up in this case, that you started that
+case. But the part which you played in it all, the plain facts of the
+story, the upshot of the mystery: these are things of which they know
+nothing."
+
+"Pooh! A heap of uninteresting twaddle!"
+
+"What! Your present of fifty thousand francs to Nicolas Dugrival's wife!
+Do you call that uninteresting? And what about the way in which you
+solved the puzzle of the three pictures?"
+
+Lupin laughed:
+
+"Yes, that was a queer puzzle, certainly. I can suggest a title for you
+if you like: what do you say to _The Sign of the Shadow_?"
+
+"And your successes in society and with the fair sex?" I continued. "The
+dashing Arsène's love-affairs!... And the clue to your good actions?
+Those chapters in your life to which you have so often alluded under the
+names of _The Wedding-ring_, _Shadowed by Death_, and so on!... Why
+delay these confidences and confessions, my dear Lupin?... Come, do what
+I ask you!..."
+
+It was at the time when Lupin, though already famous, had not yet fought
+his biggest battles; the time that preceded the great adventures of _The
+Hollow Needle_ and _813_. He had not yet dreamt of annexing the
+accumulated treasures of the French Royal House[A] nor of changing the
+map of Europe under the Kaiser's nose[B]: he contented himself with
+milder surprises and humbler profits, making his daily effort, doing
+evil from day to day and doing a little good as well, naturally and for
+the love of the thing, like a whimsical and compassionate Don Quixote.
+
+
+  [A] _The Hollow Needle._ By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by Alexander
+  Teixeira de Mattos (Eveleigh Nash).
+
+  [B] _813._ By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de
+  Mattos (Mills & Boon).
+
+
+He was silent; and I insisted:
+
+"Lupin, I wish you would!"
+
+To my astonishment, he replied:
+
+"Take a sheet of paper, old fellow, and a pencil."
+
+I obeyed with alacrity, delighted at the thought that he at last meant
+to dictate to me some of those pages which he knows how to clothe with
+such vigour and fancy, pages which I, unfortunately, am obliged to spoil
+with tedious explanations and boring developments.
+
+"Are you ready?" he asked.
+
+"Quite."
+
+"Write down, 20, 1, 11, 5, 14, 15."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Write it down, I tell you."
+
+He was now sitting up, with his eyes turned to the open window and his
+fingers rolling a Turkish cigarette. He continued:
+
+"Write down, 21, 14, 14, 5...."
+
+He stopped. Then he went on:
+
+"3, 5, 19, 19 ..."
+
+And, after a pause:
+
+"5, 18, 25 ..."
+
+Was he mad? I looked at him hard and, presently, I saw that his eyes
+were no longer listless, as they had been a little before, but keen and
+attentive and that they seemed to be watching, somewhere, in space, a
+sight that apparently captivated them.
+
+Meanwhile, he dictated, with intervals between each number:
+
+"18, 9, 19, 11, 19 ..."
+
+There was hardly anything to be seen through the window but a patch of
+blue sky on the right and the front of the building opposite, an old
+private house, whose shutters were closed as usual. There was nothing
+particular about all this, no detail that struck me as new among those
+which I had had before my eyes for years....
+
+"1, 2...."
+
+And suddenly I understood ... or rather I thought I understood, for how
+could I admit that Lupin, a man so essentially level-headed under his
+mask of frivolity, could waste his time upon such childish nonsense?
+What he was counting was the intermittent flashes of a ray of sunlight
+playing on the dingy front of the opposite house, at the height of the
+second floor!
+
+"15, 22 ..." said Lupin.
+
+The flash disappeared for a few seconds and then struck the house again,
+successively, at regular intervals, and disappeared once more.
+
+I had instinctively counted the flashes and I said, aloud:
+
+"5...."
+
+"Caught the idea? I congratulate you!" he replied, sarcastically.
+
+He went to the window and leant out, as though to discover the exact
+direction followed by the ray of light. Then he came and lay on the sofa
+again, saying:
+
+"It's your turn now. Count away!"
+
+The fellow seemed so positive that I did as he told me. Besides, I could
+not help confessing that there was something rather curious about the
+ordered frequency of those gleams on the front of the house opposite,
+those appearances and disappearances, turn and turn about, like so many
+flash signals.
+
+They obviously came from a house on our side of the street, for the sun
+was entering my windows slantwise. It was as though some one were
+alternately opening and shutting a casement, or, more likely, amusing
+himself by making sunlight flashes with a pocket-mirror.
+
+"It's a child having a game!" I cried, after a moment or two, feeling a
+little irritated by the trivial occupation that had been thrust upon me.
+
+"Never mind, go on!"
+
+And I counted away.... And I put down rows of figures.... And the sun
+continued to play in front of me, with mathematical precision.
+
+"Well?" said Lupin, after a longer pause than usual.
+
+"Why, it seems finished.... There has been nothing for some
+minutes...."
+
+We waited and, as no more light flashed through space, I said,
+jestingly:
+
+"My idea is that we have been wasting our time. A few figures on paper:
+a poor result!"
+
+Lupin, without stirring from his sofa, rejoined:
+
+"Oblige me, old chap, by putting in the place of each of those numbers
+the corresponding letter of the alphabet. Count A as 1, B as 2 and so
+on. Do you follow me?"
+
+"But it's idiotic!"
+
+"Absolutely idiotic, but we do such a lot of idiotic things in this
+life.... One more or less, you know!..."
+
+I sat down to this silly work and wrote out the first letters:
+
+
+    "_Take no...._"
+
+
+I broke off in surprise:
+
+"Words!" I exclaimed. "Two English words meaning...."
+
+"Go on, old chap."
+
+And I went on and the next letters formed two more words, which I
+separated as they appeared. And, to my great amazement, a complete
+English sentence lay before my eyes.
+
+"Done?" asked Lupin, after a time.
+
+"Done!... By the way, there are mistakes in the spelling...."
+
+"Never mind those and read it out, please.... Read slowly."
+
+Thereupon I read out the following unfinished communication, which I
+will set down as it appeared on the paper in front of me:
+
+
+    "_Take no unnecessery risks. Above all, avoid atacks, approach
+    ennemy with great prudance and...._"
+
+
+I began to laugh:
+
+"And there you are! _Fiat lux!_ We're simply dazed with light! But,
+after all, Lupin, confess that this advice, dribbled out by a
+kitchen-maid, doesn't help you much!"
+
+Lupin rose, without breaking his contemptuous silence, and took the
+sheet of paper.
+
+I remembered soon after that, at this moment, I happened to look at the
+clock. It was eighteen minutes past five.
+
+Lupin was standing with the paper in his hand; and I was able at my ease
+to watch, on his youthful features, that extraordinary mobility of
+expression which baffles all observers and constitutes his great
+strength and his chief safeguard. By what signs can one hope to identify
+a face which changes at pleasure, even without the help of make-up, and
+whose every transient expression seems to be the final, definite
+expression?... By what signs? There was one which I knew well, an
+invariable sign: Two little crossed wrinkles that marked his forehead
+whenever he made a powerful effort of concentration. And I saw it at
+that moment, saw the tiny tell-tale cross, plainly and deeply scored.
+
+He put down the sheet of paper and muttered:
+
+"Child's play!"
+
+The clock struck half-past five.
+
+"What!" I cried. "Have you succeeded?... In twelve minutes?..."
+
+He took a few steps up and down the room, lit a cigarette and said:
+
+"You might ring up Baron Repstein, if you don't mind, and tell him I
+shall be with him at ten o'clock this evening."
+
+"Baron Repstein?" I asked. "The husband of the famous baroness?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Are you serious?"
+
+"Quite serious."
+
+Feeling absolutely at a loss, but incapable of resisting him, I opened
+the telephone-directory and unhooked the receiver. But, at that moment,
+Lupin stopped me with a peremptory gesture and said, with his eyes on
+the paper, which he had taken up again:
+
+"No, don't say anything.... It's no use letting him know.... There's
+something more urgent ... a queer thing that puzzles me.... Why on
+earth wasn't the last sentence finished? Why is the sentence...."
+
+He snatched up his hat and stick:
+
+"Let's be off. If I'm not mistaken, this is a business that requires
+immediate solution; and I don't believe I _am_ mistaken."
+
+He put his arm through mine, as we went down the stairs, and said:
+
+"I know what everybody knows. Baron Repstein, the company-promoter and
+racing-man, whose colt Etna won the Derby and the Grand Prix this year,
+has been victimized by his wife. The wife, who was well known for her
+fair hair, her dress and her extravagance, ran away a fortnight ago,
+taking with her a sum of three million francs, stolen from her husband,
+and quite a collection of diamonds, pearls and jewellery which the
+Princesse de Berny had placed in her hands and which she was supposed to
+buy. For two weeks the police have been pursuing the baroness across
+France and the continent: an easy job, as she scatters gold and jewels
+wherever she goes. They think they have her every moment. Two days ago,
+our champion detective, the egregious Ganimard, arrested a visitor at a
+big hotel in Belgium, a woman against whom the most positive evidence
+seemed to be heaped up. On enquiry, the lady turned out to be a
+notorious chorus-girl called Nelly Darbal. As for the baroness, she has
+vanished. The baron, on his side, has offered a reward of two hundred
+thousand francs to whosoever finds his wife. The money is in the hands
+of a solicitor. Moreover, he has sold his racing-stud, his house on the
+Boulevard Haussmann and his country-seat of Roquencourt in one lump, so
+that he may indemnify the Princesse de Berny for her loss."
+
+"And the proceeds of the sale," I added, "are to be paid over at once.
+The papers say that the princess will have her money to-morrow. Only,
+frankly, I fail to see the connection between this story, which you have
+told very well, and the puzzling sentence...."
+
+Lupin did not condescend to reply.
+
+We had been walking down the street in which I live and had passed some
+four or five houses, when he stepped off the pavement and began to
+examine a block of flats, not of the latest construction, which looked
+as if it contained a large number of tenants:
+
+"According to my calculations," he said, "this is where the signals came
+from, probably from that open window."
+
+"On the third floor?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He went to the portress and asked her:
+
+"Does one of your tenants happen to be acquainted with Baron Repstein?"
+
+"Why, of course!" replied the woman. "We have M. Lavernoux here, such a
+nice gentleman; he is the baron's secretary and agent. I look after his
+flat."
+
+"And can we see him?"
+
+"See him?... The poor gentleman is very ill."
+
+"Ill?"
+
+"He's been ill a fortnight ... ever since the trouble with the
+baroness.... He came home the next day with a temperature and took to
+his bed."
+
+"But he gets up, surely?"
+
+"Ah, that I can't say!"
+
+"How do you mean, you can't say?"
+
+"No, his doctor won't let any one into his room. He took my key from
+me."
+
+"Who did?"
+
+"The doctor. He comes and sees to his wants, two or three times a day.
+He left the house only twenty minutes ago ... an old gentleman with a
+grey beard and spectacles.... Walks quite bent.... But where are you
+going sir?"
+
+"I'm going up, show me the way," said Lupin, with his foot on the
+stairs. "It's the third floor, isn't it, on the left?"
+
+"But I mustn't!" moaned the portress, running after him. "Besides, I
+haven't the key ... the doctor...."
+
+They climbed the three flights, one behind the other. On the landing,
+Lupin took a tool from his pocket and, disregarding the woman's
+protests, inserted it in the lock. The door yielded almost immediately.
+We went in.
+
+At the back of a small dark room we saw a streak of light filtering
+through a door that had been left ajar. Lupin ran across the room and,
+on reaching the threshold, gave a cry:
+
+"Too late! Oh, hang it all!"
+
+The portress fell on her knees, as though fainting.
+
+I entered the bedroom, in my turn, and saw a man lying half-dressed on
+the carpet, with his legs drawn up under him, his arms contorted and his
+face quite white, an emaciated, fleshless face, with the eyes still
+staring in terror and the mouth twisted into a hideous grin.
+
+"He's dead," said Lupin, after a rapid examination.
+
+"But why?" I exclaimed. "There's not a trace of blood!"
+
+"Yes, yes, there is," replied Lupin, pointing to two or three drops that
+showed on the chest, through the open shirt. "Look, they must have taken
+him by the throat with one hand and pricked him to the heart with the
+other. I say, 'pricked,' because really the wound can't be seen. It
+suggests a hole made by a very long needle."
+
+
+[Illustration: "_Lupin took a tool from his pocket ... and inserted it
+in the lock_"]
+
+
+He looked on the floor, all round the corpse. There was nothing to
+attract his attention, except a little pocket-mirror, the little mirror
+with which M. Lavernoux had amused himself by making the sunbeams dance
+through space.
+
+But, suddenly, as the portress was breaking into lamentations and
+calling for help, Lupin flung himself on her and shook her:
+
+"Stop that!... Listen to me ... you can call out later.... Listen to me
+and answer me. It is most important. M. Lavernoux had a friend living in
+this street, had he not? On the same side, to the right? An intimate
+friend?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"A friend whom he used to meet at the café in the evening and with whom
+he exchanged the illustrated papers?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Was the friend an Englishman?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What's his name?"
+
+"Mr. Hargrove."
+
+"Where does he live?"
+
+"At No. 92 in this street."
+
+"One word more: had that old doctor been attending him long?"
+
+"No. I did not know him. He came on the evening when M. Lavernoux was
+taken ill."
+
+Without another word, Lupin dragged me away once more, ran down the
+stairs and, once in the street, turned to the right, which took us past
+my flat again. Four doors further, he stopped at No. 92, a small,
+low-storied house, of which the ground-floor was occupied by the
+proprietor of a dram-shop, who stood smoking in his doorway, next to the
+entrance-passage. Lupin asked if Mr. Hargrove was at home.
+
+"Mr. Hargrove went out about half-an-hour ago," said the publican. "He
+seemed very much excited and took a taxi-cab, a thing he doesn't often
+do."
+
+"And you don't know...."
+
+"Where he was going? Well, there's no secret about it He shouted it loud
+enough! 'Prefecture of Police' is what he said to the driver...."
+
+Lupin was himself just hailing a taxi, when he changed his mind; and I
+heard him mutter:
+
+"What's the good? He's got too much start of us...."
+
+He asked if any one called after Mr. Hargrove had gone.
+
+"Yes, an old gentleman with a grey beard and spectacles. He went up to
+Mr. Hargrove's, rang the bell, and went away again."
+
+"I am much obliged," said Lupin, touching his hat.
+
+He walked away slowly without speaking to me, wearing a thoughtful air.
+There was no doubt that the problem struck him as very difficult, and
+that he saw none too clearly in the darkness through which he seemed to
+be moving with such certainty.
+
+He himself, for that matter, confessed to me:
+
+"These are cases that require much more intuition than reflection. But
+this one, I may tell you, is well worth taking pains about."
+
+We had now reached the boulevards. Lupin entered a public reading-room
+and spent a long time consulting the last fortnight's newspapers. Now
+and again, he mumbled:
+
+"Yes ... yes ... of course ... it's only a guess, but it explains
+everything.... Well, a guess that answers every question is not far from
+being the truth...."
+
+It was now dark. We dined at a little restaurant and I noticed that
+Lupin's face became gradually more animated. His gestures were more
+decided. He recovered his spirits, his liveliness. When we left, during
+the walk which he made me take along the Boulevard Haussmann, towards
+Baron Repstein's house, he was the real Lupin of the great occasions,
+the Lupin who had made up his mind to go in and win.
+
+We slackened our pace just short of the Rue de Courcelles. Baron
+Repstein lived on the left-hand side, between this street and the
+Faubourg Saint-Honoré, in a three-storied private house of which we
+could see the front, decorated with columns and caryatides.
+
+"Stop!" said Lupin, suddenly.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Another proof to confirm my supposition...."
+
+"What proof? I see nothing."
+
+"I do.... That's enough...."
+
+He turned up the collar of his coat, lowered the brim of his soft hat
+and said:
+
+"By Jove, it'll be a stiff fight! Go to bed, my friend. I'll tell you
+about my expedition to-morrow ... if it doesn't cost me my life."
+
+"What are you talking about?"
+
+"Oh, I know what I'm saying! I'm risking a lot. First of all, getting
+arrested, which isn't much. Next, getting killed, which is worse.
+But...." He gripped my shoulder. "But there's a third thing I'm risking,
+which is getting hold of two millions.... And, once I possess a capital
+of two millions, I'll show people what I can do! Good-night, old chap,
+and, if you never see me again...." He spouted Musset's lines:
+
+
+    "Plant a willow by my grave,
+      The weeping willow that I love...."
+
+
+I walked away. Three minutes later--I am continuing the narrative as he
+told it to me next day--three minutes later, Lupin rang at the door of
+the Hôtel Repstein.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Is monsieur le baron at home?"
+
+"Yes," replied the butler, examining the intruder with an air of
+surprise, "but monsieur le baron does not see people as late as this."
+
+"Does monsieur le baron know of the murder of M. Lavernoux, his
+land-agent?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, please tell monsieur le baron that I have come about the murder
+and that there is not a moment to lose."
+
+A voice called from above:
+
+"Show the gentleman up, Antoine."
+
+In obedience to this peremptory order, the butler led the way to the
+first floor. In an open doorway stood a gentleman whom Lupin recognized
+from his photograph in the papers as Baron Repstein, husband of the
+famous baroness and owner of Etna, the horse of the year.
+
+He was an exceedingly tall, square-shouldered man. His clean-shaven face
+wore a pleasant, almost smiling expression, which was not affected by
+the sadness of his eyes. He was dressed in a well-cut morning-coat, with
+a tan waistcoat and a dark tie fastened with a pearl pin, the value of
+which struck Lupin as considerable.
+
+He took Lupin into his study, a large, three-windowed room, lined with
+book-cases, sets of pigeonholes, an American desk and a safe. And he at
+once asked, with ill-concealed eagerness:
+
+"Do you know anything?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur le baron."
+
+"About the murder of that poor Lavernoux?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur le baron, and about madame le baronne also."
+
+"Do you really mean it? Quick, I entreat you...."
+
+He pushed forward a chair. Lupin sat down and began:
+
+"Monsieur le baron, the circumstances are very serious. I will be
+brief."
+
+"Yes, do, please."
+
+"Well, monsieur le baron, in a few words, it amounts to this: five or
+six hours ago, Lavernoux, who, for the last fortnight, had been kept in
+a sort of enforced confinement by his doctor, Lavernoux--how shall I put
+it?--telegraphed certain revelations by means of signals which were
+partly taken down by me and which put me on the track of this case. He
+himself was surprised in the act of making this communication and was
+murdered."
+
+"But by whom? By whom?"
+
+"By his doctor."
+
+"Who is this doctor?"
+
+"I don't know. But one of M. Lavernoux's friends, an Englishman called
+Hargrove, the friend, in fact, with whom he was communicating, is bound
+to know and is also bound to know the exact and complete meaning of the
+communication, because, without waiting for the end, he jumped into a
+motor-cab and drove to the Prefecture of Police."
+
+"Why? Why?... And what is the result of that step?"
+
+"The result, monsieur le baron, is that your house is surrounded. There
+are twelve detectives under your windows. The moment the sun rises, they
+will enter in the name of the law and arrest the criminal."
+
+"Then is Lavernoux's murderer concealed in my house? Who is he? One of
+the servants? But no, for you were speaking of a doctor!..."
+
+"I would remark, monsieur le baron, that when this Mr. Hargrove went to
+the police to tell them of the revelations made by his friend Lavernoux,
+he was not aware that his friend Lavernoux was going to be murdered. The
+step taken by Mr Hargrove had to do with something else...."
+
+"With what?"
+
+"With the disappearance of madame la baronne, of which he knew the
+secret, thanks to the communication made by Lavernoux."
+
+"What! They know at last! They have found the baroness! Where is she?
+And the jewels? And the money she robbed me of?"
+
+Baron Repstein was talking in a great state of excitement. He rose and,
+almost shouting at Lupin, cried:
+
+"Finish your story, sir! I can't endure this suspense!"
+
+Lupin continued, in a slow and hesitating voice:
+
+"The fact is ... you see ... it is rather difficult to explain ... for
+you and I are looking at the thing from a totally different point of
+view."
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"And yet you ought to understand, monsieur le baron.... We begin by
+saying--I am quoting the newspapers--by saying, do we not, that Baroness
+Repstein knew all the secrets of your business and that she was able to
+open not only that safe over there, but also the one at the Crédit
+Lyonnais in which you kept your securities locked up?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, one evening, a fortnight ago, while you were at your club,
+Baroness Repstein, who, unknown to yourself, had converted all those
+securities into cash, left this house with a travelling-bag, containing
+your money and all the Princesse de Berny's jewels?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And, since then, she has not been seen?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, there is an excellent reason why she has not been seen."
+
+"What reason?"
+
+"This, that Baroness Repstein has been murdered...."
+
+"Murdered!... The baroness!... But you're mad!"
+
+"Murdered ... and probably that same evening."
+
+"I tell you again, you are mad! How can the baroness have been murdered,
+when the police are following her tracks, so to speak, step by step?"
+
+"They are following the tracks of another woman."
+
+"What woman?"
+
+"The murderer's accomplice."
+
+"And who is the murderer?"
+
+"The same man who, for the last fortnight, knowing that Lavernoux,
+through the situation which he occupied in this house, had discovered
+the truth, kept him imprisoned, forced him to silence, threatened him,
+terrorized him; the same man who, finding Lavernoux in the act of
+communicating with a friend, made away with him in cold blood by
+stabbing him to the heart."
+
+"The doctor, therefore?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But who is this doctor? Who is this malevolent genius, this infernal
+being who appears and disappears, who slays in the dark and whom nobody
+suspects?"
+
+"Can't you guess?"
+
+"No."
+
+"And do you want to know?"
+
+"Do I want to know?... Why, speak, man, speak!... You know where he is
+hiding?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"In this house?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And it is he whom the police are after?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And I know him?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"You!"
+
+"I!..."
+
+Lupin had not been more than ten minutes with the baron; and the duel
+was commencing. The accusation was hurled, definitely, violently,
+implacably.
+
+Lupin repeated:
+
+"You yourself, got up in a false beard and a pair of spectacles, bent in
+two, like an old man. In short, you, Baron Repstein; and it is you for
+a very good reason, of which nobody has thought, which is that, if it
+was not you who contrived the whole plot, the case becomes inexplicable.
+Whereas, taking you as the criminal, you as murdering the baroness in
+order to get rid of her and run through those millions with another
+woman, you as murdering Lavernoux, your agent, in order to suppress an
+unimpeachable witness, oh, then the whole case is explained! Well, is it
+pretty clear? And are not you yourself convinced?"
+
+The baron, who, throughout this conversation, had stood bending over his
+visitor, waiting for each of his words with feverish avidity, now drew
+himself up and looked at Lupin as though he undoubtedly had to do with a
+madman. When Lupin had finished speaking, the baron stepped back two or
+three paces, seemed on the point of uttering words which he ended by not
+saying, and then, without taking his eyes from his strange visitor, went
+to the fireplace and rang the bell.
+
+Lupin did not make a movement. He waited smiling.
+
+The butler entered. His master said:
+
+"You can go to bed, Antoine. I will let this gentleman out."
+
+"Shall I put out the lights, sir?"
+
+"Leave a light in the hall."
+
+Antoine left the room and the baron, after taking a revolver from his
+desk, at once came back to Lupin, put the weapon in his pocket and said,
+very calmly:
+
+"You must excuse this little precaution, sir. I am obliged to take it in
+case you should be mad, though that does not seem likely. No, you are
+not mad. But you have come here with an object which I fail to grasp;
+and you have sprung upon me an accusation of so astounding a character
+that I am curious to know the reason. I have experienced so much
+disappointment and undergone so much suffering that an outrage of this
+kind leaves me indifferent. Continue, please."
+
+His voice shook with emotion and his sad eyes seemed moist with tears.
+
+Lupin shuddered. Had he made a mistake? Was the surmise which his
+intuition had suggested to him and which was based upon a frail
+groundwork of slight facts, was this surmise wrong?
+
+His attention was caught by a detail: through the opening in the baron's
+waistcoat he saw the point of the pin fixed in the tie and was thus able
+to realize the unusual length of the pin. Moreover, the gold stem was
+triangular and formed a sort of miniature dagger, very thin and very
+delicate, yet formidable in an expert hand.
+
+And Lupin had no doubt but that the pin attached to that magnificent
+pearl was the weapon which had pierced the heart of the unfortunate M.
+Lavernoux.
+
+He muttered:
+
+"You're jolly clever, monsieur le baron!"
+
+The other, maintaining a rather scornful gravity, kept silence, as
+though he did not understand and as though waiting for the explanation
+to which he felt himself entitled. And, in spite of everything, this
+impassive attitude worried Arsène Lupin. Nevertheless, his conviction
+was so profound and, besides, he had staked so much on the adventure
+that he repeated:
+
+"Yes, jolly clever, for it is evident that the baroness only obeyed your
+orders in realizing your securities and also in borrowing the princess's
+jewels on the pretence of buying them. And it is evident that the person
+who walked out of your house with a bag was not your wife, but an
+accomplice, that chorus-girl probably, and that it is your chorus-girl
+who is deliberately allowing herself to be chased across the continent
+by our worthy Ganimard. And I look upon the trick as marvellous. What
+does the woman risk, seeing that it is the baroness who is being looked
+for? And how could they look for any other woman than the baroness,
+seeing that you have promised a reward of two hundred thousand francs to
+the person who finds the baroness?... Oh, that two hundred thousand
+francs lodged with a solicitor: what a stroke of genius! It has dazzled
+the police! It has thrown dust in the eyes of the most clear-sighted! A
+gentleman who lodges two hundred thousand francs with a solicitor is a
+gentleman who speaks the truth.... So they go on hunting the baroness!
+And they leave you quietly to settle your affairs, to sell your stud and
+your two houses to the highest bidder and to prepare your flight!
+Heavens, what a joke!"
+
+The baron did not wince. He walked up to Lupin and asked, without
+abandoning his imperturbable coolness:
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+Lupin burst out laughing.
+
+"What can it matter who I am? Take it that I am an emissary of fate,
+looming out of the darkness for your destruction!"
+
+He sprang from his chair, seized the baron by the shoulder and jerked
+out:
+
+"Yes, for your destruction, my bold baron! Listen to me! Your wife's
+three millions, almost all the princess's jewels, the money you received
+to-day from the sale of your stud and your real estate: it's all there,
+in your pocket, or in that safe. Your flight is prepared. Look, I can
+see the leather of your portmanteau behind that hanging. The papers on
+your desk are in order. This very night, you would have done a guy.
+This very night, disguised beyond recognition, after taking all your
+precautions, you would have joined your chorus-girl, the creature for
+whose sake you have committed murder, that same Nelly Darbal, no doubt,
+whom Ganimard arrested in Belgium. But for one sudden, unforeseen
+obstacle: the police, the twelve detectives who, thanks to Lavernoux's
+revelations, have been posted under your windows. They've cooked your
+goose, old chap!... Well, I'll save you. A word through the telephone;
+and, by three or four o'clock in the morning, twenty of my friends will
+have removed the obstacle, polished off the twelve detectives, and you
+and I will slip away quietly. My conditions? Almost nothing; a trifle to
+you: we share the millions and the jewels. Is it a bargain?"
+
+He was leaning over the baron, thundering at him with irresistible
+energy. The baron whispered:
+
+"I'm beginning to understand. It's blackmail...."
+
+"Blackmail or not, call it what you please, my boy, but you've got to go
+through with it and do as I say. And don't imagine that I shall give way
+at the last moment. Don't say to yourself, 'Here's a gentleman whom the
+fear of the police will cause to think twice. If I run a big risk in
+refusing, he also will be risking the handcuffs, the cells and the rest
+of it, seeing that we are both being hunted down like wild beasts.' That
+would be a mistake, monsieur le baron. I can always get out of it. It's
+a question of yourself, of yourself alone.... Your money or your life,
+my lord! Share and share alike ... if not, the scaffold! Is it a
+bargain?"
+
+A quick movement. The baron released himself, grasped his revolver and
+fired.
+
+But Lupin was prepared for the attack, the more so as the baron's face
+had lost its assurance and gradually, under the slow impulse of rage and
+fear, acquired an expression of almost bestial ferocity that heralded
+the rebellion so long kept under control.
+
+He fired twice. Lupin first flung himself to one side and then dived at
+the baron's knees, seized him by both legs and brought him to the
+ground. The baron freed himself with an effort. The two enemies rolled
+over in each other's grip; and a stubborn, crafty, brutal, savage
+struggle followed.
+
+Suddenly, Lupin felt a pain at his chest:
+
+"You villain!" he yelled. "That's your Lavernoux trick; the tie-pin!"
+
+Stiffening his muscles with a desperate effort, he overpowered the baron
+and clutched him by the throat victorious at last and omnipotent.
+
+"You ass!" he cried. "If you hadn't shown your cards, I might have
+thrown up the game! You have such a look of the honest man about you!
+But what a biceps, my lord!... I thought for a moment.... But it's all
+over, now!... Come, my friend, hand us the pin and look cheerful.... No,
+that's what I call pulling a face.... I'm holding you too tight,
+perhaps? My lord's at his last gasp?... Come, be good!... That's it,
+just a wee bit of string round the wrists; do you allow me?... Why, you
+and I are agreeing like two brothers! It's touching!... At heart, you
+know, I'm rather fond of you.... And now, my bonnie lad, mind yourself!
+And a thousand apologies!..."
+
+Half raising himself, with all his strength he caught the other a
+terrible blow in the pit of the stomach. The baron gave a gurgle and lay
+stunned and unconscious.
+
+"That comes of having a deficient sense of logic, my friend," said
+Lupin. "I offered you half your money. Now I'll give you none at all ...
+provided I know where to find any of it. For that's the main thing.
+Where has the beggar hidden his dust? In the safe? By George, it'll be a
+tough job! Luckily, I have all the night before me...."
+
+He began to feel in the baron's pockets, came upon a bunch of keys,
+first made sure that the portmanteau behind the curtain held no papers
+or jewels, and then went to the safe.
+
+But, at that moment, he stopped short: he heard a noise somewhere. The
+servants? Impossible. Their attics were on the top floor. He listened.
+The noise came from below. And, suddenly, he understood: the detectives,
+who had heard the two shots, were banging at the front door, as was
+their duty, without waiting for daybreak. Then an electric bell rang,
+which Lupin recognized as that in the hall:
+
+"By Jupiter!" he said. "Pretty work! Here are these jokers coming ...
+and just as we were about to gather the fruits of our laborious efforts!
+Tut, tut, Lupin, keep cool! What's expected of you? To open a safe, of
+which you don't know the secret, in thirty seconds. That's a mere trifle
+to lose your head about! Come, all you have to do is to discover the
+secret! How many letters are there in the word? Four?"
+
+He went on thinking, while talking and listening to the noise outside.
+He double-locked the door of the outer room and then came back to the
+safe:
+
+"Four ciphers.... Four letters ... four letters.... Who can lend me a
+hand?... Who can give me just a tiny hint?... Who? Why, Lavernoux, of
+course! That good Lavernoux, seeing that he took the trouble to indulge
+in optical telegraphy at the risk of his life.... Lord, what a fool I
+am!... Why, of course, why, of course, that's it!... By Jove, this is
+too exciting!... Lupin, you must count ten and suppress that distracted
+beating of your heart. If not, it means bad work."
+
+He counted ten and, now quite calm, knelt in front of the safe. He
+turned the four knobs with careful attention. Next, he examined the
+bunch of keys, selected one of them, then another, and attempted, in
+vain, to insert them in the lock:
+
+"There's luck in odd numbers," he muttered, trying a third key.
+"Victory! This is the right one! Open Sesame, good old Sesame, open!"
+
+The lock turned. The door moved on its hinges. Lupin pulled it to him,
+after taking out the bunch of keys:
+
+"The millions are ours," he said. "Baron, I forgive you!"
+
+And then he gave a single bound backward, hiccoughing with fright. His
+legs staggered beneath him. The keys jingled together in his fevered
+hand with a sinister sound. And, for twenty, for thirty seconds, despite
+the din that was being raised and the electric bells that kept ringing
+through the house, he stood there, wild-eyed, gazing at the most
+horrible, the most abominable sight: a woman's body, half-dressed, bent
+in two in the safe, crammed in, like an over-large parcel ... and fair
+hair hanging down ... and blood ... clots of blood ... and livid flesh,
+blue in places, decomposing, flaccid.
+
+"The baroness!" he gasped. "The baroness!... Oh, the monster!..."
+
+He roused himself from his torpor, suddenly, to spit in the murderer's
+face and pound him with his heels:
+
+"Take that, you wretch!... Take that, you villain!... And, with it, the
+scaffold, the bran-basket!..."
+
+Meanwhile, shouts came from the upper floors in reply to the detectives'
+ringing. Lupin heard footsteps scurrying down the stairs. It was time to
+think of beating a retreat.
+
+In reality, this did not trouble him greatly. During his conversation
+with the baron, the enemy's extraordinary coolness had given him the
+feeling that there must be a private outlet. Besides, how could the
+baron have begun the fight, if he were not sure of escaping the police?
+
+Lupin went into the next room. It looked out on the garden. At the
+moment when the detectives were entering the house, he flung his legs
+over the balcony and let himself down by a rain-pipe. He walked round
+the building. On the opposite side was a wall lined with shrubs. He
+slipped in between the shrubs and the wall and at once found a little
+door which he easily opened with one of the keys on the bunch. All that
+remained for him to do was to walk across a yard and pass through the
+empty rooms of a lodge; and in a few moments he found himself in the Rue
+du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Of course--and this he had reckoned on--the
+police had not provided for this secret outlet.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Well, what do you think of Baron Repstein?" cried Lupin, after giving
+me all the details of that tragic night. "What a dirty scoundrel! And
+how it teaches one to distrust appearances! I swear to you, the fellow
+looked a thoroughly honest man!"
+
+"But what about the millions?" I asked. "The princess's jewels?"
+
+"They were in the safe. I remember seeing the parcel."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"They are there still."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"They are, upon my word! I might tell you that I was afraid of the
+detectives, or else plead a sudden attack of delicacy. But the truth is
+simpler ... and more prosaic: the smell was too awful!..."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Yes, my dear fellow, the smell that came from that safe ... from that
+coffin.... No, I couldn't do it ... my head swam.... Another second and
+I should have been ill.... Isn't it silly?... Look, this is all I got
+from my expedition: the tie-pin.... The bed-rock value of the pearl is
+thirty thousand francs.... But all the same, I feel jolly well annoyed.
+What a sell!"
+
+"One more question," I said. "The word that opened the safe!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"How did you guess it?"
+
+"Oh, quite easily! In fact, I am surprised that I didn't think of it
+sooner."
+
+"Well, tell me."
+
+"It was contained in the revelations telegraphed by that poor
+Lavernoux."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Just think, my dear chap, the mistakes in spelling...."
+
+"The mistakes in spelling?"
+
+"Why, of course! They were deliberate. Surely, you don't imagine that
+the agent, the private secretary of the baron--who was a
+company-promoter, mind you, and a racing-man--did not know English
+better than to spell 'necessery' with an 'e,' 'atack' with one 't,'
+'ennemy' with two 'n's' and 'prudance' with an 'a'! The thing struck me
+at once. I put the four letters together and got 'Etna,' the name of the
+famous horse."
+
+"And was that one word enough?"
+
+"Of course! It was enough to start with, to put me on the scent of the
+Repstein case, of which all the papers were full, and, next, to make me
+guess that it was the key-word of the safe, because, on the one hand,
+Lavernoux knew the gruesome contents of the safe and, on the other, he
+was denouncing the baron. And it was in the same way that I was led to
+suppose that Lavernoux had a friend in the street, that they both
+frequented the same café, that they amused themselves by working out the
+problems and cryptograms in the illustrated papers and that they had
+contrived a way of exchanging telegrams from window to window."
+
+"That makes it all quite simple!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Very simple. And the incident once more shows that, in the discovery of
+crimes, there is something much more valuable than the examination of
+facts, than observations, deductions, inferences and all that stuff and
+nonsense. What I mean is, as I said before, intuition ... intuition and
+intelligence.... And Arsène Lupin, without boasting, is deficient in
+neither one nor the other!..."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE WEDDING-RING
+
+
+Yvonne d'Origny kissed her son and told him to be good:
+
+"You know your grandmother d'Origny is not very found of children. Now
+that she has sent for you to come and see her, you must show her what a
+sensible little boy you are." And, turning to the governess, "Don't
+forget, Fräulein, to bring him home immediately after dinner.... Is
+monsieur still in the house?"
+
+"Yes, madame, monsieur le comte is in his study."
+
+As soon as she was alone, Yvonne d'Origny walked to the window to catch
+a glimpse of her son as he left the house. He was out in the street in a
+moment, raised his head and blew her a kiss, as was his custom every
+day. Then the governess took his hand with, as Yvonne remarked to her
+surprise, a movement of unusual violence. Yvonne leant further out of
+the window and, when the boy reached the corner of the boulevard, she
+suddenly saw a man step out of a motor-car and go up to him. The man, in
+whom she recognized Bernard, her husband's confidential servant, took
+the child by the arm, made both him and the governess get into the car,
+and ordered the chauffeur to drive off.
+
+The whole incident did not take ten seconds.
+
+Yvonne, in her trepidation, ran to her bedroom, seized a wrap and went
+to the door. The door was locked; and there was no key in the lock.
+
+She hurried back to the boudoir. The door of the boudoir also was
+locked.
+
+Then, suddenly, the image of her husband appeared before her, that
+gloomy face which no smile ever lit up, those pitiless eyes in which,
+for years, she had felt so much hatred and malice.
+
+"It's he ... it's he!" she said to herself. "He has taken the child....
+Oh, it's horrible!"
+
+She beat against the door with her fists, with her feet, then flew to
+the mantelpiece and pressed the bell fiercely.
+
+The shrill sound rang through the house from top to bottom. The servants
+would be sure to come. Perhaps a crowd would gather in the street. And,
+impelled by a sort of despairing hope, she kept her finger on the
+button.
+
+A key turned in the lock.... The door was flung wide open. The count
+appeared on the threshold of the boudoir. And the expression of his
+face was so terrible that Yvonne began to tremble.
+
+He entered the room. Five or six steps separated him from her. With a
+supreme effort, she tried to stir, but all movement was impossible; and,
+when she attempted to speak, she could only flutter her lips and emit
+incoherent sounds. She felt herself lost. The thought of death unhinged
+her. Her knees gave way beneath her and she sank into a huddled heap,
+with a moan.
+
+The count rushed at her and seized her by the throat:
+
+"Hold your tongue ... don't call out!" he said, in a low voice. "That
+will be best for you!..."
+
+Seeing that she was not attempting to defend herself, he loosened his
+hold of her and took from his pocket some strips of canvas ready rolled
+and of different lengths. In a few minutes, Yvonne was lying on a sofa,
+with her wrists and ankles bound and her arms fastened close to her
+body.
+
+It was now dark in the boudoir. The count switched on the electric light
+and went to a little writing-desk where Yvonne was accustomed to keep
+her letters. Not succeeding in opening it, he picked the lock with a
+bent wire, emptied the drawers and collected all the contents into a
+bundle, which he carried off in a cardboard file:
+
+"Waste of time, eh?" he grinned. "Nothing but bills and letters of no
+importance.... No proof against you.... Tah! I'll keep my son for all
+that; and I swear before Heaven that I will not let him go!"
+
+As he was leaving the room, he was joined, near the door, by his man
+Bernard. The two stopped and talked, in a low voice; but Yvonne heard
+these words spoken by the servant:
+
+"I have had an answer from the working jeweller. He says he holds
+himself at my disposal."
+
+And the count replied:
+
+"The thing is put off until twelve o'clock midday, to-morrow. My mother
+has just telephoned to say that she could not come before."
+
+Then Yvonne heard the key turn in the lock and the sound of steps going
+down to the ground-floor, where her husband's study was.
+
+She long lay inert, her brain reeling with vague, swift ideas that burnt
+her in passing, like flames. She remembered her husband's infamous
+behaviour, his humiliating conduct to her, his threats, his plans for a
+divorce; and she gradually came to understand that she was the victim of
+a regular conspiracy, that the servants had been sent away until the
+following evening by their master's orders, that the governess had
+carried off her son by the count's instructions and with Bernard's
+assistance, that her son would not come back and that she would never
+see him again.
+
+"My son!" she cried. "My son!..."
+
+Exasperated by her grief, she stiffened herself, with every nerve, with
+every muscle tense, to make a violent effort. And she was astonished to
+find that her right hand, which the count had fastened too hurriedly,
+still retained a certain freedom.
+
+Then a mad hope invaded her; and, slowly, patiently, she began the work
+of self-deliverance.
+
+It was long in the doing. She needed a deal of time to widen the knot
+sufficiently and a deal of time afterward, when the hand was released,
+to undo those other bonds which tied her arms to her body and those
+which fastened her ankles.
+
+Still, the thought of her son sustained her; and the last shackle fell
+as the clock struck eight. She was free!
+
+She was no sooner on her feet than she flew to the window and flung back
+the latch, with the intention of calling the first passer-by. At that
+moment a policeman came walking along the pavement. She leant out. But
+the brisk evening air, striking her face, calmed her. She thought of the
+scandal, of the judicial investigation, of the cross-examination, of her
+son. O Heaven! What could she do to get him back? How could she escape?
+The count might appear at the least sound. And who knew but that, in a
+moment of fury ...?
+
+She shivered from head to foot, seized with a sudden terror. The horror
+of death mingled, in her poor brain, with the thought of her son; and
+she stammered, with a choking throat:
+
+"Help!... Help!..."
+
+She stopped and said to herself, several times over, in a low voice,
+"Help!... Help!..." as though the word awakened an idea, a memory within
+her, and as though the hope of assistance no longer seemed to her
+impossible. For some minutes she remained absorbed in deep meditation,
+broken by fears and starts. Then, with an almost mechanical series of
+movements, she put out her arm to a little set of shelves hanging over
+the writing-desk, took down four books, one after the other, turned the
+pages with a distraught air, replaced them and ended by finding, between
+the pages of the fifth, a visiting-card on which her eyes spelt the
+name:
+
+
+                 HORACE VELMONT,
+
+
+followed by an address written in pencil:
+
+
+            CERCLE DE LA RUE ROYALE.
+
+
+And her memory conjured up the strange thing which that man had said to
+her, a few years before, in that same house, on a day when she was at
+home to her friends:
+
+"If ever a danger threatens you, if you need help, do not hesitate; post
+this card, which you see me put into this book; and, whatever the hour,
+whatever the obstacles, I will come."
+
+With what a curious air he had spoken these words and how well he had
+conveyed the impression of certainty, of strength, of unlimited power,
+of indomitable daring!
+
+Abruptly, unconsciously, acting under the impulse of an irresistible
+determination, the consequences of which she refused to anticipate,
+Yvonne, with the same automatic gestures, took a pneumatic-delivery
+envelope, slipped in the card, sealed it, directed it to "Horace
+Velmont, Cercle de la Rue Royale" and went to the open window. The
+policeman was walking up and down outside. She flung out the envelope,
+trusting to fate. Perhaps it would be picked up, treated as a lost
+letter and posted.
+
+She had hardly completed this act when she realized its absurdity. It
+was mad to suppose that the message would reach the address and madder
+still to hope that the man to whom she was sending could come to her
+assistance, "whatever the hour, whatever the obstacles."
+
+A reaction followed which was all the greater inasmuch as the effort had
+been swift and violent. Yvonne staggered, leant against a chair and,
+losing all energy, let herself fall.
+
+The hours passed by, the dreary hours of winter evenings when nothing
+but the sound of carriages interrupts the silence of the street. The
+clock struck, pitilessly. In the half-sleep that numbed her limbs,
+Yvonne counted the strokes. She also heard certain noises, on different
+floors of the house, which told her that her husband had dined, that he
+was going up to his room, that he was going down again to his study. But
+all this seemed very shadowy to her; and her torpor was such that she
+did not even think of lying down on the sofa, in case he should come
+in....
+
+The twelve strokes of midnight.... Then half-past twelve ... then
+one.... Yvonne thought of nothing, awaiting the events which were
+preparing and against which rebellion was useless. She pictured her son
+and herself as one pictures those beings who have suffered much and who
+suffer no more and who take each other in their loving arms. But a
+nightmare shattered this dream. For now those two beings were to be torn
+asunder; and she had the awful feeling, in her delirium, that she was
+crying and choking....
+
+She leapt from her seat. The key had turned in the lock. The count was
+coming, attracted by her cries. Yvonne glanced round for a weapon with
+which to defend herself. But the door was pushed back quickly and,
+astounded, as though the sight that presented itself before her eyes
+seemed to her the most inexplicable prodigy, she stammered:
+
+"You!... You!..."
+
+A man was walking up to her, in dress-clothes, with his opera-hat and
+cape under his arm, and this man, young, slender and elegant, she had
+recognized as Horace Velmont.
+
+"You!" she repeated.
+
+He said, with a bow:
+
+"I beg your pardon, madame, but I did not receive your letter until very
+late."
+
+"Is it possible? Is it possible that this is you ... that you were able
+to ...?"
+
+He seemed greatly surprised:
+
+"Did I not promise to come in answer to your call?"
+
+"Yes ... but ..."
+
+"Well, here I am," he said, with a smile.
+
+He examined the strips of canvas from which Yvonne had succeeded in
+freeing herself and nodded his head, while continuing his inspection:
+
+"So those are the means employed? The Comte d'Origny, I presume?... I
+also saw that he locked you in.... But then the pneumatic letter?... Ah,
+through the window!... How careless of you not to close it!"
+
+He pushed both sides to. Yvonne took fright:
+
+"Suppose they hear!"
+
+"There is no one in the house. I have been over it."
+
+"Still ..."
+
+"Your husband went out ten minutes ago."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"With his mother, the Comtesse d'Origny."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Oh, it's very simple! He was rung up by telephone and I awaited the
+result at the corner of this street and the boulevard. As I expected,
+the count came out hurriedly, followed by his man. I at once entered,
+with the aid of special keys."
+
+He told this in the most natural way, just as one tells a meaningless
+anecdote in a drawing-room. But Yvonne, suddenly seized with fresh
+alarm, asked:
+
+"Then it's not true?... His mother is not ill?... In that case, my
+husband will be coming back...."
+
+"Certainly, the count will see that a trick has been played on him and
+in three quarters of an hour at the latest...."
+
+"Let us go.... I don't want him to find me here.... I must go to my
+son...."
+
+"One moment...."
+
+"One moment!... But don't you know that they have taken him from me?...
+That they are hurting him, perhaps?..."
+
+With set face and feverish gestures, she tried to push Velmont back. He,
+with great gentleness, compelled her to sit down and, leaning over her
+in a respectful attitude, said, in a serious voice:
+
+"Listen, madame, and let us not waste time, when every minute is
+valuable. First of all, remember this: we met four times, six years
+ago.... And, on the fourth occasion, when I was speaking to you, in the
+drawing-room of this house, with too much--what shall I say?--with too
+much feeling, you gave me to understand that my visits were no longer
+welcome. Since that day I have not seen you. And, nevertheless, in spite
+of all, your faith in me was such that you kept the card which I put
+between the pages of that book and, six years later, you send for me and
+none other. That faith in me I ask you to continue. You must obey me
+blindly. Just as I surmounted every obstacle to come to you, so I will
+save you, whatever the position may be."
+
+Horace Velmont's calmness, his masterful voice, with the friendly
+intonation, gradually quieted the countess. Though still very weak, she
+gained a fresh sense of ease and security in that man's presence.
+
+"Have no fear," he went on. "The Comtesse d'Origny lives at the other
+end of the Bois de Vincennes. Allowing that your husband finds a
+motor-cab, it is impossible for him to be back before a quarter-past
+three. Well, it is twenty-five to three now. I swear to take you away at
+three o'clock exactly and to take you to your son. But I will not go
+before I know everything."
+
+"What am I to do?" she asked.
+
+"Answer me and very plainly. We have twenty minutes. It is enough. But
+it is not too much."
+
+"Ask me what you want to know."
+
+"Do you think that the count had any ... any murderous intentions?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then it concerns your son?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He is taking him away, I suppose, because he wants to divorce you and
+marry another woman, a former friend of yours, whom you have turned out
+of your house. Is that it? Oh, I entreat you, answer me frankly! These
+are facts of public notoriety; and your hesitation, your scruples, must
+all cease, now that the matter concerns your son. So your husband wished
+to marry another woman?
+
+"Yes."
+
+"The woman has no money. Your husband, on his side, has gambled away
+all his property and has no means beyond the allowance which he receives
+from his mother, the Comtesse d'Origny, and the income of a large
+fortune which your son inherited from two of your uncles. It is this
+fortune which your husband covets and which he would appropriate more
+easily if the child were placed in his hands. There is only one way:
+divorce. Am I right?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And what has prevented him until now is your refusal?"
+
+"Yes, mine and that of my mother-in-law, whose religious feelings are
+opposed to divorce. The Comtesse d'Origny would only yield in case ..."
+
+"In case ...?"
+
+"In case they could prove me guilty of shameful conduct."
+
+Velmont shrugged his shoulders:
+
+"Therefore he is powerless to do anything against you or against your
+son. Both from the legal point of view and from that of his own
+interests, he stumbles against an obstacle which is the most
+insurmountable of all: the virtue of an honest woman. And yet, in spite
+of everything, he suddenly shows fight."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that, if a man like the count, after so many hesitations and
+in the face of so many difficulties, risks so doubtful an adventure, it
+must be because he thinks he has command of weapons ..."
+
+"What weapons?"
+
+"I don't know. But they exist ... or else he would not have begun by
+taking away your son."
+
+Yvonne gave way to her despair:
+
+"Oh, this is horrible!... How do I know what he may have done, what he
+may have invented?"
+
+"Try and think.... Recall your memories.... Tell me, in this desk which
+he has broken open, was there any sort of letter which he could possibly
+turn against you?"
+
+"No ... only bills and addresses...."
+
+"And, in the words he used to you, in his threats, is there nothing that
+allows you to guess?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Still ... still," Velmont insisted, "there must be something." And he
+continued, "Has the count a particularly intimate friend ... in whom he
+confides?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Did anybody come to see him yesterday?"
+
+"No, nobody."
+
+"Was he alone when he bound you and locked you in?"
+
+"At that moment, yes."
+
+"But afterward?"
+
+"His man, Bernard, joined him near the door and I heard them talking
+about a working jeweller...."
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"And about something that was to happen the next day, that is, to-day,
+at twelve o'clock, because the Comtesse d'Origny could not come
+earlier."
+
+Velmont reflected:
+
+"Has that conversation any meaning that throws a light upon your
+husband's plans?"
+
+"I don't see any."
+
+"Where are your jewels?"
+
+"My husband has sold them all."
+
+"You have nothing at all left?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Not even a ring?"
+
+"No," she said, showing her hands, "none except this."
+
+"Which is your wedding-ring?"
+
+"Which is my ... wedding--..."
+
+She stopped, nonplussed. Velmont saw her flush as she stammered:
+
+"Could it be possible?... But no ... no ... he doesn't know...."
+
+Velmont at once pressed her with questions and Yvonne stood silent,
+motionless, anxious-faced. At last, she replied, in a low voice:
+
+"This is not my wedding-ring. One day, long ago, it dropped from the
+mantelpiece in my bedroom, where I had put it a minute before and, hunt
+for it as I might, I could not find it again. So I ordered another,
+without saying anything about it ... and this is the one, on my
+hand...."
+
+"Did the real ring bear the date of your wedding?"
+
+"Yes ... the 23rd of October."
+
+"And the second?"
+
+"This one has no date."
+
+He perceived a slight hesitation in her and a confusion which, in point
+of fact, she did not try to conceal.
+
+"I implore you," he exclaimed, "don't hide anything from me.... You see
+how far we have gone in a few minutes, with a little logic and
+calmness.... Let us go on, I ask you as a favour."
+
+"Are you sure," she said, "that it is necessary?"
+
+"I am sure that the least detail is of importance and that we are nearly
+attaining our object. But we must hurry. This is a crucial moment."
+
+"I have nothing to conceal," she said, proudly raising her head. "It was
+the most wretched and the most dangerous period of my life. While
+suffering humiliation at home, outside I was surrounded with attentions,
+with temptations, with pitfalls, like any woman who is seen to be
+neglected by her husband. Then I remembered: before my marriage, a man
+had been in love with me. I had guessed his unspoken love; and he has
+died since. I had the name of that man engraved inside the ring; and I
+wore it as a talisman. There was no love in me, because I was the wife
+of another. But, in my secret heart, there was a memory, a sad dream,
+something sweet and gentle that protected me...."
+
+She had spoken slowly, without embarrassment, and Velmont did not doubt
+for a second that she was telling the absolute truth. He kept silent;
+and she, becoming anxious again, asked:
+
+"Do you suppose ... that my husband ...?"
+
+He took her hand and, while examining the plain gold ring, said:
+
+"The puzzle lies here. Your husband, I don't know how, knows of the
+substitution of one ring for the other. His mother will be here at
+twelve o'clock. In the presence of witnesses, he will compel you to take
+off your ring; and, in this way, he will obtain the approval of his
+mother and, at the same time, will be able to obtain his divorce,
+because he will have the proof for which he was seeking."
+
+"I am lost!" she moaned. "I am lost!"
+
+"On the contrary, you are saved! Give me that ring ... and presently he
+will find another there, another which I will send you, to reach you
+before twelve, and which will bear the date of the 23rd of October. So
+..."
+
+He suddenly broke off. While he was speaking, Yvonne's hand had turned
+ice-cold in his; and, raising his eyes, he saw that the young woman was
+pale, terribly pale:
+
+"What's the matter? I beseech you ..."
+
+She yielded to a fit of mad despair:
+
+"This is the matter, that I am lost!... This is the matter, that I can't
+get the ring off! It has grown too small for me!... Do you
+understand?... It made no difference and I did not give it a thought....
+But to-day ... this proof ... this accusation.... Oh, what torture!...
+Look ... it forms part of my finger ... it has grown into my flesh ...
+and I can't ... I can't...."
+
+She pulled at the ring, vainly, with all her might, at the risk of
+injuring herself. But the flesh swelled up around the ring; and the ring
+did not budge.
+
+"Oh!" she cried, seized with an idea that terrified her. "I remember ...
+the other night ... a nightmare I had.... It seemed to me that some one
+entered my room and caught hold of my hand.... And I could not wake
+up.... It was he! It was he! He had put me to sleep, I was sure of it
+... and he was looking at the ring.... And presently he will pull it off
+before his mother's eyes.... Ah, I understand everything: that working
+jeweller!... He will cut it from my hand to-morrow.... You see, you
+see.... I am lost!..."
+
+She hid her face in her hands and began to weep. But, amid the silence,
+the clock struck once ... and twice ... and yet once more. And Yvonne
+drew herself up with a jerk:
+
+"There he is!" she cried. "He is coming!... It is three o'clock!... Let
+us go!..."
+
+She grabbed at her cloak and ran to the door ... Velmont barred the way
+and, in a masterful tone:
+
+"You shall not go!"
+
+"My son.... I want to see him, to take him back...."
+
+"You don't even know where he is!"
+
+"I want to go."
+
+"You shall not go!... It would be madness...."
+
+He took her by the wrists. She tried to release herself; and Velmont had
+to employ a little force to overcome her resistance. In the end, he
+succeeded in getting her back to the sofa, then in laying her at full
+length and, at once, without heeding her lamentations, he took the
+canvas strips and fastened her wrists and ankles:
+
+"Yes," he said, "It would be madness! Who would have set you free? Who
+would have opened that door for you? An accomplice? What an argument
+against you and what a pretty use your husband would make of it with his
+mother!... And, besides, what's the good? To run away means accepting
+divorce ... and what might that not lead to?... You must stay here...."
+
+She sobbed:
+
+"I'm frightened.... I'm frightened ... this ring burns me.... Break
+it.... Take it away.... Don't let him find it!"
+
+"And if it is not found on your finger, who will have broken it? Again
+an accomplice.... No, you must face the music ... and face it boldly,
+for I answer for everything.... Believe me ... I answer for
+everything.... If I have to tackle the Comtesse d'Origny bodily and thus
+delay the interview.... If I had to come myself before noon ... it is
+the real wedding-ring that shall be taken from your finger--that I
+swear!--and your son shall be restored to you."
+
+Swayed and subdued, Yvonne instinctively held out her hands to the
+bonds. When he stood up, she was bound as she had been before.
+
+He looked round the room to make sure that no trace of his visit
+remained. Then he stooped over the countess again and whispered:
+
+"Think of your son and, whatever happens, fear nothing.... I am watching
+over you."
+
+She heard him open and shut the door of the boudoir and, a few minutes
+later, the hall-door.
+
+At half-past three, a motor-cab drew up. The door downstairs was slammed
+again; and, almost immediately after, Yvonne saw her husband hurry in,
+with a furious look in his eyes. He ran up to her, felt to see if she
+was still fastened and, snatching her hand, examined the ring. Yvonne
+fainted....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+She could not tell, when she woke, how long she had slept. But the broad
+light of day was filling the boudoir; and she perceived, at the first
+movement which she made, that her bonds were cut. Then she turned her
+head and saw her husband standing beside her, looking at her:
+
+"My son ... my son ..." she moaned. "I want my son...."
+
+He replied, in a voice of which she felt the jeering insolence:
+
+"Our son is in a safe place. And, for the moment, it's a question not of
+him, but of you. We are face to face with each other, probably for the
+last time, and the explanation between us will be a very serious one. I
+must warn you that it will take place before my mother. Have you any
+objection?"
+
+Yvonne tried to hide her agitation and answered:
+
+"None at all."
+
+"Can I send for her?"
+
+"Yes. Leave me, in the meantime. I shall be ready when she comes."
+
+"My mother is here."
+
+"Your mother is here?" cried Yvonne, in dismay, remembering Horace
+Velmont's promise.
+
+"What is there to astonish you in that?"
+
+"And is it now ... is it at once that you want to ...?
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why?... Why not this evening?... Why not to-morrow?"
+
+"To-day and now," declared the count. "A rather curious incident
+happened in the course of last night, an incident which I cannot account
+for and which decided me to hasten the explanation. Don't you want
+something to eat first?"
+
+"No ... no...."
+
+"Then I will go and fetch my mother."
+
+He turned to Yvonne's bedroom. Yvonne glanced at the clock. It marked
+twenty-five minutes to eleven!
+
+"Ah!" she said, with a shiver of fright.
+
+Twenty-five minutes to eleven! Horace Velmont would not save her and
+nobody in the world and nothing in the world would save her, for there
+was no miracle that could place the wedding-ring upon her finger.
+
+The count, returning with the Comtesse d'Origny, asked her to sit down.
+She was a tall, lank, angular woman, who had always displayed a hostile
+feeling to Yvonne. She did not even bid her daughter-in-law
+good-morning, showing that her mind was made up as regards the
+accusation:
+
+"I don't think," she said, "that we need speak at length. In two words,
+my son maintains...."
+
+"I don't maintain, mother," said the count, "I declare. I declare on my
+oath that, three months ago, during the holidays, the upholsterer, when
+laying the carpet in this room and the boudoir, found the wedding-ring
+which I gave my wife lying in a crack in the floor. Here is the ring.
+The date of the 23rd of October is engraved inside."
+
+"Then," said the countess, "the ring which your wife carries...."
+
+"That is another ring, which she ordered in exchange for the real one.
+Acting on my instructions, Bernard, my man, after long searching, ended
+by discovering in the outskirts of Paris, where he now lives, the little
+jeweller to whom she went. This man remembers perfectly and is willing
+to bear witness that his customer did not tell him to engrave a date,
+but a name. He has forgotten the name, but the man who used to work with
+him in his shop may be able to remember it. This working jeweller has
+been informed by letter that I required his services and he replied
+yesterday, placing himself at my disposal. Bernard went to fetch him at
+nine o'clock this morning. They are both waiting in my study."
+
+He turned to his wife:
+
+"Will you give me that ring of your own free will?"
+
+"You know," she said, "from the other night, that it won't come off my
+finger."
+
+"In that case, can I have the man up? He has the necessary implements
+with him."
+
+"Yes," she said, in a voice faint as a whisper.
+
+She was resigned. She conjured up the future as in a vision: the
+scandal, the decree of divorce pronounced against herself, the custody
+of the child awarded to the father; and she accepted this, thinking that
+she would carry off her son, that she would go with him to the ends of
+the earth and that the two of them would live alone together and
+happy....
+
+Her mother-in-law said:
+
+"You have been very thoughtless, Yvonne."
+
+Yvonne was on the point of confessing to her and asking for her
+protection. But what was the good? How could the Comtesse d'Origny
+possibly believe her innocent? She made no reply.
+
+Besides, the count at once returned, followed by his servant and by a
+man carrying a bag of tools under his arm.
+
+And the count said to the man:
+
+"You know what you have to do?"
+
+"Yes," said the workman. "It's to cut a ring that's grown too
+small.... That's easily done.... A touch of the nippers...."
+
+"And then you will see," said the count, "if the inscription inside the
+ring was the one you engraved."
+
+Yvonne looked at the clock. It was ten minutes to eleven. She seemed to
+hear, somewhere in the house, a sound of voices raised in argument; and,
+in spite of herself, she felt a thrill of hope. Perhaps Velmont has
+succeeded.... But the sound was renewed; and she perceived that it was
+produced by some costermongers passing under her window and moving
+farther on.
+
+It was all over. Horace Velmont had been unable to assist her. And she
+understood that, to recover her child, she must rely upon her own
+strength, for the promises of others are vain.
+
+She made a movement of recoil. She had felt the workman's heavy hand on
+her hand; and that hateful touch revolted her.
+
+The man apologized, awkwardly. The count said to his wife:
+
+"You must make up your mind, you know."
+
+Then she put out her slim and trembling hand to the workman, who took
+it, turned it over and rested it on the table, with the palm upward.
+Yvonne felt the cold steel. She longed to die, then and there; and, at
+once attracted by that idea of death, she thought of the poisons which
+she would buy and which would send her to sleep almost without her
+knowing it.
+
+The operation did not take long. Inserted on the slant, the little steel
+pliers pushed back the flesh, made room for themselves and bit the ring.
+A strong effort ... and the ring broke. The two ends had only to be
+separated to remove the ring from the finger. The workman did so.
+
+The count exclaimed, in triumph:
+
+"At last! Now we shall see!... The proof is there! And we are all
+witnesses...."
+
+He snatched up the ring and looked at the inscription. A cry of
+amazement escaped him. The ring bore the date of his marriage to Yvonne:
+"23rd of October"!...
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We were sitting on the terrace at Monte Carlo. Lupin finished his story,
+lit a cigarette and calmly puffed the smoke into the blue air.
+
+I said:
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well what?"
+
+"Why, the end of the story...."
+
+"The end of the story? But what other end could there be?"
+
+"Come ... you're joking ..."
+
+"Not at all. Isn't that enough for you? The countess is saved. The
+count, not possessing the least proof against her, is compelled by his
+mother to forego the divorce and to give up the child. That is all.
+Since then, he has left his wife, who is living happily with her son, a
+fine lad of sixteen."
+
+"Yes ... yes ... but the way in which the countess was saved?"
+
+Lupin burst out laughing:
+
+"My dear old chap"--Lupin sometimes condescends to address me in this
+affectionate manner--"my dear old chap, you may be rather smart at
+relating my exploits, but, by Jove, you do want to have the i's dotted
+for you! I assure you, the countess did not ask for explanations!"
+
+"Very likely. But there's no pride about me," I added, laughing. "Dot
+those i's for me, will you?"
+
+He took out a five-franc piece and closed his hand over it.
+
+"What's in my hand?"
+
+"A five-franc piece."
+
+He opened his hand. The five-franc piece was gone.
+
+"You see how easy it is! A working jeweller, with his nippers, cuts a
+ring with a date engraved upon it: 23rd of October. It's a simple little
+trick of sleight-of-hand, one of many which I have in my bag. By Jove,
+I didn't spend six months with Dickson, the conjurer,[C] for nothing!"
+
+
+  [C] _The Exploits of Arsène Lupin._ By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by
+  Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (Cassell). IV. _The Escape of Arsène
+  Lupin._
+
+
+"But then ...?"
+
+"Out with it!"
+
+"The working jeweller?"
+
+"Was Horace Velmont! Was good old Lupin! Leaving the countess at three
+o'clock in the morning, I employed the few remaining minutes before the
+husband's return to have a look round his study. On the table I found
+the letter from the working jeweller. The letter gave me the address. A
+bribe of a few louis enabled me to take the workman's place; and I
+arrived with a wedding-ring ready cut and engraved. Hocus-pocus!
+Pass!... The count couldn't make head or tail of it."
+
+"Splendid!" I cried. And I added, a little chaffingly, in my turn, "But
+don't you think that you were humbugged a bit yourself, on this
+occasion?"
+
+"Oh! And by whom, pray?"
+
+"By the countess?"
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"Hang it all, that name engraved as a talisman!... The mysterious Adonis
+who loved her and suffered for her sake!... All that story seems very
+unlikely; and I wonder whether, Lupin though you be, you did not just
+drop upon a pretty love-story, absolutely genuine and ... none too
+innocent."
+
+Lupin looked at me out of the corner of his eye:
+
+"No," he said.
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"If the countess made a misstatement in telling me that she knew that
+man before her marriage--and that he was dead--and if she really did
+love him in her secret heart, I, at least, have a positive proof that it
+was an ideal love and that he did not suspect it."
+
+"And where is the proof?"
+
+"It is inscribed inside the ring which I myself broke on the countess's
+finger ... and which I carry on me. Here it is. You can read the name
+she had engraved on it."
+
+He handed me the ring. I read:
+
+"Horace Velmont."
+
+There was a moment of silence between Lupin and myself; and, noticing
+it, I also observed on his face a certain emotion, a tinge of
+melancholy.
+
+I resumed:
+
+"What made you tell me this story ... to which you have often alluded in
+my presence?"
+
+"What made me ...?"
+
+He drew my attention to a woman, still exceedingly handsome, who was
+passing on a young man's arm. She saw Lupin and bowed.
+
+"It's she," he whispered. "She and her son."
+
+"Then she recognized you?"
+
+"She always recognizes me, whatever my disguise."
+
+"But since the burglary at the Château de Thibermesnil,[D] the police
+have identified the two names of Arsène Lupin and Horace Velmont."
+
+
+  [D] _The Exploits of Arsène Lupin. IX. Holmlock Shears arrives too
+  late._
+
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Therefore she knows who you are."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And she bows to you?" I exclaimed, in spite of myself.
+
+He caught me by the arm and, fiercely:
+
+"Do you think that I am Lupin to her? Do you think that I am a burglar
+in her eyes, a rogue, a cheat?... Why, I might be the lowest of
+miscreants, I might be a murderer even ... and still she would bow to
+me!"
+
+"Why? Because she loved you once?"
+
+"Rot! That would be an additional reason, on the contrary, why she
+should now despise me."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"I am the man who gave her back her son!"
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE SIGN OF THE SHADOW
+
+
+"I received your telegram and here I am," said a gentleman with a grey
+moustache, who entered my study, dressed in a dark-brown frock-coat and
+a wide-brimmed hat, with a red ribbon in his buttonhole. "What's the
+matter?"
+
+Had I not been expecting Arsène Lupin, I should certainly never have
+recognized him in the person of this old half-pay officer:
+
+"What's the matter?" I echoed. "Oh, nothing much: a rather curious
+coincidence, that's all. And, as I know that you would just as soon
+clear up a mystery as plan one...."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"You seem in a great hurry!"
+
+"I am ... unless the mystery in question is worth putting myself out
+for. So let us get to the point."
+
+"Very well. Just begin by casting your eye on this little picture, which
+I picked up, a week or two ago, in a grimy old shop on the other side
+of the river. I bought it for the sake of its Empire frame, with the
+palm-leaf ornaments on the mouldings ... for the painting is execrable."
+
+"Execrable, as you say," said Lupin, after he had examined it, "but the
+subject itself is rather nice. That corner of an old courtyard, with its
+rotunda of Greek columns, its sun-dial and its fish-pond and that ruined
+well with the Renascence roof and those stone steps and stone benches:
+all very picturesque."
+
+"And genuine," I added. "The picture, good or bad, has never been taken
+out of its Empire frame. Besides, it is dated.... There, in the
+left-hand bottom corner: those red figures, 15. 4. 2, which obviously
+stand for 15 April, 1802."
+
+"I dare say ... I dare say.... But you were speaking of a coincidence
+and, so far, I fail to see...."
+
+I went to a corner of my study, took a telescope, fixed it on its stand
+and pointed it, through the open window, at the open window of a little
+room facing my flat, on the other side of the street. And I asked Lupin
+to look through it.
+
+He stooped forward. The slanting rays of the morning sun lit up the room
+opposite, revealing a set of mahogany furniture, all very simple, a
+large bed and a child's bed hung with cretonne curtains.
+
+"Ah!" cried Lupin, suddenly. "The same picture!"
+
+"Exactly the same!" I said. "And the date: do you see the date, in red?
+15. 4. 2."
+
+"Yes, I see.... And who lives in that room?"
+
+"A lady ... or, rather, a workwoman, for she has to work for her living
+... needlework, hardly enough to keep herself and her child."
+
+"What is her name?"
+
+"Louise d'Ernemont.... From what I hear, she is the great-granddaughter
+of a farmer-general who was guillotined during the Terror."
+
+"Yes, on the same day as André Chénier," said Lupin. "According to the
+memoirs of the time, this d'Ernemont was supposed to be a very rich
+man." He raised his head and said, "It's an interesting story.... Why
+did you wait before telling me?"
+
+"Because this is the 15th of April."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, I discovered yesterday--I heard them talking about it in the
+porter's box--that the 15th of April plays an important part in the life
+of Louise d'Ernemont."
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"Contrary to her usual habits, this woman who works every day of her
+life, who keeps her two rooms tidy, who cooks the lunch which her
+little girl eats when she comes home from the parish school ... this
+woman, on the 15th of April, goes out with the child at ten o'clock in
+the morning and does not return until nightfall. And this has happened
+for years and in all weathers. You must admit that there is something
+queer about this date which I find on an old picture, which is inscribed
+on another, similar picture and which controls the annual movements of
+the descendant of d'Ernemont the farmer-general."
+
+"Yes, it's curious ... you're quite right," said Lupin, slowly. "And
+don't you know where she goes to?"
+
+"Nobody knows. She does not confide in a soul. As a matter of fact, she
+talks very little."
+
+"Are you sure of your information?"
+
+"Absolutely. And the best proof of its accuracy is that here she comes."
+
+A door had opened at the back of the room opposite, admitting a little
+girl of seven or eight, who came and looked out of the window. A lady
+appeared behind her, tall, good-looking still and wearing a sad and
+gentle air. Both of them were ready and dressed, in clothes which were
+simple in themselves, but which pointed to a love of neatness and a
+certain elegance on the part of the mother.
+
+"You see," I whispered, "they are going out."
+
+And presently the mother took the child by the hand and they left the
+room together.
+
+Lupin caught up his hat:
+
+"Are you coming?"
+
+My curiosity was too great for me to raise the least objection. I went
+downstairs with Lupin.
+
+As we stepped into the street, we saw my neighbour enter a baker's shop.
+She bought two rolls and placed them in a little basket which her
+daughter was carrying and which seemed already to contain some other
+provisions. Then they went in the direction of the outer boulevards and
+followed them as far as the Place de l'Étoile, where they turned down
+the Avenue Kléber to walk toward Passy.
+
+Lupin strolled silently along, evidently obsessed by a train of thought
+which I was glad to have provoked. From time to time, he uttered a
+sentence which showed me the thread of his reflections; and I was able
+to see that the riddle remained as much a mystery to him as to myself.
+
+Louise d'Ernemont, meanwhile, had branched off to the left, along the
+Rue Raynouard, a quiet old street in which Franklin and Balzac once
+lived, one of those streets which, lined with old-fashioned houses and
+walled gardens, give you the impression of being in a country-town. The
+Seine flows at the foot of the slope which the street crowns; and a
+number of lanes run down to the river.
+
+My neighbour took one of these narrow, winding, deserted lanes. The
+first building, on the right, was a house the front of which faced the
+Rue Raynouard. Next came a moss-grown wall, of a height above the
+ordinary, supported by buttresses and bristling with broken glass.
+
+Half-way along the wall was a low, arched door. Louise d'Ernemont
+stopped in front of this door and opened it with a key which seemed to
+us enormous. Mother and child entered and closed the door.
+
+"In any case," said Lupin, "she has nothing to conceal, for she has not
+looked round once...."
+
+He had hardly finished his sentence when we heard the sound of footsteps
+behind us. It was two old beggars, a man and a woman, tattered, dirty,
+squalid, covered in rags. They passed us without paying the least
+attention to our presence. The man took from his wallet a key similar to
+my neighbour's and put it into the lock. The door closed behind them.
+
+And, suddenly, at the top of the lane, came the noise of a motor-car
+stopping.... Lupin dragged me fifty yards lower down, to a corner in
+which we were able to hide. And we saw coming down the lane, carrying a
+little dog under her arm, a young and very much over-dressed woman,
+wearing a quantity of jewellery, a young woman whose eyes were too dark,
+her lips too red, her hair too fair. In front of the door, the same
+performance, with the same key.... The lady and the dog disappeared from
+view.
+
+"This promises to be most amusing," said Lupin, chuckling. "What earthly
+connection can there be between those different people?"
+
+There hove in sight successively two elderly ladies, lean and rather
+poverty-stricken in appearance, very much alike, evidently sisters; a
+footman in livery; an infantry corporal; a fat gentleman in a soiled and
+patched jacket-suit; and, lastly, a workman's family, father, mother,
+and four children, all six of them pale and sickly, looking like people
+who never eat their fill. And each of the newcomers carried a basket or
+string-bag filled with provisions.
+
+"It's a picnic!" I cried.
+
+"It grows more and more surprising," said Lupin, "and I sha'n't be
+satisfied till I know what is happening behind that wall."
+
+To climb it was out of the question. We also saw that it finished, at
+the lower as well as at the upper end, at a house none of whose windows
+overlooked the enclosure which the wall contained.
+
+During the next hour, no one else came along. We vainly cast about for
+a stratagem; and Lupin, whose fertile brain had exhausted every possible
+expedient, was about to go in search of a ladder, when, suddenly, the
+little door opened and one of the workman's children came out.
+
+The boy ran up the lane to the Rue Raynouard. A few minutes later he
+returned, carrying two bottles of water, which he set down on the
+pavement to take the big key from his pocket.
+
+By that time Lupin had left me and was strolling slowly along the wall.
+When the child, after entering the enclosure, pushed back the door Lupin
+sprang forward and stuck the point of his knife into the staple of the
+lock. The bolt failed to catch; and it became an easy matter to push the
+door ajar.
+
+"That's done the trick!" said Lupin.
+
+He cautiously put his hand through the doorway and then, to my great
+surprise, entered boldly. But, on following his example, I saw that, ten
+yards behind the wall, a clump of laurels formed a sort of curtain which
+allowed us to come up unobserved.
+
+Lupin took his stand right in the middle of the clump. I joined him and,
+like him, pushed aside the branches of one of the shrubs. And the sight
+which presented itself to my eyes was so unexpected that I was unable to
+suppress an exclamation, while Lupin, on his side, muttered, between
+his teeth:
+
+"By Jupiter! This is a funny job!"
+
+We saw before us, within the confined space that lay between the two
+windowless houses, the identical scene represented in the old picture
+which I had bought at a second-hand dealer's!
+
+The identical scene! At the back, against the opposite wall, the same
+Greek rotunda displayed its slender columns. In the middle, the same
+stone benches topped a circle of four steps that ran down to a fish-pond
+with moss-grown flags. On the left, the same well raised its
+wrought-iron roof; and, close at hand, the same sun-dial showed its
+slanting gnomon and its marble face.
+
+The identical scene! And what added to the strangeness of the sight was
+the memory, obsessing Lupin and myself, of that date of the 15th of
+April, inscribed in a corner of the picture, and the thought that this
+very day was the 15th of April and that sixteen or seventeen people, so
+different in age, condition and manners, had chosen the 15th of April to
+come together in this forgotten corner of Paris!
+
+All of them, at the moment when we caught sight of them, were sitting in
+separate groups on the benches and steps; and all were eating. Not very
+far from my neighbour and her daughter, the workman's family and the
+beggar couple were sharing their provisions; while the footman, the
+gentleman in the soiled suit, the infantry corporal and the two lean
+sisters were making a common stock of their sliced ham, their tins of
+sardines and their gruyère cheese.
+
+The lady with the little dog alone, who had brought no food with her,
+sat apart from the others, who made a show of turning their backs upon
+her. But Louise d'Ernemont offered her a sandwich, whereupon her example
+was followed by the two sisters; and the corporal at once began to make
+himself as agreeable to the young person as he could.
+
+It was now half-past one. The beggar-man took out his pipe, as did the
+fat gentleman; and, when they found that one had no tobacco and the
+other no matches, their needs soon brought them together. The men went
+and smoked by the rotunda and the women joined them. For that matter,
+all these people seemed to know one another quite well.
+
+They were at some distance from where we were standing, so that we could
+not hear what they said. However, we gradually perceived that the
+conversation was becoming animated. The young person with the dog, in
+particular, who by this time appeared to be in great request, indulged
+in much voluble talk, accompanying her words with many gestures, which
+set the little dog barking furiously.
+
+But, suddenly, there was an outcry, promptly followed by shouts of rage;
+and one and all, men and women alike, rushed in disorder toward the
+well. One of the workman's brats was at that moment coming out of it,
+fastened by his belt to the hook at the end of the rope; and the three
+other urchins were drawing him up by turning the handle. More active
+than the rest, the corporal flung himself upon him; and forthwith the
+footman and the fat gentleman seized hold of him also, while the beggars
+and the lean sisters came to blows with the workman and his family.
+
+In a few seconds the little boy had not a stitch left on him beyond his
+shirt. The footman, who had taken possession of the rest of the clothes,
+ran away, pursued by the corporal, who snatched away the boy's breeches,
+which were next torn from the corporal by one of the lean sisters.
+
+"They are mad!" I muttered, feeling absolutely at sea.
+
+"Not at all, not at all," said Lupin.
+
+"What! Do you mean to say that you can make head or tail of what is
+going on?"
+
+He did not reply. The young lady with the little dog, tucking her pet
+under her arm, had started running after the child in the shirt, who
+uttered loud yells. The two of them raced round the laurel-clump in
+which we stood hidden; and the brat flung himself into his mother's
+arms.
+
+At long last, Louise d'Ernemont, who had played a conciliatory part from
+the beginning, succeeded in allaying the tumult. Everybody sat down
+again; but there was a reaction in all those exasperated people and they
+remained motionless and silent, as though worn out with their exertions.
+
+And time went by. Losing patience and beginning to feel the pangs of
+hunger, I went to the Rue Raynouard to fetch something to eat, which we
+divided while watching the actors in the incomprehensible comedy that
+was being performed before our eyes. They hardly stirred. Each minute
+that passed seemed to load them with increasing melancholy; and they
+sank into attitudes of discouragement, bent their backs more and more
+and sat absorbed in their meditations.
+
+The afternoon wore on in this way, under a grey sky that shed a dreary
+light over the enclosure.
+
+"Are they going to spend the night here?" I asked, in a bored voice.
+
+But, at five o'clock or so, the fat gentleman in the soiled jacket-suit
+took out his watch. The others did the same and all, watch in hand,
+seemed to be anxiously awaiting an event of no little importance to
+themselves. The event did not take place, for, in fifteen or twenty
+minutes, the fat gentleman gave a gesture of despair, stood up and put
+on his hat.
+
+Then lamentations broke forth. The two lean sisters and the workman's
+wife fell upon their knees and made the sign of the cross. The lady with
+the little dog and the beggar-woman kissed each other and sobbed; and we
+saw Louise d'Ernemont pressing her daughter sadly to her.
+
+"Let's go," said Lupin.
+
+"You think it's over?"
+
+"Yes; and we have only just time to make ourselves scarce."
+
+We went out unmolested. At the top of the lane, Lupin turned to the left
+and, leaving me outside, entered the first house in the Rue Raynouard,
+the one that backed on to the enclosure.
+
+After talking for a few seconds to the porter, he joined me and we
+stopped a passing taxi-cab:
+
+"No. 34 Rue de Turin," he said to the driver.
+
+The ground-floor of No. 34 was occupied by a notary's office; and we
+were shown in, almost without waiting, to Maître Valandier, a smiling,
+pleasant-spoken man of a certain age.
+
+Lupin introduced himself by the name of Captain Jeanniot, retired from
+the army. He said that he wanted to build a house to his own liking
+and that some one had suggested to him a plot of ground situated near
+the Rue Raynouard.
+
+"But that plot is not for sale," said Maître Valandier.
+
+"Oh, I was told...."
+
+"You have been misinformed, I fear."
+
+The lawyer rose, went to a cupboard and returned with a picture which he
+showed us. I was petrified. It was the same picture which I had bought,
+the same picture that hung in Louise d'Ernemont's room.
+
+"This is a painting," he said, "of the plot of ground to which you
+refer. It is known as the Clos d'Ernemont."
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Well, this close," continued the notary, "once formed part of a large
+garden belonging to d'Ernemont, the farmer-general, who was executed
+during the Terror. All that could be sold has been sold, piecemeal, by
+the heirs. But this last plot has remained and will remain in their
+joint possession ... unless...."
+
+The notary began to laugh.
+
+"Unless what?" asked Lupin.
+
+"Well, it's quite a romance, a rather curious romance, in fact. I often
+amuse myself by looking through the voluminous documents of the case."
+
+"Would it be indiscreet, if I asked ...?"
+
+"Not at all, not at all," declared Maître Valandier, who seemed
+delighted, on the contrary, to have found a listener for his story. And,
+without waiting to be pressed, he began: "At the outbreak of the
+Revolution, Louis Agrippa d'Ernemont, on the pretence of joining his
+wife, who was staying at Geneva with their daughter Pauline, shut up his
+mansion in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, dismissed his servants and, with
+his son Charles, came and took up his abode in his pleasure-house at
+Passy, where he was known to nobody except an old and devoted
+serving-woman. He remained there in hiding for three years and he had
+every reason to hope that his retreat would not be discovered, when, one
+day, after luncheon, as he was having a nap, the old servant burst into
+his room. She had seen, at the end of the street, a patrol of armed men
+who seemed to be making for the house. Louis d'Ernemont got ready
+quickly and, at the moment when the men were knocking at the front door,
+disappeared through the door that led to the garden, shouting to his
+son, in a scared voice, to keep them talking, if only for five minutes.
+He may have intended to escape and found the outlets through the garden
+watched. In any case, he returned in six or seven minutes, replied very
+calmly to the questions put to him and raised no difficulty about
+accompanying the men. His son Charles, although only eighteen years of
+age, was arrested also."
+
+"When did this happen?" asked Lupin.
+
+"It happened on the 26th day of Germinal, Year II, that is to say, on
+the...."
+
+Maître Valandier stopped, with his eyes fixed on a calendar that hung on
+the wall, and exclaimed:
+
+"Why, it was on this very day! This is the 15th of April, the
+anniversary of the farmer-general's arrest."
+
+"What an odd coincidence!" said Lupin. "And considering the period at
+which it took place, the arrest, no doubt, had serious consequences?"
+
+"Oh, most serious!" said the notary, laughing. "Three months later, at
+the beginning of Thermidor, the farmer-general mounted the scaffold. His
+son Charles was forgotten in prison and their property was confiscated."
+
+"The property was immense, I suppose?" said Lupin.
+
+"Well, there you are! That's just where the thing becomes complicated.
+The property, which was, in fact, immense, could never be traced. It was
+discovered that the Faubourg Saint-Germain mansion had been sold, before
+the Revolution, to an Englishman, together with all the country-seats
+and estates and all the jewels, securities and collections belonging to
+the farmer-general. The Convention instituted minute inquiries, as did
+the Directory afterward. But the inquiries led to no result."
+
+"There remained, at any rate, the Passy house," said Lupin.
+
+"The house at Passy was bought, for a mere song, by a delegate of the
+Commune, the very man who had arrested d'Ernemont, one Citizen Broquet.
+Citizen Broquet shut himself up in the house, barricaded the doors,
+fortified the walls and, when Charles d'Ernemont was at last set free
+and appeared outside, received him by firing a musket at him. Charles
+instituted one law-suit after another, lost them all and then proceeded
+to offer large sums of money. But Citizen Broquet proved intractable. He
+had bought the house and he stuck to the house; and he would have stuck
+to it until his death, if Charles had not obtained the support of
+Bonaparte. Citizen Broquet cleared out on the 12th of February, 1803;
+but Charles d'Ernemont's joy was so great and his brain, no doubt, had
+been so violently unhinged by all that he had gone through, that, on
+reaching the threshold of the house of which he had at last recovered
+the ownership, even before opening the door he began to dance and sing
+in the street. He had gone clean off his head."
+
+"By Jove!" said Lupin. "And what became of him?"
+
+"His mother and his sister Pauline, who had ended by marrying a cousin
+of the same name at Geneva, were both dead. The old servant-woman took
+care of him and they lived together in the Passy house. Years passed
+without any notable event; but, suddenly, in 1812, an unexpected
+incident happened. The old servant made a series of strange revelations
+on her death-bed, in the presence of two witnesses whom she sent for.
+She declared that the farmer-general had carried to his house at Passy a
+number of bags filled with gold and silver and that those bags had
+disappeared a few days before the arrest. According to earlier
+confidences made by Charles d'Ernemont, who had them from his father,
+the treasures were hidden in the garden, between the rotunda, the
+sun-dial and the well. In proof of her statement, she produced three
+pictures, or rather, for they were not yet framed, three canvases, which
+the farmer-general had painted during his captivity and which he had
+succeeded in conveying to her, with instructions to hand them to his
+wife, his son and his daughter. Tempted by the lure of wealth, Charles
+and the old servant had kept silence. Then came the law-suits, the
+recovery of the house, Charles's madness, the servant's own useless
+searches; and the treasures were still there."
+
+"And they are there now," chuckled Lupin.
+
+"And they will be there always," exclaimed Maître Valandier. "Unless ...
+unless Citizen Broquet, who no doubt smelt a rat, succeeded in ferreting
+them out. But this is an unlikely supposition, for Citizen Broquet died
+in extreme poverty."
+
+"So then ...?"
+
+"So then everybody began to hunt. The children of Pauline, the sister,
+hastened from Geneva. It was discovered that Charles had been secretly
+married and that he had sons. All these heirs set to work."
+
+"But Charles himself?"
+
+"Charles lived in the most absolute retirement. He did not leave his
+room."
+
+"Never?"
+
+"Well, that is the most extraordinary, the most astounding part of the
+story. Once a year, Charles d'Ernemont, impelled by a sort of
+subconscious will-power, came downstairs, took the exact road which his
+father had taken, walked across the garden and sat down either on the
+steps of the rotunda, which you see here, in the picture, or on the kerb
+of the well. At twenty-seven minutes past five, he rose and went indoors
+again; and until his death, which occurred in 1820, he never once failed
+to perform this incomprehensible pilgrimage. Well, the day on which this
+happened was invariably the 15th of April, the anniversary of the
+arrest."
+
+Maître Valandier was no longer smiling and himself seemed impressed by
+the amazing story which he was telling us.
+
+"And, since Charles's death?" asked Lupin, after a moment's reflection.
+
+"Since that time," replied the lawyer, with a certain solemnity of
+manner, "for nearly a hundred years, the heirs of Charles and Pauline
+d'Ernemont have kept up the pilgrimage of the 15th of April. During the
+first few years they made the most thorough excavations. Every inch of
+the garden was searched, every clod of ground dug up. All this is now
+over. They take hardly any pains. All they do is, from time to time, for
+no particular reason, to turn over a stone or explore the well. For the
+most part, they are content to sit down on the steps of the rotunda,
+like the poor madman; and, like him, they wait. And that, you see, is
+the sad part of their destiny. In those hundred years, all these people
+who have succeeded one another, from father to son, have lost--what
+shall I say?--the energy of life. They have no courage left, no
+initiative. They wait. They wait for the 15th of April; and, when the
+15th of April comes, they wait for a miracle to take place. Poverty has
+ended by overtaking every one of them. My predecessors and I have sold
+first the house, in order to build another which yields a better rent,
+followed by bits of the garden and further bits. But, as to that corner
+over there," pointing to the picture, "they would rather die than sell
+it. On this they are all agreed: Louise d'Ernemont, who is the direct
+heiress of Pauline, as well as the beggars, the workman, the footman,
+the circus-rider and so on, who represent the unfortunate Charles."
+
+There was a fresh pause; and Lupin asked:
+
+"What is your own opinion, Maître Valandier?"
+
+"My private opinion is that there's nothing in it. What credit can we
+give to the statements of an old servant enfeebled by age? What
+importance can we attach to the crotchets of a madman? Besides, if the
+farmer-general had realized his fortune, don't you think that that
+fortune would have been found? One could manage to hide a paper, a
+document, in a confined space like that, but not treasures."
+
+"Still, the pictures?..."
+
+"Yes, of course. But, after all, are they a sufficient proof?"
+
+Lupin bent over the copy which the solicitor had taken from the cupboard
+and, after examining it at length, said:
+
+"You spoke of three pictures."
+
+"Yes, the one which you see was handed to my predecessor by the heirs of
+Charles. Louise d'Ernemont possesses another. As for the third, no one
+knows what became of it."
+
+Lupin looked at me and continued:
+
+"And do they all bear the same date?"
+
+"Yes, the date inscribed by Charles d'Ernemont when he had them framed,
+not long before his death.... The same date, that is to say the 15th of
+April, Year II, according to the revolutionary calendar, as the arrest
+took place in April, 1794."
+
+"Oh, yes, of course," said Lupin. "The figure 2 means...."
+
+He thought for a few moments and resumed:
+
+"One more question, if I may. Did no one ever come forward to solve the
+problem?"
+
+Maître Valandier threw up his arms:
+
+"Goodness gracious me!" he cried. "Why, it was the plague of the office!
+One of my predecessors, Maître Turbon, was summoned to Passy no fewer
+than eighteen times, between 1820 and 1843, by the groups of heirs, whom
+fortune-tellers, clairvoyants, visionaries, impostors of all sorts had
+promised that they would discover the farmer-general's treasures. At
+last, we laid down a rule: any outsider applying to institute a search
+was to begin by depositing a certain sum."
+
+"What sum?"
+
+"A thousand francs."
+
+"And did this have the effect of frightening them off?"
+
+"No. Four years ago, an Hungarian hypnotist tried the experiment and
+made me waste a whole day. After that, we fixed the deposit at five
+thousand francs. In case of success, a third of the treasure goes to the
+finder. In case of failure, the deposit is forfeited to the heirs. Since
+then, I have been left in peace."
+
+"Here are your five thousand francs."
+
+The lawyer gave a start:
+
+"Eh? What do you say?"
+
+"I say," repeated Lupin, taking five bank-notes from his pocket and
+calmly spreading them on the table, "I say that here is the deposit of
+five thousand francs. Please give me a receipt and invite all the
+d'Ernemont heirs to meet me at Passy on the 15th of April next year."
+
+The notary could not believe his senses. I myself, although Lupin had
+accustomed me to these surprises, was utterly taken back.
+
+"Are you serious?" asked Maître Valandier.
+
+"Perfectly serious."
+
+"But, you know, I told you my opinion. All these improbable stories rest
+upon no evidence of any kind."
+
+"I don't agree with you," said Lupin.
+
+The notary gave him the look which we give to a person who is not quite
+right in his head. Then, accepting the situation, he took his pen and
+drew up a contract on stamped paper, acknowledging the payment of the
+deposit by Captain Jeanniot and promising him a third of such moneys as
+he should discover:
+
+"If you change your mind," he added, "you might let me know a week
+before the time comes. I shall not inform the d'Ernemont family until
+the last moment, so as not to give those poor people too long a spell of
+hope."
+
+"You can inform them this very day, Maître Valandier. It will make them
+spend a happier year."
+
+We said good-bye. Outside, in the street, I cried:
+
+"So you have hit upon something?"
+
+"I?" replied Lupin. "Not a bit of it! And that's just what amuses me."
+
+"But they have been searching for a hundred years!"
+
+"It is not so much a matter of searching as of thinking. Now I have
+three hundred and sixty-five days to think in. It is a great deal more
+than I want; and I am afraid that I shall forget all about the business,
+interesting though it may be. Oblige me by reminding me, will you?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I reminded him of it several times during the following months, though
+he never seemed to attach much importance to the matter. Then came a
+long period during which I had no opportunity of seeing him. It was the
+period, as I afterward learnt, of his visit to Armenia and of the
+terrible struggle on which he embarked against Abdul the Damned, a
+struggle which ended in the tyrant's downfall.
+
+I used to write to him, however, at the address which he gave me and I
+was thus able to send him certain particulars which I had succeeded in
+gathering, here and there, about my neighbour Louise d'Ernemont, such as
+the love which she had conceived, a few years earlier, for a very rich
+young man, who still loved her, but who had been compelled by his family
+to throw her over; the young widow's despair, and the plucky life which
+she led with her little daughter.
+
+Lupin replied to none of my letters. I did not know whether they reached
+him; and, meantime, the date was drawing near and I could not help
+wondering whether his numerous undertakings would not prevent him from
+keeping the appointment which he himself had fixed.
+
+As a matter of fact, the morning of the 15th of April arrived and Lupin
+was not with me by the time I had finished lunch. It was a quarter-past
+twelve. I left my flat and took a cab to Passy.
+
+I had no sooner entered the lane than I saw the workman's four brats
+standing outside the door in the wall. Maître Valandier, informed by
+them of my arrival, hastened in my direction:
+
+"Well?" he cried. "Where's Captain Jeanniot?"
+
+"Hasn't he come?"
+
+"No; and I can assure you that everybody is very impatient to see him."
+
+The different groups began to crowd round the lawyer; and I noticed that
+all those faces which I recognized had thrown off the gloomy and
+despondent expression which they wore a year ago.
+
+"They are full of hope," said Maître Valandier, "and it is my fault. But
+what could I do? Your friend made such an impression upon me that I
+spoke to these good people with a confidence ... which I cannot say I
+feel. However, he seems a queer sort of fellow, this Captain Jeanniot of
+yours...."
+
+He asked me many questions and I gave him a number of more or less
+fanciful details about the captain, to which the heirs listened, nodding
+their heads in appreciation of my remarks.
+
+"Of course, the truth was bound to be discovered sooner or later," said
+the fat gentleman, in a tone of conviction.
+
+The infantry corporal, dazzled by the captain's rank, did not entertain
+a doubt in his mind.
+
+The lady with the little dog wanted to know if Captain Jeanniot was
+young.
+
+But Louise d'Ernemont said:
+
+"And suppose he does not come?"
+
+"We shall still have the five thousand francs to divide," said the
+beggar-man.
+
+For all that, Louise d'Ernemont's words had damped their enthusiasm.
+Their faces began to look sullen and I felt an atmosphere as of anguish
+weighing upon us.
+
+At half-past one, the two lean sisters felt faint and sat down. Then the
+fat gentleman in the soiled suit suddenly rounded on the notary:
+
+"It's you, Maître Valandier, who are to blame.... You ought to have
+brought the captain here by main force.... He's a humbug, that's quite
+clear."
+
+He gave me a savage look, and the footman, in his turn, flung muttered
+curses at me.
+
+I confess that their reproaches seemed to me well-founded and that
+Lupin's absence annoyed me greatly:
+
+"He won't come now," I whispered to the lawyer.
+
+And I was thinking of beating a retreat, when the eldest of the brats
+appeared at the door, yelling:
+
+"There's some one coming!... A motor-cycle!..."
+
+A motor was throbbing on the other side of the wall. A man on a
+motor-bicycle came tearing down the lane at the risk of breaking his
+neck. Suddenly, he put on his brakes, outside the door, and sprang from
+his machine.
+
+Under the layer of dust which covered him from head to foot, we could
+see that his navy-blue reefer-suit, his carefully creased trousers, his
+black felt hat and patent-leather boots were not the clothes in which a
+man usually goes cycling.
+
+"But that's not Captain Jeanniot!" shouted the notary, who failed to
+recognize him.
+
+"Yes, it is," said Lupin, shaking hands with us. "I'm Captain Jeanniot
+right enough ... only I've shaved off my moustache.... Besides, Maître
+Valandier, here's your receipt."
+
+He caught one of the workman's children by the arm and said:
+
+"Run to the cab-rank and fetch a taxi to the corner of the Rue
+Raynouard. Look sharp! I have an urgent appointment to keep at two
+o'clock, or a quarter-past at the latest."
+
+There was a murmur of protest. Captain Jeanniot took out his watch:
+
+"Well! It's only twelve minutes to two! I have a good quarter of an hour
+before me. But, by Jingo, how tired I feel! And how hungry into the
+bargain!"
+
+The corporal thrust his ammunition-bread into Lupin's hand; and he
+munched away at it as he sat down and said:
+
+"You must forgive me. I was in the Marseilles express, which left the
+rails between Dijon and Laroche. There were twelve people killed and any
+number injured, whom I had to help. Then I found this motor-cycle in the
+luggage-van.... Maître Valandier, you must be good enough to restore it
+to the owner. You will find the label fastened to the handle-bar. Ah,
+you're back, my boy! Is the taxi there? At the corner of the Rue
+Raynouard? Capital!"
+
+He looked at his watch again:
+
+"Hullo! No time to lose!"
+
+I stared at him with eager curiosity. But how great must the excitement
+of the d'Ernemont heirs have been! True, they had not the same faith in
+Captain Jeanniot that I had in Lupin. Nevertheless, their faces were
+pale and drawn. Captain Jeanniot turned slowly to the left and walked up
+to the sun-dial. The pedestal represented the figure of a man with a
+powerful torso, who bore on his shoulders a marble slab the surface of
+which had been so much worn by time that we could hardly distinguish the
+engraved lines that marked the hours. Above the slab, a Cupid, with
+outspread wings, held an arrow that served as a gnomon.
+
+The captain stood leaning forward for a minute, with attentive eyes.
+
+Then he said:
+
+"Somebody lend me a knife, please."
+
+A clock in the neighbourhood struck two. At that exact moment, the
+shadow of the arrow was thrown upon the sunlit dial along the line of a
+crack in the marble which divided the slab very nearly in half.
+
+The captain took the knife handed to him. And with the point, very
+gently, he began to scratch the mixture of earth and moss that filled
+the narrow cleft.
+
+Almost immediately, at a couple of inches from the edge, he stopped, as
+though his knife had encountered an obstacle, inserted his thumb and
+forefinger and withdrew a small object which he rubbed between the palms
+of his hands and gave to the lawyer:
+
+"Here, Maître Valandier. Something to go on with."
+
+It was an enormous diamond, the size of a hazelnut and beautifully cut.
+
+The captain resumed his work. The next moment, a fresh stop. A second
+diamond, magnificent and brilliant as the first, appeared in sight.
+
+And then came a third and a fourth.
+
+In a minute's time, following the crack from one edge to the other and
+certainly without digging deeper than half an inch, the captain had
+taken out eighteen diamonds of the same size.
+
+During this minute, there was not a cry, not a movement around the
+sun-dial. The heirs seemed paralyzed with a sort of stupor. Then the fat
+gentleman muttered:
+
+"Geminy!"
+
+And the corporal moaned:
+
+"Oh, captain!... Oh, captain!..."
+
+The two sisters fell in a dead faint. The lady with the little dog
+dropped on her knees and prayed, while the footman, staggering like a
+drunken man, held his head in his two hands, and Louise d'Ernemont wept.
+
+When calm was restored and all became eager to thank Captain Jeanniot,
+they saw that he was gone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Some years passed before I had an opportunity of talking to Lupin about
+this business. He was in a confidential vein and answered:
+
+"The business of the eighteen diamonds? By Jove, when I think that three
+or four generations of my fellow-men had been hunting for the solution!
+And the eighteen diamonds were there all the time, under a little mud
+and dust!"
+
+"But how did you guess?..."
+
+"I did not guess. I reflected. I doubt if I need even have reflected.
+I was struck, from the beginning, by the fact that the whole
+circumstance was governed by one primary question: the question of time.
+When Charles d'Ernemont was still in possession of his wits, he wrote a
+date upon the three pictures. Later, in the gloom in which he was
+struggling, a faint glimmer of intelligence led him every year to the
+centre of the old garden; and the same faint glimmer led him away from
+it every year at the same moment, that is to say, at twenty-seven
+minutes past five. Something must have acted on the disordered machinery
+of his brain in this way. What was the superior force that controlled
+the poor madman's movements? Obviously, the instinctive notion of time
+represented by the sun-dial in the farmer-general's pictures. It was the
+annual revolution of the earth around the sun that brought Charles
+d'Ernemont back to the garden at a fixed date. And it was the earth's
+daily revolution upon its own axis that took him from it at a fixed
+hour, that is to say, at the hour, most likely, when the sun, concealed
+by objects different from those of to-day, ceased to light the Passy
+garden. Now of all this the sun-dial was the symbol. And that is why I
+at once knew where to look."
+
+"But how did you settle the hour at which to begin looking?"
+
+"Simply by the pictures. A man living at that time, such as Charles
+d'Ernemont, would have written either 26 Germinal, Year II, or else 15
+April, 1794, but not 15 April, Year II. I was astounded that no one had
+thought of that."
+
+"Then the figure 2 stood for two o'clock?"
+
+"Evidently. And what must have happened was this: the farmer-general
+began by turning his fortune into solid gold and silver money. Then, by
+way of additional precaution, with this gold and silver he bought
+eighteen wonderful diamonds. When he was surprised by the arrival of the
+patrol, he fled into his garden. Which was the best place to hide the
+diamonds? Chance caused his eyes to light upon the sun-dial. It was two
+o'clock. The shadow of the arrow was then falling along the crack in the
+marble. He obeyed this sign of the shadow, rammed his eighteen diamonds
+into the dust and calmly went back and surrendered to the soldiers."
+
+"But the shadow of the arrow coincides with the crack in the marble
+every day of the year and not only on the 15th of April."
+
+"You forget, my dear chap, that we are dealing with a lunatic and that
+he remembered only this date of the 15th of April."
+
+"Very well; but you, once you had solved the riddle, could easily have
+made your way into the enclosure and taken the diamonds."
+
+"Quite true; and I should not have hesitated, if I had had to do with
+people of another description. But I really felt sorry for those poor
+wretches. And then you know the sort of idiot that Lupin is. The idea of
+appearing suddenly as a benevolent genius and amazing his kind would be
+enough to make him commit any sort of folly."
+
+"Tah!" I cried. "The folly was not so great as all that. Six magnificent
+diamonds! How delighted the d'Ernemont heirs must have been to fulfil
+their part of the contract!"
+
+Lupin looked at me and burst into uncontrollable laughter:
+
+"So you haven't heard? Oh, what a joke! The delight of the d'Ernemont
+heirs!.... Why, my dear fellow, on the next day, that worthy Captain
+Jeanniot had so many mortal enemies! On the very next day, the two lean
+sisters and the fat gentleman organized an opposition. A contract? Not
+worth the paper it was written on, because, as could easily be proved,
+there was no such person as Captain Jeanniot. Where did that adventurer
+spring from? Just let him sue them and they'd soon show him what was
+what!"
+
+"Louise d'Ernemont too?"
+
+"No, Louise d'Ernemont protested against that piece of rascality. But
+what could she do against so many? Besides, now that she was rich, she
+got back her young man. I haven't heard of her since."
+
+"So ...?"
+
+"So, my dear fellow, I was caught in a trap, with not a leg to stand on,
+and I had to compromise and accept one modest diamond as my share, the
+smallest and the least handsome of the lot. That comes of doing one's
+best to help people!"
+
+And Lupin grumbled between his teeth:
+
+"Oh, gratitude!... All humbug!... Where should we honest men be if we
+had not our conscience and the satisfaction of duty performed to reward
+us?"
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE INFERNAL TRAP
+
+
+When the race was over, a crowd of people, streaming toward the exit
+from the grand stand, pushed against Nicolas Dugrival. He brought his
+hand smartly to the inside pocket of his jacket.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked his wife.
+
+"I still feel nervous ... with that money on me! I'm afraid of some
+nasty accident."
+
+She muttered:
+
+"And I can't understand you. How can you think of carrying such a sum
+about with you? Every farthing we possess! Lord knows, it cost us
+trouble enough to earn!"
+
+"Pooh!" he said. "No one would guess that it is here, in my
+pocket-book."
+
+"Yes, yes," she grumbled. "That young man-servant whom we discharged
+last week knew all about it, didn't he, Gabriel?"
+
+"Yes, aunt," said a youth standing beside her.
+
+Nicolas Dugrival, his wife and his nephew Gabriel were well-known
+figures at the race-meetings, where the regular frequenters saw them
+almost every day: Dugrival, a big, fat, red-faced man, who looked as if
+he knew how to enjoy life; his wife, also built on heavy lines, with a
+coarse, vulgar face, and always dressed in a plum-coloured silk much the
+worse for wear; the nephew, quite young, slender, with pale features,
+dark eyes and fair and rather curly hair.
+
+As a rule, the couple remained seated throughout the afternoon. It was
+Gabriel who betted for his uncle, watching the horses in the paddock,
+picking up tips to right and left among the jockeys and stable-lads,
+running backward and forward between the stands and the _pari-mutuel_.
+
+Luck had favoured them that day, for, three times, Dugrival's neighbours
+saw the young man come back and hand him money.
+
+The fifth race was just finishing. Dugrival lit a cigar. At that moment,
+a gentleman in a tight-fitting brown suit, with a face ending in a
+peaked grey beard, came up to him and asked, in a confidential whisper:
+
+"Does this happen to belong to you, sir?"
+
+And he displayed a gold watch and chain.
+
+Dugrival gave a start:
+
+"Why, yes ... it's mine.... Look, here are my initials, N. G.: Nicolas
+Dugrival!"
+
+And he at once, with a movement of terror, clapped his hand to his
+jacket-pocket. The note-case was still there.
+
+"Ah," he said, greatly relieved, "that's a piece of luck!... But, all
+the same, how on earth was it done?... Do you know the scoundrel?"
+
+"Yes, we've got him locked up. Pray come with me and we'll soon look
+into the matter."
+
+"Whom have I the honour ...?"
+
+"M. Delangle, detective-inspector. I have sent to let M. Marquenne, the
+magistrate, know."
+
+Nicolas Dugrival went out with the inspector; and the two of them
+started for the commissary's office, some distance behind the grand
+stand. They were within fifty yards of it, when the inspector was
+accosted by a man who said to him, hurriedly:
+
+"The fellow with the watch has blabbed; we are on the tracks of a whole
+gang. M. Marquenne wants you to wait for him at the _pari-mutuel_ and to
+keep a look-out near the fourth booth."
+
+There was a crowd outside the betting-booths and Inspector Delangle
+muttered:
+
+"It's an absurd arrangement.... Whom am I to look out for?... That's
+just like M. Marquenne!..."
+
+He pushed aside a group of people who were crowding too close upon him:
+
+"By Jove, one has to use one's elbows here and keep a tight hold on
+one's purse. That's the way you got your watch pinched, M. Dugrival!"
+
+"I can't understand...."
+
+"Oh, if you knew how those gentry go to work! One never guesses what
+they're up to next. One of them treads on your foot, another gives you a
+poke in the eye with his stick and the third picks your pocket before
+you know where you are.... I've been had that way myself." He stopped
+and then continued, angrily. "But, bother it, what's the use of hanging
+about here! What a mob! It's unbearable!... Ah, there's M. Marquenne
+making signs to us!... One moment, please ... and be sure and wait for
+me here."
+
+He shouldered his way through the crowd. Nicolas Dugrival followed him
+for a moment with his eyes. Once the inspector was out of sight, he
+stood a little to one side, to avoid being hustled.
+
+A few minutes passed. The sixth race was about to start, when Dugrival
+saw his wife and nephew looking for him. He explained to them that
+Inspector Delangle was arranging matters with the magistrate.
+
+"Have you your money still?" asked his wife.
+
+"Why, of course I have!" he replied. "The inspector and I took good
+care, I assure you, not to let the crowd jostle us."
+
+He felt his jacket, gave a stifled cry, thrust his hand into his pocket
+and began to stammer inarticulate syllables, while Mme. Dugrival gasped,
+in dismay:
+
+"What is it? What's the matter?"
+
+"Stolen!" he moaned. "The pocket-book ... the fifty notes!..."
+
+"It's not true!" she screamed. "It's not true!"
+
+"Yes, the inspector ... a common sharper ... he's the man...."
+
+She uttered absolute yells:
+
+"Thief! Thief! Stop thief!... My husband's been robbed!... Fifty
+thousand francs!... We are ruined!... Thief! Thief ..."
+
+In a moment they were surrounded by policemen and taken to the
+commissary's office. Dugrival went like a lamb, absolutely bewildered.
+His wife continued to shriek at the top of her voice, piling up
+explanations, railing against the inspector:
+
+"Have him looked for!... Have him found!... A brown suit.... A pointed
+beard.... Oh, the villain, to think what he's robbed us of!... Fifty
+thousand francs!... Why ... why, Dugrival, what are you doing?"
+
+With one bound, she flung herself upon her husband. Too late! He had
+pressed the barrel of a revolver against his temple. A shot rang out.
+Dugrival fell. He was dead.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The reader cannot have forgotten the commotion made by the newspapers in
+connection with this case, nor how they jumped at the opportunity once
+more to accuse the police of carelessness and blundering. Was it
+conceivable that a pick-pocket could play the part of an inspector like
+that, in broad daylight and in a public place, and rob a respectable man
+with impunity?
+
+Nicolas Dugrival's widow kept the controversy alive, thanks to her
+jeremiads and to the interviews which she granted on every hand. A
+reporter had secured a snapshot of her in front of her husband's body,
+holding up her hand and swearing to revenge his death. Her nephew
+Gabriel was standing beside her, with hatred pictured in his face. He,
+too, it appeared, in a few words uttered in a whisper, but in a tone of
+fierce determination, had taken an oath to pursue and catch the
+murderer.
+
+The accounts described the humble apartment which they occupied at the
+Batignolles; and, as they had been robbed of all their means, a
+sporting-paper opened a subscription on their behalf.
+
+As for the mysterious Delangle, he remained undiscovered. Two men were
+arrested, but had to be released forthwith. The police took up a number
+of clues, which were at once abandoned; more than one name was
+mentioned; and, lastly, they accused Arsène Lupin, an action which
+provoked the famous burglar's celebrated cable, dispatched from New York
+six days after the incident:
+
+
+    "Protest indignantly against calumny invented by baffled police.
+    Send my condolences to unhappy victims. Instructing my bankers to
+    remit them fifty thousand francs.
+
+                                                             "LUPIN."
+
+
+True enough, on the day after the publication of the cable, a stranger
+rang at Mme. Dugrival's door and handed her an envelope. The envelope
+contained fifty thousand-franc notes.
+
+This theatrical stroke was not at all calculated to allay the universal
+comment. But an event soon occurred which provided any amount of
+additional excitement. Two days later, the people living in the same
+house as Mme. Dugrival and her nephew were awakened, at four o'clock in
+the morning, by horrible cries and shrill calls for help. They rushed to
+the flat. The porter succeeded in opening the door. By the light of a
+lantern carried by one of the neighbours, he found Gabriel stretched at
+full-length in his bedroom, with his wrists and ankles bound and a gag
+forced into his mouth, while, in the next room, Mme. Dugrival lay with
+her life's blood ebbing away through a great gash in her breast.
+
+She whispered:
+
+"The money.... I've been robbed.... All the notes gone...."
+
+And she fainted away.
+
+What had happened? Gabriel said--and, as soon as she was able to speak,
+Mme. Dugrival completed her nephew's story--that he was startled from
+his sleep by finding himself attacked by two men, one of whom gagged
+him, while the other fastened him down. He was unable to see the men in
+the dark, but he heard the noise of the struggle between them and his
+aunt. It was a terrible struggle, Mme. Dugrival declared. The ruffians,
+who obviously knew their way about, guided by some intuition, made
+straight for the little cupboard containing the money and, in spite of
+her resistance and outcries, laid hands upon the bundle of bank-notes.
+As they left, one of them, whom she had bitten in the arm, stabbed her
+with a knife, whereupon the men had both fled.
+
+"Which way?" she was asked.
+
+"Through the door of my bedroom and afterward, I suppose, through the
+hall-door."
+
+"Impossible! The porter would have noticed them."
+
+For the whole mystery lay in this: how had the ruffians entered the
+house and how did they manage to leave it? There was no outlet open to
+them. Was it one of the tenants? A careful inquiry proved the absurdity
+of such a supposition.
+
+What then?
+
+Chief-inspector Ganimard, who was placed in special charge of the case,
+confessed that he had never known anything more bewildering:
+
+"It's very like Lupin," he said, "and yet it's not Lupin.... No, there's
+more in it than meets the eye, something very doubtful and
+suspicious.... Besides, if it were Lupin, why should he take back the
+fifty thousand francs which he sent? There's another question that
+puzzles me: what is the connection between the second robbery and the
+first, the one on the race-course? The whole thing is incomprehensible
+and I have a sort of feeling--which is very rare with me--that it is no
+use hunting. For my part, I give it up."
+
+The examining-magistrate threw himself into the case with heart and
+soul. The reporters united their efforts with those of the police. A
+famous English sleuth-hound crossed the Channel. A wealthy American,
+whose head had been turned by detective-stories, offered a big reward to
+whosoever should supply the first information leading to the discovery
+of the truth. Six weeks later, no one was any the wiser. The public
+adopted Ganimard's view; and the examining-magistrate himself grew tired
+of struggling in a darkness which only became denser as time went on.
+
+And life continued as usual with Dugrival's widow. Nursed by her nephew,
+she soon recovered from her wound. In the mornings, Gabriel settled her
+in an easy-chair at the dining-room window, did the rooms and then went
+out marketing. He cooked their lunch without even accepting the
+proffered assistance of the porter's wife.
+
+Worried by the police investigations and especially by the requests for
+interviews, the aunt and nephew refused to see anybody. Not even the
+portress, whose chatter disturbed and wearied Mme. Dugrival, was
+admitted. She fell back upon Gabriel, whom she accosted each time that
+he passed her room:
+
+"Take care, M. Gabriel, you're both of you being spied upon. There are
+men watching you. Why, only last night, my husband caught a fellow
+staring up at your windows."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Gabriel. "It's all right. That's the police, protecting
+us."
+
+One afternoon, at about four o'clock, there was a violent altercation
+between two costermongers at the bottom of the street. The porter's wife
+at once left her room to listen to the invectives which the adversaries
+were hurling at each other's heads. Her back was no sooner turned than
+a man, young, of medium height and dressed in a grey suit of
+irreproachable cut, slipped into the house and ran up the staircase.
+
+When he came to the third floor, he rang the bell. Receiving no answer,
+he rang again. At the third summons, the door opened.
+
+"Mme. Dugrival?" he asked, taking off his hat.
+
+"Mme. Dugrival is still an invalid and unable to see any one," said
+Gabriel, who stood in the hall.
+
+"It's most important that I should speak to her."
+
+"I am her nephew and perhaps I could take her a message...."
+
+"Very well," said the man. "Please tell Mme. Dugrival that an accident
+has supplied me with valuable information concerning the robbery from
+which she has suffered and that I should like to go over the flat and
+ascertain certain particulars for myself. I am accustomed to this sort
+of inquiry; and my call is sure to be of use to her."
+
+Gabriel examined the visitor for a moment, reflected and said:
+
+"In that case, I suppose my aunt will consent ... Pray come in."
+
+He opened the door of the dining-room and stepped back to allow the
+other to pass. The stranger walked to the threshold, but, at the moment
+when he was crossing it, Gabriel raised his arm and, with a swift
+movement, struck him with a dagger over the right shoulder.
+
+A burst of laughter rang through the room:
+
+"Got him!" cried Mme. Dugrival, darting up from her chair. "Well done,
+Gabriel! But, I say, you haven't killed the scoundrel, have you?"
+
+"I don't think so, aunt. It's a small blade and I didn't strike him too
+hard."
+
+The man was staggering, with his hands stretched in front of him and his
+face deathly pale.
+
+"You fool!" sneered the widow. "So you've fallen into the trap ... and a
+good job too! We've been looking out for you a long time. Come, my fine
+fellow, down with you! You don't care about it, do you? But you can't
+help yourself, you see. That's right: one knee on the ground, before the
+missus ... now the other knee.... How well we've been brought up!...
+Crash, there we go on the floor! Lord, if my poor Dugrival could only
+see him like that!... And now, Gabriel, to work!"
+
+She went to her bedroom and opened one of the doors of a hanging
+wardrobe filled with dresses. Pulling these aside, she pushed open
+another door which formed the back of the wardrobe and led to a room in
+the next house:
+
+"Help me carry him, Gabriel. And you'll nurse him as well as you can,
+won't you? For the present, he's worth his weight in gold to us, the
+artist!..."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The hours succeeded one another. Days passed.
+
+One morning, the wounded man regained a moment's consciousness. He
+raised his eyelids and looked around him.
+
+He was lying in a room larger than that in which he had been stabbed, a
+room sparsely furnished, with thick curtains hanging before the windows
+from top to bottom. There was light enough, however, to enable him to
+see young Gabriel Dugrival seated on a chair beside him and watching
+him.
+
+"Ah, it's you, youngster!" he murmured. "I congratulate you, my lad. You
+have a sure and pretty touch with the dagger."
+
+And he fell asleep again.
+
+That day and the following days, he woke up several times and, each
+time, he saw the stripling's pale face, his thin lips and his dark eyes,
+with the hard look in them:
+
+"You frighten me," he said. "If you have sworn to do for me, don't stand
+on ceremony. But cheer up, for goodness' sake. The thought of death has
+always struck me as the most humorous thing in the world. Whereas, with
+you, old chap, it simply becomes lugubrious. I prefer to go to sleep.
+Good-night!"
+
+Still, Gabriel, in obedience to Mme. Dugrival's orders, continued to
+nurse him with the utmost care and attention. The patient was almost
+free from fever and was beginning to take beef-tea and milk. He gained a
+little strength and jested:
+
+"When will the convalescent be allowed his first drive? Is the
+bath-chair there? Why, cheer up, stupid! You look like a weeping-willow
+contemplating a crime. Come, just one little smile for daddy!"
+
+One day, on waking, he had a very unpleasant feeling of constraint.
+After a few efforts, he perceived that, during his sleep, his legs,
+chest and arms had been fastened to the bedstead with thin wire strands
+that cut into his flesh at the least movements.
+
+"Ah," he said to his keeper, "this time it's the great performance! The
+chicken's going to be bled. Are you operating, Angel Gabriel? If so, see
+that your razor's nice and clean, old chap! The antiseptic treatment,
+_if_ you please!"
+
+But he was interrupted by the sound of a key grating in the lock. The
+door opposite opened and Mme. Dugrival appeared.
+
+She approached slowly, took a chair and, producing a revolver from her
+pocket, cocked it and laid it on the table by the bedside.
+
+"Brrrrr!" said the prisoner. "We might be at the Ambigu!... Fourth act:
+the Traitor's Doom. And the fair sex to do the deed.... The hand of the
+Graces.... What an honour!... Mme. Dugrival, I rely on you not to
+disfigure me."
+
+"Hold your tongue, Lupin."
+
+"Ah, so you know?... By Jove, how clever we are!"
+
+"Hold your tongue, Lupin."
+
+There was a solemn note in her voice that impressed the captive and
+compelled him to silence. He watched his two gaolers in turns. The
+bloated features and red complexion of Mme. Dugrival formed a striking
+contrast with her nephew's refined face; but they both wore the same air
+of implacable resolve.
+
+The widow leant forward and said:
+
+"Are you prepared to answer my questions?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Then listen to me. How did you know that Dugrival carried all his money
+in his pocket?"
+
+"Servants' gossip...."
+
+"A young man-servant whom we had in our employ: was that it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And did you steal Dugrival's watch in order to give it back to him and
+inspire him with confidence?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+She suppressed a movement of fury:
+
+"You fool! You fool!... What! You rob my man, you drive him to kill
+himself and, instead of making tracks to the uttermost ends of the earth
+and hiding yourself, you go on playing Lupin in the heart of Paris!...
+Did you forget that I swore, on my dead husband's head, to find his
+murderer?"
+
+"That's what staggers me," said Lupin. "How did you come to suspect me?"
+
+"How? Why, you gave yourself away!"
+
+"I did?..."
+
+"Of course.... The fifty thousand francs...."
+
+"Well, what about it? A present...."
+
+"Yes, a present which you gave cabled instructions to have sent to me,
+so as to make believe that you were in America on the day of the races.
+A present, indeed! What humbug! The fact is, you didn't like to think of
+the poor fellow whom you had murdered. So you restored the money to the
+widow, publicly, of course, because you love playing to the gallery and
+ranting and posing, like the mountebank that you are. That was all very
+nicely thought out. Only, my fine fellow, you ought not to have sent me
+the selfsame notes that were stolen from Dugrival! Yes, you silly fool,
+the selfsame notes and no others! We knew the numbers, Dugrival and I
+did. And you were stupid enough to send the bundle to me. Now do you
+understand your folly?"
+
+Lupin began to laugh:
+
+"It was a pretty blunder, I confess. I'm not responsible; I gave
+different orders. But, all the same I can't blame any one except
+myself."
+
+"Ah, so you admit it! You signed your theft and you signed your ruin at
+the same time. There was nothing left to be done but to find you. Find
+you? No, better than that. Sensible people don't find Lupin: they make
+him come to them! That was a masterly notion. It belongs to my young
+nephew, who loathes you as much as I do, if possible, and who knows you
+thoroughly, through reading all the books that have been written about
+you. He knows your prying nature, your need to be always plotting, your
+mania for hunting in the dark and unravelling what others have failed to
+unravel. He also knows that sort of sham kindness of yours, the
+drivelling sentimentality that makes you shed crocodile tears over the
+people you victimize; And he planned the whole farce! He invented the
+story of the two burglars, the second theft of fifty thousand francs!
+Oh, I swear to you, before Heaven, that the stab which I gave myself
+with my own hands never hurt me! And I swear to you, before Heaven, that
+we spent a glorious time waiting for you, the boy and I, peeping out at
+your confederates who prowled under our windows, taking their bearings!
+And there was no mistake about it: you were bound to come! Seeing that
+you had restored the Widow Dugrival's fifty thousand francs, it was out
+of the question that you should allow the Widow Dugrival to be robbed of
+her fifty thousand francs! You were bound to come, attracted by the
+scent of the mystery. You were bound to come, for swagger, out of
+vanity! And you come!"
+
+The widow gave a strident laugh:
+
+"Well played, wasn't it? The Lupin of Lupins, the master of masters,
+inaccessible and invisible, caught in a trap by a woman and a boy!...
+Here he is in flesh and bone ... here he is with hands and feet tied, no
+more dangerous than a sparrow ... here is he ... here he is!..."
+
+She shook with joy and began to pace the room, throwing sidelong glances
+at the bed, like a wild beast that does not for a moment take its eyes
+from its victim. And never had Lupin beheld greater hatred and savagery
+in any human being.
+
+"Enough of this prattle," she said.
+
+Suddenly restraining herself, she stalked back to him and, in a quite
+different tone, in a hollow voice, laying stress on every syllable:
+
+"Thanks to the papers in your pocket, Lupin, I have made good use of the
+last twelve days. I know all your affairs, all your schemes, all your
+assumed names, all the organization of your band, all the lodgings which
+you possess in Paris and elsewhere. I have even visited one of them, the
+most secret, the one where you hide your papers, your ledgers and the
+whole story of your financial operations. The result of my
+investigations is very satisfactory. Here are four cheques, taken from
+four cheque-books and corresponding with four accounts which you keep at
+four different banks under four different names. I have filled in each
+of them for ten thousand francs. A larger figure would have been too
+risky. And, now, sign."
+
+"By Jove!" said Lupin, sarcastically. "This is blackmail, my worthy Mme.
+Dugrival."
+
+"That takes your breath away, what?"
+
+"It takes my breath away, as you say."
+
+"And you find an adversary who is a match for you?"
+
+"The adversary is far beyond me. So the trap--let us call it
+infernal--the infernal trap into which I have fallen was laid not merely
+by a widow thirsting for revenge, but also by a first-rate business
+woman anxious to increase her capital?"
+
+"Just so."
+
+"My congratulations. And, while I think of it, used M. Dugrival perhaps
+to ...?"
+
+"You have hit it, Lupin. After all, why conceal the fact? It will
+relieve your conscience. Yes, Lupin, Dugrival used to work on the same
+lines as yourself. Oh, not on the same scale!... We were modest people:
+a louis here, a louis there ... a purse or two which we trained Gabriel
+to pick up at the races.... And, in this way, we had made our little
+pile ... just enough to buy a small place in the country."
+
+"I prefer it that way," said Lupin.
+
+"That's all right! I'm only telling you, so that you may know that I am
+not a beginner and that you have nothing to hope for. A rescue? No. The
+room in which we now are communicates with my bedroom. It has a private
+outlet of which nobody knows. It was Dugrival's special apartment. He
+used to see his friends here. He kept his implements and tools here, his
+disguises ... his telephone even, as you perceive. So there's no hope,
+you see. Your accomplices have given up looking for you here. I have
+sent them off on another track. Your goose is cooked. Do you begin to
+realize the position?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then sign the cheques."
+
+"And, when I have signed them, shall I be free?"
+
+"I must cash them first."
+
+"And after that?"
+
+"After that, on my soul, as I hope to be saved, you will be free."
+
+"I don't trust you."
+
+"Have you any choice?"
+
+"That's true. Hand me the cheques."
+
+She unfastened Lupin's right hand, gave him a pen and said:
+
+"Don't forget that the four cheques require four different signatures
+and that the handwriting has to be altered in each case."
+
+"Never fear."
+
+He signed the cheques.
+
+"Gabriel," said the widow, "it is ten o'clock. If I am not back by
+twelve, it will mean that this scoundrel has played me one of his
+tricks. At twelve o'clock, blow out his brains. I am leaving you the
+revolver with which your uncle shot himself. There are five bullets left
+out of the six. That will be ample."
+
+She left the room, humming a tune as she went.
+
+Lupin mumbled:
+
+"I wouldn't give twopence for my life."
+
+He shut his eyes for an instant and then, suddenly, said to Gabriel:
+
+"How much?"
+
+And, when the other did not appear to understand, he grew irritated:
+
+"I mean what I say. How much? Answer me, can't you? We drive the same
+trade, you and I. I steal, thou stealest, we steal. So we ought to come
+to terms: that's what we are here for. Well? Is it a bargain? Shall we
+clear out together. I will give you a post in my gang, an easy,
+well-paid post. How much do you want for yourself? Ten thousand? Twenty
+thousand? Fix your own price; don't be shy. There's plenty to be had for
+the asking."
+
+An angry shiver passed through his frame as he saw the impassive face of
+his keeper:
+
+"Oh, the beggar won't even answer! Why, you can't have been so fond of
+old Dugrival as all that! Listen to me: if you consent to release
+me...."
+
+But he interrupted himself. The young man's eyes wore the cruel
+expression which he knew so well. What was the use of trying to move
+him?
+
+"Hang it all!" he snarled. "I'm not going to croak here, like a dog! Oh,
+if I could only...."
+
+Stiffening all his muscles, he tried to burst his bonds, making a
+violent effort that drew a cry of pain from him; and he fell back upon
+his bed, exhausted.
+
+"Well, well," he muttered, after a moment, "it's as the widow said: my
+goose is cooked. Nothing to be done. _De profundis_, Lupin."
+
+A quarter of an hour passed, half an hour....
+
+Gabriel, moving closer to Lupin, saw that his eyes were shut and that
+his breath came evenly, like that of a man sleeping. But Lupin said:
+
+"Don't imagine that I'm asleep, youngster. No, people don't sleep at a
+moment like this. Only I am consoling myself. Needs must, eh?... And
+then I am thinking of what is to come after.... Exactly. I have a little
+theory of my own about that. You wouldn't think it, to look at me, but I
+believe in metempsychosis, in the transmigration of souls. It would take
+too long to explain, however.... I say, boy ... suppose we shook hands
+before we part? You won't? Then good-bye. Good health and a long life to
+you, Gabriel!..."
+
+He closed his eyelids and did not stir again before Mme. Dugrival's
+return.
+
+The widow entered with a lively step, at a few minutes before twelve.
+She seemed greatly excited:
+
+"I have the money," she said to her nephew. "Run away. I'll join you in
+the motor down below."
+
+"But...."
+
+"I don't want your help to finish him off. I can do that alone. Still,
+if you feel like seeing the sort of a face a rogue can pull.... Pass me
+the weapon."
+
+Gabriel handed her the revolver and the widow continued:
+
+"Have you burnt our papers?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then to work. And, as soon as he's done for, be off. The shots may
+bring the neighbours. They must find both the flats empty."
+
+She went up to the bed:
+
+"Are you ready, Lupin?"
+
+"Ready's not the word: I'm burning with impatience."
+
+"Have you any request to make of me?"
+
+"None."
+
+"Then...."
+
+"One word, though."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"If I meet Dugrival in the next world, what message am I to give him
+from you?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders and put the barrel of the revolver to Lupin's
+temple.
+
+"That's it," he said, "and be sure your hand doesn't shake, my dear
+lady. It won't hurt you, I swear. Are you ready? At the word of command,
+eh? One ... two ... three...."
+
+The widow pulled the trigger. A shot rang out.
+
+"Is this death?" said Lupin. "That's funny! I should have thought it was
+something much more different from life!"
+
+There was a second shot. Gabriel snatched the weapon from his aunt's
+hands and examined it:
+
+"Ah," he exclaimed, "the bullets have been removed!... There are only
+the percussion-caps left!..."
+
+His aunt and he stood motionless, for a moment, and confused:
+
+"Impossible!" she blurted out. "Who could have done it?... An
+inspector?... The examining-magistrate?..."
+
+She stopped and, in a low voice:
+
+"Hark.... I hear a noise...."
+
+They listened and the widow went into the hall. She returned, furious,
+exasperated by her failure and by the scare which she had received:
+
+"There's nobody there.... It must have been the neighbours going out....
+We have plenty of time.... Ah, Lupin, you were beginning to make
+merry!... The knife, Gabriel."
+
+"It's in my room."
+
+"Go and fetch it."
+
+Gabriel hurried away. The widow stamped with rage:
+
+"I've sworn to do it!... You've got to suffer, my fine fellow!... I
+swore to Dugrival that I would do it and I have repeated my oath every
+morning and evening since.... I have taken it on my knees, yes, on my
+knees, before Heaven that listens to me! It's my duty and my right to
+revenge my dead husband!... By the way, Lupin, you don't look quite as
+merry as you did!... Lord, one would almost think you were afraid!...
+He's afraid! He's afraid! I can see it in his eyes!... Come along,
+Gabriel, my boy!... Look at his eyes!... Look at his lips!... He's
+trembling!... Give me the knife, so that I may dig it into his heart
+while he's shivering.... Oh, you coward!... Quick, quick, Gabriel, the
+knife!..."
+
+"I can't find it anywhere," said the young man, running back in dismay.
+"It has gone from my room! I can't make it out!"
+
+"Never mind!" cried the Widow Dugrival, half demented. "All the better!
+I will do the business myself."
+
+She seized Lupin by the throat, clutched him with her ten fingers,
+digging her nails into his flesh, and began to squeeze with all her
+might. Lupin uttered a hoarse rattle and gave himself up for lost.
+
+Suddenly, there was a crash at the window. One of the panes was smashed
+to pieces.
+
+"What's that? What is it?" stammered the widow, drawing herself erect,
+in alarm.
+
+Gabriel, who had turned even paler than usual, murmured:
+
+"I don't know.... I can't think...."
+
+"Who can have done it?" said the widow.
+
+She dared not move, waiting for what would come next. And one thing
+above all terrified her, the fact that there was no missile on the floor
+around them, although the pane of glass, as was clearly visible, had
+given way before the crash of a heavy and fairly large object, a stone,
+probably.
+
+After a while, she looked under the bed, under the chest of drawers:
+
+"Nothing," she said.
+
+"No," said her nephew, who was also looking. And, resuming her seat, she
+said:
+
+"I feel frightened ... my arms fail me ... you finish him off...."
+
+Gabriel confessed:
+
+"I'm frightened also."
+
+"Still ... still," she stammered, "it's got to be done.... I swore
+it...."
+
+Making one last effort, she returned to Lupin and gasped his neck with
+her stiff fingers. But Lupin, who was watching her pallid face, received
+a very clear sensation that she would not have the courage to kill him.
+To her he was becoming something sacred, invulnerable. A mysterious
+power was protecting him against every attack, a power which had already
+saved him three times by inexplicable means and which would find other
+means to protect him against the wiles of death.
+
+She said to him, in a hoarse voice:
+
+"How you must be laughing at me!"
+
+"Not at all, upon my word. I should feel frightened myself, in your
+place."
+
+"Nonsense, you scum of the earth! You imagine that you will be rescued
+... that your friends are waiting outside? It's out of the question, my
+fine fellow."
+
+"I know. It's not they defending me ... nobody's defending me...."
+
+"Well, then?..."
+
+"Well, all the same, there's something strange at the bottom of it,
+something fantastic and miraculous that makes your flesh creep, my fine
+lady."
+
+"You villain!... You'll be laughing on the other side of your mouth
+before long."
+
+"I doubt it."
+
+"You wait and see."
+
+She reflected once more and said to her nephew:
+
+"What would you do?"
+
+"Fasten his arm again and let's be off," he replied.
+
+A hideous suggestion! It meant condemning Lupin to the most horrible of
+all deaths, death by starvation.
+
+"No," said the widow. "He might still find a means of escape. I know
+something better than that."
+
+She took down the receiver of the telephone, waited and asked:
+
+"Number 82248, please."
+
+And, after a second or two:
+
+"Hullo!... Is that the Criminal Investigation Department?... Is
+Chief-inspector Ganimard there?... In twenty minutes, you say?... I'm
+sorry!... However!... When he comes, give him this message from Mme.
+Dugrival.... Yes, Mme. Nicolas Dugrival.... Ask him to come to my flat.
+Tell him to open the looking-glass door of my wardrobe; and, when he has
+done so, he will see that the wardrobe hides an outlet which makes my
+bedroom communicate with two other rooms. In one of these, he will find
+a man bound hand and foot. It is the thief, Dugrival's murderer.... You
+don't believe me?... Tell M. Ganimard; he'll believe me right enough....
+Oh, I was almost forgetting to give you the man's name: Arsène Lupin!"
+
+And, without another word, she replaced the receiver.
+
+"There, Lupin, that's done. After all, I would just as soon have my
+revenge this way. How I shall hold my sides when I read the reports of
+the Lupin trial!... Are you coming, Gabriel?"
+
+"Yes, aunt."
+
+"Good-bye, Lupin. You and I sha'n't see each other again, I expect, for
+we are going abroad. But I promise to send you some sweets while you're
+in prison."
+
+"Chocolates, mother! We'll eat them together!"
+
+"Good-bye."
+
+"_Au revoir._"
+
+The widow went out with her nephew, leaving Lupin fastened down to the
+bed.
+
+He at once moved his free arm and tried to release himself; but he
+realized, at the first attempt, that he would never have the strength to
+break the wire strands that bound him. Exhausted with fever and pain,
+what could he do in the twenty minutes or so that were left to him
+before Ganimard's arrival?
+
+Nor did he count upon his friends. True, he had been thrice saved from
+death; but this was evidently due to an astounding series of accidents
+and not to any interference on the part of his allies. Otherwise they
+would not have contented themselves with these extraordinary
+manifestations, but would have rescued him for good and all.
+
+No, he must abandon all hope. Ganimard was coming. Ganimard would find
+him there. It was inevitable. There was no getting away from the fact.
+
+And the prospect of what was coming irritated him singularly. He already
+heard his old enemy's gibes ringing in his ears. He foresaw the roars of
+laughter with which the incredible news would be greeted on the morrow.
+To be arrested in action, so to speak, on the battlefield, by an
+imposing detachment of adversaries, was one thing: but to be arrested,
+or rather picked up, scraped up, gathered up, in such condition, was
+really too silly. And Lupin, who had so often scoffed at others, felt
+all the ridicule that was falling to his share in this ending of the
+Dugrival business, all the bathos of allowing himself to be caught in
+the widow's infernal trap and finally of being "served up" to the police
+like a dish of game, roasted to a turn and nicely seasoned.
+
+"Blow the widow!" he growled. "I had rather she had cut my throat and
+done with it."
+
+He pricked up his ears. Some one was moving in the next room. Ganimard!
+No. Great as his eagerness would be, he could not be there yet. Besides,
+Ganimard would not have acted like that, would not have opened the door
+as gently as that other person was doing. What other person? Lupin
+remembered the three miraculous interventions to which he owed his life.
+Was it possible that there was really somebody who had protected him
+against the widow, and that that somebody was now attempting to rescue
+him? But, if so, who?
+
+Unseen by Lupin, the stranger stooped behind the bed. Lupin heard the
+sound of the pliers attacking the wire strands and releasing him little
+by little. First his chest was freed, then his arms, then his legs.
+
+And a voice said to him:
+
+"You must get up and dress."
+
+Feeling very weak, he half-raised himself in bed at the moment when the
+stranger rose from her stooping posture.
+
+"Who are you?" he whispered. "Who are you?"
+
+And a great surprise over came him.
+
+By his side stood a woman, a woman dressed in black, with a lace shawl
+over her head, covering part of her face. And the woman, as far as he
+could judge, was young and of a graceful and slender stature.
+
+"Who are you?" he repeated.
+
+"You must come now," said the woman. "There's no time to lose."
+
+"Can I?" asked Lupin, making a desperate effort. "I doubt if I have the
+strength."
+
+"Drink this."
+
+She poured some milk into a cup; and, as she handed it to him, her lace
+opened, leaving the face uncovered.
+
+"You!" he stammered. "It's you!... It's you who ... it was you who
+were...."
+
+He stared in amazement at this woman whose features presented so
+striking a resemblance to Gabriel's, whose delicate, regular face had
+the same pallor, whose mouth wore the same hard and forbidding
+expression. No sister could have borne so great a likeness to her
+brother. There was not a doubt possible: it was the identical person.
+And, without believing for a moment that Gabriel had concealed himself
+in a woman's clothes, Lupin, on the contrary, received the distinct
+impression that it was a woman standing beside him and that the
+stripling who had pursued him with his hatred and struck him with the
+dagger was in very deed a woman. In order to follow their trade with
+greater ease, the Dugrival pair had accustomed her to disguise herself
+as a boy.
+
+"You ... you ...!" he repeated. "Who would have suspected ...?"
+
+She emptied the contents of a phial into the cup:
+
+"Drink this cordial," she said.
+
+He hesitated, thinking of poison.
+
+She added:
+
+"It was I who saved you."
+
+"Of course, of course," he said. "It was you who removed the bullets
+from the revolver?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you who hid the knife?"
+
+"Here it is, in my pocket."
+
+"And you who smashed the window-pane while your aunt was throttling me?"
+
+"Yes, it was I, with the paper-weight on the table: I threw it into the
+street."
+
+"But why? Why?" he asked, in utter amazement.
+
+"Drink the cordial."
+
+"Didn't you want me to die? But then why did you stab me to begin with?"
+
+"Drink the cordial."
+
+He emptied the cup at a draught, without quite knowing the reason of his
+sudden confidence.
+
+"Dress yourself ... quickly," she commanded, retiring to the window.
+
+He obeyed and she came back to him, for he had dropped into a chair,
+exhausted.
+
+"We must go now, we must, we have only just time.... Collect your
+strength."
+
+She bent forward a little, so that he might lean on her shoulder, and
+turned toward the door and the staircase.
+
+And Lupin walked as one walks in a dream, one of those queer dreams in
+which the most inconsequent things occur, a dream that was the happy
+sequel of the terrible nightmare in which he had lived for the past
+fortnight.
+
+A thought struck him, however. He began to laugh:
+
+"Poor Ganimard! Upon my word, the fellow has no luck, I would give
+twopence to see him coming to arrest me."
+
+After descending the staircase with the aid of his companion, who
+supported him with incredible vigour, he found himself in the street,
+opposite a motor-car into which she helped him to mount.
+
+"Right away," she said to the driver.
+
+Lupin, dazed by the open air and the speed at which they were
+travelling, hardly took stock of the drive and of the incidents on the
+road. He recovered all his consciousness when he found himself at home
+in one of the flats which he occupied, looked after by his servant, to
+whom the girl gave a few rapid instructions.
+
+"You can go," he said to the man.
+
+But, when the girl turned to go as well, he held her back by a fold of
+her dress.
+
+"No ... no ... you must first explain.... Why did you save me? Did you
+return unknown to your aunt? But why did you save me? Was it from pity?"
+
+She did not answer. With her figure drawn up and her head flung back a
+little, she retained her hard and impenetrable air. Nevertheless, he
+thought he noticed that the lines of her mouth showed not so much
+cruelty as bitterness. Her eyes, her beautiful dark eyes, revealed
+melancholy. And Lupin, without as yet understanding, received a vague
+intuition of what was passing within her. He seized her hand. She pushed
+him away, with a start of revolt in which he felt hatred, almost
+repulsion. And, when he insisted, she cried:
+
+"Let me be, will you?... Let me be!... Can't you see that I detest you?"
+
+They looked at each other for a moment, Lupin disconcerted, she
+quivering and full of uneasiness, her pale face all flushed with
+unwonted colour.
+
+He said to her, gently:
+
+"If you detested me, you should have let me die.... It was simple
+enough.... Why didn't you?"
+
+"Why?... Why?... How do I know?..."
+
+Her face contracted. With a sudden movement, she hid it in her two
+hands; and he saw tears trickle between her fingers.
+
+Greatly touched, he thought of addressing her in fond words, such as one
+would use to a little girl whom one wished to console, and of giving her
+good advice and saving her, in his turn, and snatching her from the bad
+life which she was leading, perhaps against her better nature.
+
+But such words would have sounded ridiculous, coming from his lips, and
+he did not know what to say, now that he understood the whole story and
+was able to picture the young woman sitting beside his sick-bed,
+nursing the man whom she had wounded, admiring his pluck and gaiety,
+becoming attached to him, falling in love with him and thrice over,
+probably in spite of herself, under a sort of instinctive impulse, amid
+fits of spite and rage, saving him from death.
+
+And all this was so strange, so unforeseen; Lupin was so much unmanned
+by his astonishment, that, this time, he did not try to retain her when
+she made for the door, backward, without taking her eyes from him.
+
+She lowered her head, smiled for an instant and disappeared.
+
+He rang the bell, quickly:
+
+"Follow that woman," he said to his man. "Or no, stay where you are....
+After all, it is better so...."
+
+He sat brooding for a while, possessed by the girl's image. Then he
+revolved in his mind all that curious, stirring and tragic adventure, in
+which he had been so very near succumbing; and, taking a hand-glass from
+the table, he gazed for a long time and with a certain self-complacency
+at his features, which illness and pain had not succeeded in impairing
+to any great extent:
+
+"Good looks count for something, after all!" he muttered.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE RED SILK SCARF
+
+
+On leaving his house one morning, at his usual early hour for going to
+the Law Courts, Chief-inspector Ganimard noticed the curious behaviour
+of an individual who was walking along the Rue Pergolèse in front of
+him. Shabbily dressed and wearing a straw hat, though the day was the
+first of December, the man stooped at every thirty or forty yards to
+fasten his boot-lace, or pick up his stick, or for some other reason.
+And, each time, he took a little piece of orange-peel from his pocket
+and laid it stealthily on the kerb of the pavement. It was probably a
+mere display of eccentricity, a childish amusement to which no one else
+would have paid attention; but Ganimard was one of those shrewd
+observers who are indifferent to nothing that strikes their eyes and who
+are never satisfied until they know the secret cause of things. He
+therefore began to follow the man.
+
+Now, at the moment when the fellow was turning to the right, into the
+Avenue de la Grande-Armée, the inspector caught him exchanging signals
+with a boy of twelve or thirteen, who was walking along the houses on
+the left-hand side. Twenty yards farther, the man stooped and turned up
+the bottom of his trousers legs. A bit of orange-peel marked the place.
+At the same moment, the boy stopped and, with a piece of chalk, drew a
+white cross, surrounded by a circle, on the wall of the house next to
+him.
+
+The two continued on their way. A minute later, a fresh halt. The
+strange individual picked up a pin and dropped a piece of orange-peel;
+and the boy at once made a second cross on the wall and again drew a
+white circle round it.
+
+"By Jove!" thought the chief-inspector, with a grunt of satisfaction.
+"This is rather promising.... What on earth can those two merchants be
+plotting?"
+
+The two "merchants" went down the Avenue Friedland and the Rue du
+Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, but nothing occurred that was worthy of special
+mention. The double performance was repeated at almost regular intervals
+and, so to speak, mechanically. Nevertheless, it was obvious, on the one
+hand, that the man with the orange-peel did not do his part of the
+business until after he had picked out with a glance the house that was
+to be marked and, on the other hand, that the boy did not mark that
+particular house until after he had observed his companion's signal. It
+was certain, therefore, that there was an agreement between the two; and
+the proceedings presented no small interest in the chief-inspector's
+eyes.
+
+At the Place Beauveau the man hesitated. Then, apparently making up his
+mind, he twice turned up and twice turned down the bottom of his
+trousers legs. Hereupon, the boy sat down on the kerb, opposite the
+sentry who was mounting guard outside the Ministry of the Interior, and
+marked the flagstone with two little crosses contained within two
+circles. The same ceremony was gone through a little further on, when
+they reached the Elysée. Only, on the pavement where the President's
+sentry was marching up and down, there were three signs instead of two.
+
+"Hang it all!" muttered Ganimard, pale with excitement and thinking, in
+spite of himself, of his inveterate enemy, Lupin, whose name came to his
+mind whenever a mysterious circumstance presented itself. "Hang it all,
+what does it mean?"
+
+He was nearly collaring and questioning the two "merchants." But he was
+too clever to commit so gross a blunder. The man with the orange-peel
+had now lit a cigarette; and the boy, also placing a cigarette-end
+between his lips, had gone up to him, apparently with the object of
+asking for a light.
+
+They exchanged a few words. Quick as thought, the boy handed his
+companion an object which looked--at least, so the inspector
+believed--like a revolver. They both bent over this object; and the man,
+standing with his face to the wall, put his hand six times in his pocket
+and made a movement as though he were loading a weapon.
+
+As soon as this was done, they walked briskly to the Rue de Surène; and
+the inspector, who followed them as closely as he was able to do without
+attracting their attention, saw them enter the gateway of an old house
+of which all the shutters were closed, with the exception of those on
+the third or top floor.
+
+He hurried in after them. At the end of the carriage-entrance he saw a
+large courtyard, with a house-painter's sign at the back and a staircase
+on the left.
+
+He went up the stairs and, as soon as he reached the first floor, ran
+still faster, because he heard, right up at the top, a din as of a
+free-fight.
+
+When he came to the last landing he found the door open. He entered,
+listened for a second, caught the sound of a struggle, rushed to the
+room from which the sound appeared to proceed and remained standing on
+the threshold, very much out of breath and greatly surprised to see
+the man of the orange-peel and the boy banging the floor with chairs.
+
+At that moment a third person walked out of an adjoining room. It was a
+young man of twenty-eight or thirty, wearing a pair of short whiskers in
+addition to his moustache, spectacles, and a smoking-jacket with an
+astrakhan collar and looking like a foreigner, a Russian.
+
+"Good morning, Ganimard," he said. And turning to the two companions,
+"Thank you, my friends, and all my congratulations on the successful
+result. Here's the reward I promised you."
+
+He gave them a hundred-franc note, pushed them outside and shut both
+doors.
+
+"I am sorry, old chap," he said to Ganimard. "I wanted to talk to you
+... wanted to talk to you badly."
+
+He offered him his hand and, seeing that the inspector remained
+flabbergasted and that his face was still distorted with anger, he
+exclaimed:
+
+"Why, you don't seem to understand!... And yet it's clear enough.... I
+wanted to see you particularly.... So what could I do?" And, pretending
+to reply to an objection, "No, no, old chap," he continued. "You're
+quite wrong. If I had written or telephoned, you would not have come
+... or else you would have come with a regiment. Now I wanted to see you
+all alone; and I thought the best thing was to send those two decent
+fellows to meet you, with orders to scatter bits of orange-peel and draw
+crosses and circles, in short, to mark out your road to this place....
+Why, you look quite bewildered! What is it? Perhaps you don't recognize
+me? Lupin.... Arsène Lupin.... Ransack your memory.... Doesn't the name
+remind you of anything?"
+
+"You dirty scoundrel!" Ganimard snarled between his teeth.
+
+Lupin seemed greatly distressed and, in an affectionate voice:
+
+"Are you vexed? Yes, I can see it in your eyes.... The Dugrival
+business, I suppose? I ought to have waited for you to come and take me
+in charge?... There now, the thought never occurred to me! I promise
+you, next time...."
+
+"You scum of the earth!" growled Ganimard.
+
+"And I thinking I was giving you a treat! Upon my word, I did. I said to
+myself, 'That dear old Ganimard! We haven't met for an age. He'll simply
+rush at me when he sees me!'"
+
+Ganimard, who had not yet stirred a limb, seemed to be waking from his
+stupor. He looked around him, looked at Lupin, visibly asked himself
+whether he would not do well to rush at him in reality and then,
+controlling himself, took hold of a chair and settled himself in it, as
+though he had suddenly made up his mind to listen to his enemy:
+
+"Speak," he said. "And don't waste my time with any nonsense. I'm in a
+hurry."
+
+"That's it," said Lupin, "let's talk. You can't imagine a quieter place
+than this. It's an old manor-house, which once stood in the open
+country, and it belongs to the Duc de Rochelaure. The duke, who has
+never lived in it, lets this floor to me and the outhouses to a painter
+and decorator. I always keep up a few establishments of this kind: it's
+a sound, practical plan. Here, in spite of my looking like a Russian
+nobleman, I am M. Daubreuil, an ex-cabinet-minister.... You understand,
+I had to select a rather overstocked profession, so as not to attract
+attention...."
+
+"Do you think I care a hang about all this?" said Ganimard, interrupting
+him.
+
+"Quite right, I'm wasting words and you're in a hurry. Forgive me. I
+sha'n't be long now.... Five minutes, that's all.... I'll start at
+once.... Have a cigar? No? Very well, no more will I."
+
+He sat down also, drummed his fingers on the table, while thinking, and
+began in this fashion:
+
+"On the 17th of October, 1599, on a warm and sunny autumn day ... Do
+you follow me?... But, now that I come to think of it, is it really
+necessary to go back to the reign of Henry IV, and tell you all about
+the building of the Pont-Neuf? No, I don't suppose you are very well up
+in French history; and I should only end by muddling you. Suffice it,
+then, for you to know that, last night, at one o'clock in the morning, a
+boatman passing under the last arch of the Pont-Neuf aforesaid, along
+the left bank of the river, heard something drop into the front part of
+his barge. The thing had been flung from the bridge and its evident
+destination was the bottom of the Seine. The bargee's dog rushed
+forward, barking, and, when the man reached the end of his craft, he saw
+the animal worrying a piece of newspaper that had served to wrap up a
+number of objects. He took from the dog such of the contents as had not
+fallen into the water, went to his cabin and examined them carefully.
+The result struck him as interesting; and, as the man is connected with
+one of my friends, he sent to let me know. This morning I was waked up
+and placed in possession of the facts and of the objects which the man
+had collected. Here they are."
+
+He pointed to them, spread out on a table. There were, first of all, the
+torn pieces of a newspaper. Next came a large cut-glass inkstand, with a
+long piece of string fastened to the lid. There was a bit of broken
+glass and a sort of flexible cardboard, reduced to shreds. Lastly, there
+was a piece of bright scarlet silk, ending in a tassel of the same
+material and colour.
+
+"You see our exhibits, friend of my youth," said Lupin. "No doubt, the
+problem would be more easily solved if we had the other objects which
+went overboard owing to the stupidity of the dog. But it seems to me,
+all the same, that we ought to be able to manage, with a little
+reflection and intelligence. And those are just your great qualities.
+How does the business strike you?"
+
+Ganimard did not move a muscle. He was willing to stand Lupin's chaff,
+but his dignity commanded him not to speak a single word in answer nor
+even to give a nod or shake of the head that might have been taken to
+express approval or or criticism.
+
+"I see that we are entirely of one mind," continued Lupin, without
+appearing to remark the chief-inspector's silence. "And I can sum up the
+matter briefly, as told us by these exhibits. Yesterday evening, between
+nine and twelve o'clock, a showily dressed young woman was wounded with
+a knife and then caught round the throat and choked to death by a
+well-dressed gentleman, wearing a single eyeglass and interested in
+racing, with whom the aforesaid showily dressed young lady had been
+eating three meringues and a coffee éclair."
+
+Lupin lit a cigarette and, taking Ganimard by the sleeve:
+
+"Aha, that's up against you, chief-inspector! You thought that, in the
+domain of police deductions, such feats as those were prohibited to
+outsiders! Wrong, sir! Lupin juggles with inferences and deductions for
+all the world like a detective in a novel. My proofs are dazzling and
+absolutely simple."
+
+And, pointing to the objects one by one, as he demonstrated his
+statement, he resumed:
+
+"I said, after nine o'clock yesterday evening. This scrap of newspaper
+bears yesterday's date, with the words, 'Evening edition.' Also, you
+will see here, pasted to the paper, a bit of one of those yellow
+wrappers in which the subscribers' copies are sent out. These copies are
+always delivered by the nine o'clock post. Therefore, it was after nine
+o'clock. I said, a well-dressed man. Please observe that this tiny piece
+of glass has the round hole of a single eyeglass at one of the edges and
+that the single eyeglass is an essentially aristocratic article of wear.
+This well-dressed man walked into a pastry-cook's shop. Here is the very
+thin cardboard, shaped like a box, and still showing a little of the
+cream of the meringues and éclairs which were packed in it in the usual
+way. Having got his parcel, the gentleman with the eyeglass joined a
+young person whose eccentricity in the matter of dress is pretty clearly
+indicated by this bright-red silk scarf. Having joined her, for some
+reason as yet unknown he first stabbed her with a knife and then
+strangled her with the help of this same scarf. Take your magnifying
+glass, chief-inspector, and you will see, on the silk, stains of a
+darker red which are, here, the marks of a knife wiped on the scarf and,
+there, the marks of a hand, covered with blood, clutching the material.
+Having committed the murder, his next business is to leave no trace
+behind him. So he takes from his pocket, first, the newspaper to which
+he subscribes--a racing-paper, as you will see by glancing at the
+contents of this scrap; and you will have no difficulty in discovering
+the title--and, secondly, a cord, which, on inspection, turns out to be
+a length of whip-cord. These two details prove--do they not?--that our
+man is interested in racing and that he himself rides. Next, he picks up
+the fragments of his eyeglass, the cord of which has been broken in the
+struggle. He takes a pair of scissors--observe the hacking of the
+scissors--and cuts off the stained part of the scarf, leaving the other
+end, no doubt, in his victim's clenched hands. He makes a ball of the
+confectioner's cardboard box. He also puts in certain things that would
+have betrayed him, such as the knife, which must have slipped into the
+Seine. He wraps everything in the newspaper, ties it with the cord and
+fastens this cut-glass inkstand to it, as a make-weight. Then he makes
+himself scarce. A little later, the parcel falls into the waterman's
+barge. And there you are. Oof, it's hot work!... What do you say to the
+story?"
+
+He looked at Ganimard to see what impression his speech had produced on
+the inspector. Ganimard did not depart from his attitude of silence.
+
+Lupin began to laugh:
+
+"As a matter of fact, you're annoyed and surprised. But you're
+suspicious as well: 'Why should that confounded Lupin hand the business
+over to me,' say you, 'instead of keeping it for himself, hunting down
+the murderer and rifling his pockets, if there was a robbery?' The
+question is quite logical, of course. But--there is a 'but'--I have no
+time, you see. I am full up with work at the present moment: a burglary
+in London, another at Lausanne, an exchange of children at Marseilles,
+to say nothing of having to save a young girl who is at this moment
+shadowed by death. That's always the way: it never rains but it pours.
+So I said to myself, 'Suppose I handed the business over to my dear old
+Ganimard? Now that it is half-solved for him, he is quite capable of
+succeeding. And what a service I shall be doing him! How magnificently
+he will be able to distinguish himself!' No sooner said than done. At
+eight o'clock in the morning, I sent the joker with the orange-peel to
+meet you. You swallowed the bait; and you were here by nine, all on edge
+and eager for the fray."
+
+Lupin rose from his chair. He went over to the inspector and, with his
+eyes in Ganimard's, said:
+
+"That's all. You now know the whole story. Presently, you will know the
+victim: some ballet-dancer, probably, some singer at a music-hall. On
+the other hand, the chances are that the criminal lives near the
+Pont-Neuf, most likely on the left bank. Lastly, here are all the
+exhibits. I make you a present of them. Set to work. I shall only keep
+this end of the scarf. If ever you want to piece the scarf together,
+bring me the other end, the one which the police will find round the
+victim's neck. Bring it me in four weeks from now to the day, that is to
+say, on the 29th of December, at ten o'clock in the morning. You can be
+sure of finding me here. And don't be afraid: this is all perfectly
+serious, friend of my youth; I swear it is. No humbug, honour bright.
+You can go straight ahead. Oh, by the way, when you arrest the fellow
+with the eyeglass, be a bit careful: he is left-handed! Good-bye, old
+dear, and good luck to you!"
+
+Lupin spun round on his heel, went to the door, opened it and
+disappeared before Ganimard had even thought of taking a decision. The
+inspector rushed after him, but at once found that the handle of the
+door, by some trick of mechanism which he did not know, refused to turn.
+It took him ten minutes to unscrew the lock and ten minutes more to
+unscrew the lock of the hall-door. By the time that he had scrambled
+down the three flights of stairs, Ganimard had given up all hope of
+catching Arsène Lupin.
+
+Besides, he was not thinking of it. Lupin inspired him with a queer,
+complex feeling, made up of fear, hatred, involuntary admiration and
+also the vague instinct that he, Ganimard, in spite of all his efforts,
+in spite of the persistency of his endeavours, would never get the
+better of this particular adversary. He pursued him from a sense of duty
+and pride, but with the continual dread of being taken in by that
+formidable hoaxer and scouted and fooled in the face of a public that
+was always only too willing to laugh at the chief-inspector's mishaps.
+
+This business of the red scarf, in particular, struck him as most
+suspicious. It was interesting, certainly, in more ways than one, but
+so very improbable! And Lupin's explanation, apparently so logical,
+would never stand the test of a severe examination!
+
+"No," said Ganimard, "this is all swank: a parcel of suppositions and
+guesswork based upon nothing at all. I'm not to be caught with chaff."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When he reached the headquarters of police, at 36 Quai des Orfèvres, he
+had quite made up his mind to treat the incident as though it had never
+happened.
+
+He went up to the Criminal Investigation Department. Here, one of his
+fellow-inspectors said:
+
+"Seen the chief?"
+
+"No."
+
+"He was asking for you just now."
+
+"Oh, was he?"
+
+"Yes, you had better go after him."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"To the Rue de Berne ... there was a murder there last night."
+
+"Oh! Who's the victim?"
+
+"I don't know exactly ... a music-hall singer, I believe."
+
+Ganimard simply muttered:
+
+"By Jove!"
+
+Twenty minutes later he stepped out of the underground railway-station
+and made for the Rue de Berne.
+
+The victim, who was known in the theatrical world by her stage-name of
+Jenny Saphir, occupied a small flat on the second floor of one of the
+houses. A policeman took the chief-inspector upstairs and showed him the
+way, through two sitting-rooms, to a bedroom, where he found the
+magistrates in charge of the inquiry, together with the divisional
+surgeon and M. Dudouis, the head of the detective-service.
+
+Ganimard started at the first glance which he gave into the room. He
+saw, lying on a sofa, the corpse of a young woman whose hands clutched a
+strip of red silk! One of the shoulders, which appeared above the
+low-cut bodice, bore the marks of two wounds surrounded with clotted
+blood. The distorted and almost blackened features still bore an
+expression of frenzied terror.
+
+The divisional surgeon, who had just finished his examination, said:
+
+"My first conclusions are very clear. The victim was twice stabbed with
+a dagger and afterward strangled. The immediate cause of death was
+asphyxia."
+
+"By Jove!" thought Ganimard again, remembering Lupin's words and the
+picture which he had drawn of the crime.
+
+The examining-magistrate objected:
+
+"But the neck shows no discoloration."
+
+"She may have been strangled with a napkin or a handkerchief," said the
+doctor.
+
+"Most probably," said the chief detective, "with this silk scarf, which
+the victim was wearing and a piece of which remains, as though she had
+clung to it with her two hands to protect herself."
+
+"But why does only that piece remain?" asked the magistrate. "What has
+become of the other?"
+
+"The other may have been stained with blood and carried off by the
+murderer. You can plainly distinguish the hurried slashing of the
+scissors."
+
+"By Jove!" said Ganimard, between his teeth, for the third time. "That
+brute of a Lupin saw everything without seeing a thing!"
+
+"And what about the motive of the murder?" asked the magistrate. "The
+locks have been forced, the cupboards turned upside down. Have you
+anything to tell me, M. Dudouis?"
+
+The chief of the detective-service replied:
+
+"I can at least suggest a supposition, derived from the statements made
+by the servant. The victim, who enjoyed a greater reputation on account
+of her looks than through her talent as a singer, went to Russia, two
+years ago, and brought back with her a magnificent sapphire, which she
+appears to have received from some person of importance at the court.
+Since then, she went by the name of Jenny Saphir and seems generally to
+have been very proud of that present, although, for prudence sake, she
+never wore it. I daresay that we shall not be far out if we presume the
+theft of the sapphire to have been the cause of the crime."
+
+"But did the maid know where the stone was?"
+
+"No, nobody did. And the disorder of the room would tend to prove that
+the murderer did not know either."
+
+"We will question the maid," said the examining-magistrate.
+
+M. Dudouis took the chief-inspector aside and said:
+
+"You're looking very old-fashioned, Ganimard. What's the matter? Do you
+suspect anything?"
+
+"Nothing at all, chief."
+
+"That's a pity. We could do with a bit of showy work in the department.
+This is one of a number of crimes, all of the same class, of which we
+have failed to discover the perpetrator. This time we want the criminal
+... and quickly!"
+
+"A difficult job, chief."
+
+"It's got to be done. Listen to me, Ganimard. According to what the maid
+says, Jenny Saphir led a very regular life. For a month past she was in
+the habit of frequently receiving visits, on her return from the
+music-hall, that is to say, at about half-past ten, from a man who would
+stay until midnight or so. 'He's a society man,' Jenny Saphir used to
+say, 'and he wants to marry me.' This society man took every precaution
+to avoid being seen, such as turning up his coat-collar and lowering the
+brim of his hat when he passed the porter's box. And Jenny Saphir always
+made a point of sending away her maid, even before he came. This is the
+man whom we have to find."
+
+"Has he left no traces?"
+
+"None at all. It is obvious that we have to deal with a very clever
+scoundrel, who prepared his crime beforehand and committed it with every
+possible chance of escaping unpunished. His arrest would be a great
+feather in our cap. I rely on you, Ganimard."
+
+"Ah, you rely on me, chief?" replied the inspector. "Well, we shall see
+... we shall see.... I don't say no.... Only...."
+
+He seemed in a very nervous condition, and his agitation struck M.
+Dudouis.
+
+"Only," continued Ganimard, "only I swear ... do you hear, chief? I
+swear...."
+
+"What do you swear?"
+
+"Nothing.... We shall see, chief ... we shall see...."
+
+Ganimard did not finish his sentence until he was outside, alone. And
+he finished it aloud, stamping his foot, in a tone of the most violent
+anger:
+
+"Only, I swear to Heaven that the arrest shall be effected by my own
+means, without my employing a single one of the clues with which that
+villain has supplied me. Ah, no! Ah, no!..."
+
+Railing against Lupin, furious at being mixed up in this business and
+resolved, nevertheless, to get to the bottom of it, he wandered
+aimlessly about the streets. His brain was seething with irritation; and
+he tried to adjust his ideas a little and to discover, among the chaotic
+facts, some trifling detail, unperceived by all, unsuspected by Lupin
+himself, that might lead him to success.
+
+He lunched hurriedly at a bar, resumed his stroll and suddenly stopped,
+petrified, astounded and confused. He was walking under the gateway of
+the very house in the Rue de Surène to which Lupin had enticed him a few
+hours earlier! A force stronger than his own will was drawing him there
+once more. The solution of the problem lay there. There and there alone
+were all the elements of the truth. Do and say what he would, Lupin's
+assertions were so precise, his calculations so accurate, that, worried
+to the innermost recesses of his being by so prodigious a display of
+perspicacity, he could not do other than take up the work at the point
+where his enemy had left it.
+
+Abandoning all further resistance, he climbed the three flights of
+stairs. The door of the flat was open. No one had touched the exhibits.
+He put them in his pocket and walked away.
+
+From that moment, he reasoned and acted, so to speak, mechanically,
+under the influence of the master whom he could not choose but obey.
+
+Admitting that the unknown person whom he was seeking lived in the
+neighbourhood of the Pont-Neuf, it became necessary to discover,
+somewhere between that bridge and the Rue de Berne, the first-class
+confectioner's shop, open in the evenings, at which the cakes were
+bought. This did not take long to find. A pastry-cook near the Gare
+Saint-Lazare showed him some little cardboard boxes, identical in
+material and shape with the one in Ganimard's possession. Moreover, one
+of the shop-girls remembered having served, on the previous evening, a
+gentleman whose face was almost concealed in the collar of his fur coat,
+but whose eyeglass she had happened to notice.
+
+"That's one clue checked," thought the inspector. "Our man wears an
+eyeglass."
+
+He next collected the pieces of the racing-paper and showed them to a
+newsvendor, who easily recognized the _Turf Illustré_. Ganimard at once
+went to the offices of the _Turf_ and asked to see the list of
+subscribers. Going through the list, he jotted down the names and
+addresses of all those who lived anywhere near the Pont-Neuf and
+principally--because Lupin had said so--those on the left bank of the
+river.
+
+He then went back to the Criminal Investigation Department, took half a
+dozen men and packed them off with the necessary instructions.
+
+At seven o'clock in the evening, the last of these men returned and
+brought good news with him. A certain M. Prévailles, a subscriber to the
+_Turf_, occupied an entresol flat on the Quai des Augustins. On the
+previous evening, he left his place, wearing a fur coat, took his
+letters and his paper, the _Turf Illustré_, from the porter's wife,
+walked away and returned home at midnight. This M. Prévailles wore a
+single eyeglass. He was a regular race-goer and himself owned several
+hacks which he either rode himself or jobbed out.
+
+The inquiry had taken so short a time and the results obtained were so
+exactly in accordance with Lupin's predictions that Ganimard felt quite
+overcome on hearing the detective's report. Once more he was measuring
+the prodigious extent of the resources at Lupin's disposal. Never in the
+course of his life--and Ganimard was already well-advanced in years--had
+he come across such perspicacity, such a quick and far-seeing mind.
+
+He went in search of M. Dudouis.
+
+"Everything's ready, chief. Have you a warrant?"
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"I said, everything is ready for the arrest, chief."
+
+"You know the name of Jenny Saphir's murderer?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But how? Explain yourself."
+
+Ganimard had a sort of scruple of conscience, blushed a little and
+nevertheless replied:
+
+"An accident, chief. The murderer threw everything that was likely to
+compromise him into the Seine. Part of the parcel was picked up and
+handed to me."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"A boatman who refused to give his name, for fear of getting into
+trouble. But I had all the clues I wanted. It was not so difficult as I
+expected."
+
+And the inspector described how he had gone to work.
+
+"And you call that an accident!" cried M. Dudouis. "And you say that it
+was not difficult! Why, it's one of your finest performances! Finish it
+yourself, Ganimard, and be prudent."
+
+Ganimard was eager to get the business done. He went to the Quai des
+Augustins with his men and distributed them around the house. He
+questioned the portress, who said that her tenant took his meals out of
+doors, but made a point of looking in after dinner.
+
+A little before nine o'clock, in fact, leaning out of her window, she
+warned Ganimard, who at once gave a low whistle. A gentleman in a tall
+hat and a fur coat was coming along the pavement beside the Seine. He
+crossed the road and walked up to the house.
+
+Ganimard stepped forward:
+
+"M. Prévailles, I believe?"
+
+"Yes, but who are you?"
+
+"I have a commission to...."
+
+He had not time to finish his sentence. At the sight of the men
+appearing out of the shadow, Prévailles quickly retreated to the wall
+and faced his adversaries, with his back to the door of a shop on the
+ground-floor, the shutters of which were closed.
+
+"Stand back!" he cried. "I don't know you!"
+
+His right hand brandished a heavy stick, while his left was slipped
+behind him and seemed to be trying to open the door.
+
+Ganimard had an impression that the man might escape through this way
+and through some secret outlet:
+
+"None of this nonsense," he said, moving closer to him. "You're
+caught.... You had better come quietly."
+
+But, just as he was laying hold of Prévailles' stick, Ganimard
+remembered the warning which Lupin gave him: Prévailles was left-handed;
+and it was his revolver for which he was feeling behind his back.
+
+The inspector ducked his head. He had noticed the man's sudden movement.
+Two reports rang out. No one was hit.
+
+A second later, Prévailles received a blow under the chin from the
+butt-end of a revolver, which brought him down where he stood. He was
+entered at the Dépôt soon after nine o'clock.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ganimard enjoyed a great reputation even at that time. But this capture,
+so quickly effected, by such very simple means, and at once made public
+by the police, won him a sudden celebrity. Prévailles was forthwith
+saddled with all the murders that had remained unpunished; and the
+newspapers vied with one another in extolling Ganimard's prowess.
+
+The case was conducted briskly at the start. It was first of all
+ascertained that Prévailles, whose real name was Thomas Derocq, had
+already been in trouble. Moreover, the search instituted in his rooms,
+while not supplying any fresh proofs, at least led to the discovery of a
+ball of whip-cord similar to the cord used for doing up the parcel and
+also to the discovery of daggers which would have produced a wound
+similar to the wounds on the victim.
+
+But, on the eighth day, everything was changed. Until then Prévailles
+had refused to reply to the questions put to him; but now, assisted by
+his counsel, he pleaded a circumstantial alibi and maintained that he
+was at the Folies-Bergère on the night of the murder.
+
+As a matter of fact, the pockets of his dinner-jacket contained the
+counterfoil of a stall-ticket and a programme of the performance, both
+bearing the date of that evening.
+
+"An alibi prepared in advance," objected the examining-magistrate.
+
+"Prove it," said Prévailles.
+
+The prisoner was confronted with the witnesses for the prosecution. The
+young lady from the confectioner's "thought she knew" the gentleman with
+the eyeglass. The hall-porter in the Rue de Berne "thought he knew" the
+gentleman who used to come to see Jenny Saphir. But nobody dared to make
+a more definite statement.
+
+The examination, therefore, led to nothing of a precise character,
+provided no solid basis whereon to found a serious accusation.
+
+The judge sent for Ganimard and told him of his difficulty.
+
+"I can't possibly persist, at this rate. There is no evidence to support
+the charge."
+
+"But surely you are convinced in your own mind, monsieur le juge
+d'instruction! Prévailles would never have resisted his arrest unless he
+was guilty."
+
+"He says that he thought he was being assaulted. He also says that he
+never set eyes on Jenny Saphir; and, as a matter of fact, we can find no
+one to contradict his assertion. Then again, admitting that the sapphire
+has been stolen, we have not been able to find it at his flat."
+
+"Nor anywhere else," suggested Ganimard.
+
+"Quite true, but that is no evidence against him. I'll tell you what we
+shall want, M. Ganimard, and that very soon: the other end of this red
+scarf."
+
+"The other end?"
+
+"Yes, for it is obvious that, if the murderer took it away with him, the
+reason was that the stuff is stained with the marks of the blood on his
+fingers."
+
+Ganimard made no reply. For several days he had felt that the
+whole business was tending to this conclusion. There was no
+other proof possible. Given the silk scarf--and in no other
+circumstances--Prévailles' guilt was certain. Now Ganimard's position
+required that Prévailles' guilt should be established. He was
+responsible for the arrest, it had cast a glamour around him, he had
+been praised to the skies as the most formidable adversary of criminals;
+and he would look absolutely ridiculous if Prévailles were released.
+
+Unfortunately, the one and only indispensable proof was in Lupin's
+pocket. How was he to get hold of it?
+
+Ganimard cast about, exhausted himself with fresh investigations, went
+over the inquiry from start to finish, spent sleepless nights in turning
+over the mystery of the Rue de Berne, studied the records of Prévailles'
+life, sent ten men hunting after the invisible sapphire. Everything was
+useless.
+
+On the 28th of December, the examining-magistrate stopped him in one of
+the passages of the Law Courts:
+
+"Well, M. Ganimard, any news?"
+
+"No, monsieur le juge d'instruction."
+
+"Then I shall dismiss the case."
+
+"Wait one day longer."
+
+"What's the use? We want the other end of the scarf; have you got it?"
+
+"I shall have it to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow!"
+
+"Yes, but please lend me the piece in your possession."
+
+"What if I do?"
+
+"If you do, I promise to let you have the whole scarf complete."
+
+"Very well, that's understood."
+
+Ganimard followed the examining-magistrate to his room and came out with
+the piece of silk:
+
+"Hang it all!" he growled. "Yes, I will go and fetch the proof and I
+shall have it too ... always presuming that Master Lupin has the courage
+to keep the appointment."
+
+In point of fact, he did not doubt for a moment that Master Lupin would
+have this courage, and that was just what exasperated him. Why had Lupin
+insisted on this meeting? What was his object, in the circumstances?
+
+Anxious, furious and full of hatred, he resolved to take every
+precaution necessary not only to prevent his falling into a trap
+himself, but to make his enemy fall into one, now that the opportunity
+offered. And, on the next day, which was the 29th of December, the date
+fixed by Lupin, after spending the night in studying the old manor-house
+in the Rue de Surène and convincing himself that there was no other
+outlet than the front door, he warned his men that he was going on a
+dangerous expedition and arrived with them on the field of battle.
+
+He posted them in a café and gave them formal instructions: if he showed
+himself at one of the third-floor windows, or if he failed to return
+within an hour, the detectives were to enter the house and arrest any
+one who tried to leave it.
+
+The chief-inspector made sure that his revolver was in working order and
+that he could take it from his pocket easily. Then he went upstairs.
+
+He was surprised to find things as he had left them, the doors open and
+the locks broken. After ascertaining that the windows of the principal
+room looked out on the street, he visited the three other rooms that
+made up the flat. There was no one there.
+
+"Master Lupin was afraid," he muttered, not without a certain
+satisfaction.
+
+"Don't be silly," said a voice behind him.
+
+Turning round, he saw an old workman, wearing a house-painter's long
+smock, standing in the doorway.
+
+"You needn't bother your head," said the man. "It's I, Lupin. I have
+been working in the painter's shop since early morning. This is when we
+knock off for breakfast. So I came upstairs."
+
+He looked at Ganimard with a quizzing smile and cried:
+
+"'Pon my word, this is a gorgeous moment I owe you, old chap! I wouldn't
+sell it for ten years of your life; and yet you know how I love you!
+What do you think of it, artist? Wasn't it well thought out and well
+foreseen? Foreseen from alpha to omega? Did I understand the business?
+Did I penetrate the mystery of the scarf? I'm not saying that there were
+no holes in my argument, no links missing in the chain.... But what a
+masterpiece of intelligence! Ganimard, what a reconstruction of events!
+What an intuition of everything that had taken place and of everything
+that was going to take place, from the discovery of the crime to your
+arrival here in search of a proof! What really marvellous divination!
+Have you the scarf?"
+
+"Yes, half of it. Have you the other?"
+
+"Here it is. Let's compare."
+
+They spread the two pieces of silk on the table. The cuts made by the
+scissors corresponded exactly. Moreover, the colours were identical.
+
+"But I presume," said Lupin, "that this was not the only thing you came
+for. What you are interested in seeing is the marks of the blood. Come
+with me, Ganimard: it's rather dark in here."
+
+They moved into the next room, which, though it overlooked the
+courtyard, was lighter; and Lupin held his piece of silk against the
+window-pane:
+
+"Look," he said, making room for Ganimard.
+
+The inspector gave a start of delight. The marks of the five fingers and
+the print of the palm were distinctly visible. The evidence was
+undeniable. The murderer had seized the stuff in his bloodstained hand,
+in the same hand that had stabbed Jenny Saphir, and tied the scarf round
+her neck.
+
+"And it is the print of a left hand," observed Lupin. "Hence my warning,
+which had nothing miraculous about it, you see. For, though I admit,
+friend of my youth, that you may look upon me as a superior
+intelligence, I won't have you treat me as a wizard."
+
+Ganimard had quickly pocketed the piece of silk. Lupin nodded his head
+in approval:
+
+"Quite right, old boy, it's for you. I'm so glad you're glad! And, you
+see, there was no trap about all this ... only the wish to oblige ... a
+service between friends, between pals.... And also, I confess, a little
+curiosity.... Yes, I wanted to examine this other piece of silk, the one
+the police had.... Don't be afraid: I'll give it back to you.... Just a
+second...."
+
+Lupin, with a careless movement, played with the tassel at the end of
+this half of the scarf, while Ganimard listened to him in spite of
+himself:
+
+"How ingenious these little bits of women's work are! Did you notice one
+detail in the maid's evidence? Jenny Saphir was very handy with her
+needle and used to make all her own hats and frocks. It is obvious that
+she made this scarf herself.... Besides, I noticed that from the first.
+I am naturally curious, as I have already told you, and I made a
+thorough examination of the piece of silk which you have just put in
+your pocket. Inside the tassel, I found a little sacred medal, which the
+poor girl had stitched into it to bring her luck. Touching, isn't it,
+Ganimard? A little medal of Our Lady of Good Succour."
+
+The inspector felt greatly puzzled and did not take his eyes off the
+other. And Lupin continued:
+
+"Then I said to myself, 'How interesting it would be to explore the
+other half of the scarf, the one which the police will find round the
+victim's neck!' For this other half, which I hold in my hands at last,
+is finished off in the same way ... so I shall be able to see if it has
+a hiding-place too and what's inside it.... But look, my friend, isn't
+it cleverly made? And so simple! All you have to do is to take a skein
+of red cord and braid it round a wooden cup, leaving a little recess, a
+little empty space in the middle, very small, of course, but large
+enough to hold a medal of a saint ... or anything.... A precious stone,
+for instance.... Such as a sapphire...."
+
+At that moment he finished pushing back the silk cord and, from the
+hollow of a cup he took between his thumb and forefinger a wonderful
+blue stone, perfect in respect of size and purity.
+
+"Ha! What did I tell you, friend of my youth?"
+
+He raised his head. The inspector had turned livid and was staring
+wild-eyed, as though fascinated by the stone that sparkled before him.
+He at last realized the whole plot:
+
+"You dirty scoundrel!" he muttered, repeating the insults which he had
+used at the first interview. "You scum of the earth!"
+
+The two men were standing one against the other.
+
+"Give me back that," said the inspector.
+
+Lupin held out the piece of silk.
+
+"And the sapphire," said Ganimard, in a peremptory tone.
+
+"Don't be silly."
+
+"Give it back, or...."
+
+"Or what, you idiot!" cried Lupin. "Look here, do you think I put you on
+to this soft thing for nothing?"
+
+"Give it back!"
+
+"You haven't noticed what I've been about, that's plain! What! For four
+weeks I've kept you on the move like a deer; and you want to ...! Come,
+Ganimard, old chap, pull yourself together!... Don't you see that you've
+been playing the good dog for four weeks on end?... Fetch it, Rover!...
+There's a nice blue pebble over there, which master can't get at. Hunt
+it, Ganimard, fetch it ... bring it to master.... Ah, he's his master's
+own good little dog!... Sit up! Beg!... Does'ms want a bit of sugar,
+then?..."
+
+Ganimard, containing the anger that seethed within him, thought only of
+one thing, summoning his detectives. And, as the room in which he now
+was looked out on the courtyard, he tried gradually to work his way
+round to the communicating door. He would then run to the window and
+break one of the panes.
+
+"All the same," continued Lupin, "what a pack of dunderheads you and the
+rest must be! You've had the silk all this time and not one of you ever
+thought of feeling it, not one of you ever asked himself the reason why
+the poor girl hung on to her scarf. Not one of you! You just acted at
+haphazard, without reflecting, without foreseeing anything...."
+
+The inspector had attained his object. Taking advantage of a second when
+Lupin had turned away from him, he suddenly wheeled round and grasped
+the door-handle. But an oath escaped him: the handle did not budge.
+
+Lupin burst into a fit of laughing:
+
+"Not even that! You did not even foresee that! You lay a trap for me and
+you won't admit that I may perhaps smell the thing out beforehand....
+And you allow yourself to be brought into this room without asking
+whether I am not bringing you here for a particular reason and without
+remembering that the locks are fitted with a special mechanism. Come
+now, speaking frankly, what do you think of it yourself?"
+
+"What do I think of it?" roared Ganimard, beside himself with rage.
+
+He had drawn his revolver and was pointing it straight at Lupin's face.
+
+"Hands up!" he cried. "That's what I think of it!"
+
+Lupin placed himself in front of him and shrugged his shoulders:
+
+"Sold again!" he said.
+
+"Hands up, I say, once more!"
+
+"And sold again, say I. Your deadly weapon won't go off."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Old Catherine, your housekeeper, is in my service. She damped the
+charges this morning while you were having your breakfast coffee."
+
+Ganimard made a furious gesture, pocketed the revolver and rushed at
+Lupin.
+
+"Well?" said Lupin, stopping him short with a well-aimed kick on the
+shin.
+
+Their clothes were almost touching. They exchanged defiant glances, the
+glances of two adversaries who mean to come to blows. Nevertheless,
+there was no fight. The recollection of the earlier struggles made any
+present struggle useless. And Ganimard, who remembered all his past
+failures, his vain attacks, Lupin's crushing reprisals, did not lift a
+limb. There was nothing to be done. He felt it. Lupin had forces at his
+command against which any individual force simply broke to pieces. So
+what was the good?
+
+"I agree," said Lupin, in a friendly voice, as though answering
+Ganimard's unspoken thought, "you would do better to let things be as
+they are. Besides, friend of my youth, think of all that this incident
+has brought you: fame, the certainty of quick promotion and, thanks to
+that, the prospect of a happy and comfortable old age! Surely, you don't
+want the discovery of the sapphire and the head of poor Arsène Lupin in
+addition! It wouldn't be fair. To say nothing of the fact that poor
+Arsène Lupin saved your life.... Yes, sir! Who warned you, at this very
+spot, that Prévailles was left-handed?... And is this the way you thank
+me? It's not pretty of you, Ganimard. Upon my word, you make me blush
+for you!"
+
+While chattering, Lupin had gone through the same performance as
+Ganimard and was now near the door. Ganimard saw that his foe was about
+to escape him. Forgetting all prudence, he tried to block his way and
+received a tremendous butt in the stomach, which sent him rolling to
+the opposite wall.
+
+Lupin dexterously touched a spring, turned the handle, opened the door
+and slipped away, roaring with laughter as he went.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Twenty minutes later, when Ganimard at last succeeded in joining his
+men, one of them said to him:
+
+"A house-painter left the house, as his mates were coming back from
+breakfast, and put a letter in my hand. 'Give that to your governor,' he
+said. 'Which governor?' I asked; but he was gone. I suppose it's meant
+for you."
+
+"Let's have it."
+
+Ganimard opened the letter. It was hurriedly scribbled in pencil and
+contained these words:
+
+
+    "This is to warn you, friend of my youth, against excessive
+    credulity. When a fellow tells you that the cartridges in your
+    revolver are damp, however great your confidence in that fellow may
+    be, even though his name be Arsène Lupin, never allow yourself to
+    be taken in. Fire first; and, if the fellow hops the twig, you will
+    have acquired the proof (1) that the cartridges are not damp; and
+    (2) that old Catherine is the most honest and respectable of
+    housekeepers.
+
+    "One of these days, I hope to have the pleasure of making her
+    acquaintance.
+
+    "Meanwhile, friend of my youth, believe me always affectionately
+    and sincerely yours,
+
+                                                   "ARSÈNE LUPIN."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+SHADOWED BY DEATH
+
+
+After he had been round the walls of the property, Arsène Lupin returned
+to the spot from which he started. It was perfectly clear to him that
+there was no breach in the walls; and the only way of entering the
+extensive grounds of the Château de Maupertuis was through a little low
+door, firmly bolted on the inside, or through the principal gate, which
+was overlooked by the lodge.
+
+"Very well," he said. "We must employ heroic methods."
+
+Pushing his way into the copsewood where he had hidden his
+motor-bicycle, he unwound a length of twine from under the saddle and
+went to a place which he had noticed in the course of his exploration.
+At this place, which was situated far from the road, on the edge of a
+wood, a number of large trees, standing inside the park, overlapped the
+wall.
+
+Lupin fastened a stone to the end of the string, threw it up and caught
+a thick branch, which he drew down to him and bestraddled. The branch,
+in recovering its position, raised him from the ground. He climbed over
+the wall, slipped down the tree, and sprang lightly on the grass.
+
+It was winter; and, through the leafless boughs, across the undulating
+lawns, he could see the little Château de Maupertuis in the distance.
+Fearing lest he should be perceived, he concealed himself behind a clump
+of fir-trees. From there, with the aid of a field-glass, he studied the
+dark and melancholy front of the manor-house. All the windows were
+closed and, as it were, barricaded with solid shutters. The house might
+easily have been uninhabited.
+
+"By Jove!" muttered Lupin. "It's not the liveliest of residences. I
+shall certainly not come here to end my days!"
+
+But the clock struck three; one of the doors on the ground-floor opened;
+and the figure of a woman appeared, a very slender figure wrapped in a
+brown cloak.
+
+The woman walked up and down for a few minutes and was at once
+surrounded by birds, to which she scattered crumbs of bread. Then she
+went down the stone steps that led to the middle lawn and skirted it,
+taking the path on the right.
+
+With his field-glass, Lupin could distinctly see her coming in his
+direction. She was tall, fair-haired, graceful in appearance, and
+seemed to be quite a young girl. She walked with a sprightly step,
+looking at the pale December sun and amusing herself by breaking the
+little dead twigs on the shrubs along the road.
+
+She had gone nearly two thirds of the distance that separated her from
+Lupin when there came a furious sound of barking and a huge dog, a
+colossal Danish boarhound, sprang from a neighbouring kennel and stood
+erect at the end of the chain by which it was fastened.
+
+The girl moved a little to one side, without paying further attention to
+what was doubtless a daily incident. The dog grew angrier than ever,
+standing on its legs and dragging at its collar, at the risk of
+strangling itself.
+
+Thirty or forty steps farther, yielding probably to an impulse of
+impatience, the girl turned round and made a gesture with her hand. The
+great Dane gave a start of rage, retreated to the back of its kennel and
+rushed out again, this time unfettered. The girl uttered a cry of mad
+terror. The dog was covering the space between them, trailing its broken
+chain behind it.
+
+She began to run, to run with all her might, and screamed out
+desperately for help. But the dog came up with her in a few bounds.
+
+She fell, at once exhausted, giving herself up for lost. The animal was
+already upon her, almost touching her.
+
+At that exact moment a shot rang out. The dog turned a complete
+somersault, recovered its feet, tore the ground and then lay down,
+giving a number of hoarse, breathless howls, which ended in a dull moan
+and an indistinct gurgling. And that was all.
+
+"Dead," said Lupin, who had hastened up at once, prepared, if necessary,
+to fire his revolver a second time.
+
+The girl had risen and stood pale, still staggering. She looked in great
+surprise at this man whom she did not know and who had saved her life;
+and she whispered:
+
+"Thank you.... I have had a great fright.... You were in the nick of
+time.... I thank you, monsieur."
+
+Lupin took off his hat:
+
+"Allow me to introduce myself, mademoiselle.... My name is Paul
+Daubreuil.... But before entering into any explanations, I must ask for
+one moment...."
+
+He stooped over the dog's dead body and examined the chain at the part
+where the brute's effort had snapped it:
+
+"That's it," he said, between his teeth. "It's just as I suspected. By
+Jupiter, things are moving rapidly!... I ought to have come earlier."
+
+Returning to the girl's side, he said to her, speaking very quickly:
+
+"Mademoiselle, we have not a minute to lose. My presence in these
+grounds is quite irregular. I do not wish to be surprised here; and this
+for reasons that concern yourself alone. Do you think that the report
+can have been heard at the house?"
+
+The girl seemed already to have recovered from her emotion; and she
+replied, with a calmness that revealed all her pluck:
+
+"I don't think so."
+
+"Is your father in the house to-day?"
+
+"My father is ill and has been in bed for months. Besides, his room
+looks out on the other front."
+
+"And the servants?"
+
+"Their quarters and the kitchen are also on the other side. No one ever
+comes to this part. I walk here myself, but nobody else does."
+
+"It is probable, therefore, that I have not been seen either, especially
+as the trees hide us?"
+
+"It is most probable."
+
+"Then I can speak to you freely?"
+
+"Certainly, but I don't understand...."
+
+"You will, presently. Permit me to be brief. The point is this: four
+days ago, Mlle. Jeanne Darcieux...."
+
+"That is my name," she said, smiling.
+
+"Mlle. Jeanne Darcieux," continued Lupin, "wrote a letter to one of her
+friends, called Marceline, who lives at Versailles...."
+
+"How do you know all that?" asked the girl, in astonishment. "I tore up
+the letter before I had finished it."
+
+"And you flung the pieces on the edge of the road that runs from the
+house to Vendôme."
+
+"That's true.... I had gone out walking...."
+
+"The pieces were picked up and they came into my hands next day."
+
+"Then ... you must have read them," said Jeanne Darcieux, betraying a
+certain annoyance by her manner.
+
+"Yes, I committed that indiscretion; and I do not regret it, because I
+can save you."
+
+"Save me? From what?"
+
+"From death."
+
+Lupin spoke this little sentence in a very distinct voice. The girl gave
+a shudder. Then she said:
+
+"I am not threatened with death."
+
+"Yes, you are, mademoiselle. At the end of October, you were reading on
+a bench on the terrace where you were accustomed to sit at the same hour
+every day, when a block of stone fell from the cornice above your head
+and you were within a few inches of being crushed."
+
+"An accident...."
+
+"One fine evening in November, you were walking in the kitchen-garden,
+by moonlight. A shot was fired, The bullet whizzed past your ear."
+
+"At least, I thought so."
+
+"Lastly, less than a week ago, the little wooden bridge that crosses the
+river in the park, two yards from the waterfall, gave way while you were
+on it. You were just able, by a miracle, to catch hold of the root of a
+tree."
+
+Jeanne Darcieux tried to smile.
+
+"Very well. But, as I wrote to Marceline, these are only a series of
+coincidences, of accidents...."
+
+"No, mademoiselle, no. One accident of this sort is allowable.... So are
+two ... and even then!... But we have no right to suppose that the
+chapter of accidents, repeating the same act three times in such
+different and extraordinary circumstances, is a mere amusing
+coincidence. That is why I thought that I might presume to come to your
+assistance. And, as my intervention can be of no use unless it remains
+secret, I did not hesitate to make my way in here ... without walking
+through the gate. I came in the nick of time, as you said. Your enemy
+was attacking you once more."
+
+"What!... Do you think?... No, it is impossible.... I refuse to
+believe...."
+
+Lupin picked up the chain and, showing it to her:
+
+"Look at the last link. There is no question but that it has been filed.
+Otherwise, so powerful a chain as this would never have yielded.
+Besides, you can see the mark of the file here."
+
+Jeanne turned pale and her pretty features were distorted with terror:
+
+"But who can bear me such a grudge?" she gasped. "It is terrible.... I
+have never done any one harm.... And yet you are certainly right....
+Worse still...."
+
+She finished her sentence in a lower voice:
+
+"Worse still, I am wondering whether the same danger does not threaten
+my father."
+
+"Has he been attacked also?"
+
+"No, for he never stirs from his room. But his is such a mysterious
+illness!... He has no strength ... he cannot walk at all.... In addition
+to that, he is subject to fits of suffocation, as though his heart
+stopped beating.... Oh, what an awful thing!"
+
+Lupin realized all the authority which he was able to assert at such a
+moment, and he said:
+
+"Have no fear, mademoiselle. If you obey me blindly, I shall be sure to
+succeed."
+
+"Yes ... yes ... I am quite willing ... but all this is so terrible...."
+
+"Trust me, I beg of you. And please listen to me, I shall want a few
+particulars."
+
+He rapped out a number of questions, which Jeanne Darcieux answered
+hurriedly:
+
+"That animal was never let loose, was he?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Who used to feed him?"
+
+"The lodge-keeper. He brought him his food every evening."
+
+"Consequently, he could go near him without being bitten?"
+
+"Yes; and he only, for the dog was very savage."
+
+"You don't suspect the man?"
+
+"Oh, no!... Baptiste?... Never!"
+
+"And you can't think of anybody?"
+
+"No. Our servants are quite devoted to us. They are very fond of me."
+
+"You have no friends staying in the house?"
+
+"No."
+
+"No brother?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then your father is your only protector?"
+
+"Yes; and I have told you the condition he is in."
+
+"Have you told him of the different attempts?"
+
+"Yes; and it was wrong of me to do so. Our doctor, old Dr. Guéroult,
+forbade me to cause him the least excitement."
+
+"Your mother?..."
+
+"I don't remember her. She died sixteen years ago ... just sixteen years
+ago."
+
+"How old were you then?"
+
+"I was not quite five years old."
+
+"And were you living here?"
+
+"We were living in Paris. My father only bought this place the year
+after."
+
+Lupin was silent for a few moments. Then he concluded:
+
+"Very well, mademoiselle, I am obliged to you. Those particulars are all
+I need for the present. Besides, it would not be wise for us to remain
+together longer."
+
+"But," she said, "the lodge-keeper will find the dog soon.... Who will
+have killed him?"
+
+"You, mademoiselle, to defend yourself against an attack."
+
+"I never carry firearms."
+
+"I am afraid you do," said Lupin, smiling, "because you killed the dog
+and there is no one but you who could have killed him. For that matter,
+let them think what they please. The great thing is that I shall not be
+suspected when I come to the house."
+
+"To the house? Do you intend to?"
+
+"Yes. I don't yet know how ... But I shall come.... This very
+evening.... So, once more, be easy in your mind. I will answer for
+everything."
+
+Jeanne looked at him and, dominated by him, conquered by his air of
+assurance and good faith, she said, simply:
+
+"I am quite easy."
+
+"Then all will go well. Till this evening, mademoiselle."
+
+"Till this evening."
+
+She walked away; and Lupin, following her with his eyes until the moment
+when she disappeared round the corner of the house, murmured:
+
+"What a pretty creature! It would be a pity if any harm were to come to
+her. Luckily, Arsène Lupin is keeping his weather-eye open."
+
+Taking care not to be seen, with eyes and ears attentive to the least
+sight or sound, he inspected every nook and corner of the grounds,
+looked for the little low door which he had noticed outside and which
+was the door of the kitchen garden, drew the bolt, took the key and then
+skirted the walls and found himself once more near the tree which he had
+climbed. Two minutes later, he was mounting his motor-cycle.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The village of Maupertuis lay quite close to the estate. Lupin inquired
+and learnt that Dr. Guéroult lived next door to the church.
+
+He rang, was shown into the consulting-room and introduced himself by
+his name of Paul Daubreuil, of the Rue de Surène, Paris, adding that he
+had official relations with the detective-service, a fact which he
+requested might be kept secret. He had become acquainted, by means of a
+torn letter, with the incidents that had endangered Mlle. Darcieux's
+life; and he had come to that young lady's assistance.
+
+Dr. Guéroult, an old country practitioner, who idolized Jeanne, on
+hearing Lupin's explanations at once admitted that those incidents
+constituted undeniable proofs of a plot. He showed great concern,
+offered his visitor hospitality and kept him to dinner.
+
+The two men talked at length. In the evening, they walked round to the
+manor-house together.
+
+The doctor went to the sick man's room, which was on the first floor,
+and asked leave to bring up a young colleague, to whom he intended soon
+to make over his practice, when he retired.
+
+Lupin, on entering, saw Jeanne Darcieux seated by her father's bedside.
+She suppressed a movement of surprise and, at a sign from the doctor,
+left the room.
+
+The consultation thereupon took place in Lupin's presence. M. Darcieux's
+face was worn, with much suffering and his eyes were bright with fever.
+He complained particularly, that day, of his heart. After the
+auscultation, he questioned the doctor with obvious anxiety; and each
+reply seemed to give him relief. He also spoke of Jeanne and expressed
+his conviction that they were deceiving him and that his daughter had
+escaped yet more accidents. He continued perturbed, in spite of the
+doctor's denials. He wanted to have the police informed and inquiries
+set on foot.
+
+But his excitement tired him and he gradually dropped off to sleep.
+
+Lupin stopped the doctor in the passage:
+
+"Come, doctor, give me your exact opinion. Do you think that M.
+Darcieux's illness can be attributed to an outside cause?"
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"Well, suppose that the same enemy should be interested in removing both
+father and daughter."
+
+The doctor seemed struck by the suggestion.
+
+"Upon my word, there is something in what you say.... The father's
+illness at times adopts such a very unusual character!... For instance,
+the paralysis of the legs, which is almost complete, ought to be
+accompanied by...."
+
+The doctor reflected for a moment and then said in a low voice:
+
+"You think it's poison, of course ... but what poison?... Besides, I see
+no toxic symptoms.... It would have to be.... But what are you doing?
+What's the matter?..."
+
+The two men were talking outside a little sitting-room on the first
+floor, where Jeanne, seizing the opportunity while the doctor was with
+her father, had begun her evening meal. Lupin, who was watching her
+through the open door, saw her lift a cup to her lips and take a few
+sups.
+
+Suddenly, he rushed at her and caught her by the arm:
+
+"What are you drinking there?"
+
+"Why," she said, taken aback, "only tea!"
+
+"You pulled a face of disgust ... what made you do that?"
+
+"I don't know ... I thought...."
+
+"You thought what?"
+
+"That ... that it tasted rather bitter.... But I expect that comes from
+the medicine I mixed with it."
+
+"What medicine?"
+
+"Some drops which I take at dinner ... the drops which you prescribed
+for me, you know, doctor."
+
+"Yes," said Dr. Guéroult, "but that medicine has no taste of any
+kind.... You know it hasn't, Jeanne, for you have been taking it for a
+fortnight and this is the first time...."
+
+"Quite right," said the girl, "and this does have a taste....
+There--oh!--my mouth is still burning."
+
+Dr. Guéroult now took a sip from the cup;
+
+"Faugh!" he exclaimed, spitting it out again. "There's no mistake about
+it...."
+
+Lupin, on his side, was examining the bottle containing the medicine;
+and he asked:
+
+"Where is this bottle kept in the daytime?"
+
+But Jeanne was unable to answer. She had put her hand to her heart and,
+wan-faced, with staring eyes, seemed to be suffering great pain:
+
+"It hurts ... it hurts," she stammered.
+
+The two men quickly carried her to her room and laid her on the bed:
+
+"She ought to have an emetic," said Lupin.
+
+"Open the cupboard," said the doctor. "You'll see a medicine-case....
+Have you got it?... Take out one of those little tubes.... Yes, that
+one.... And now some hot water.... You'll find some on the tea-tray in
+the other room."
+
+Jeanne's own maid came running up in answer to the bell. Lupin told her
+that Mlle. Darcieux had been taken unwell, for some unknown reason.
+
+He next returned to the little dining-room, inspected the sideboard and
+the cupboards, went down to the kitchen and pretended that the doctor
+had sent him to ask about M. Darcieux's diet. Without appearing to do
+so, he catechized the cook, the butler, and Baptiste, the lodge-keeper,
+who had his meals at the manor-house with the servants. Then he went
+back to the doctor:
+
+"Well?"
+
+"She's asleep."
+
+"Any danger?"
+
+"No. Fortunately, she had only taken two or three sips. But this is the
+second time to-day that you have saved her life, as the analysis of this
+bottle will show."
+
+"Quite superfluous to make an analysis, doctor. There is no doubt about
+the fact that there has been an attempt at poisoning."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"I can't say. But the demon who is engineering all this business clearly
+knows the ways of the house. He comes and goes as he pleases, walks
+about in the park, files the dog's chain, mixes poison with the food
+and, in short, moves and acts precisely as though he were living the
+very life of her--or rather of those--whom he wants to put away."
+
+"Ah! You really believe that M. Darcieux is threatened with the same
+danger?"
+
+"I have not a doubt of it."
+
+"Then it must be one of the servants? But that is most unlikely! Do you
+think ...?"
+
+"I think nothing, doctor. I know nothing. All I can say is that the
+situation is most tragic and that we must be prepared for the worst.
+Death is here, doctor, shadowing the people in this house; and it will
+soon strike at those whom it is pursuing."
+
+"What's to be done?"
+
+"Watch, doctor. Let us pretend that we are alarmed about M. Darcieux's
+health and spend the night in here. The bedrooms of both the father and
+daughter are close by. If anything happens, we are sure to hear."
+
+There was an easy-chair in the room. They arranged to sleep in it turn
+and turn about.
+
+In reality, Lupin slept for only two or three hours. In the middle of
+the night he left the room, without disturbing his companion, carefully
+looked round the whole of the house and walked out through the principal
+gate.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He reached Paris on his motor-cycle at nine o'clock in the morning. Two
+of his friends, to whom he telephoned on the road, met him there. They
+all three spent the day in making searches which Lupin had planned out
+beforehand.
+
+He set out again hurriedly at six o'clock; and never, perhaps, as he
+told me subsequently, did he risk his life with greater temerity than in
+his breakneck ride, at a mad rate of speed, on a foggy December evening,
+with the light of his lamp hardly able to pierce through the darkness.
+
+He sprang from his bicycle outside the gate, which was still open, ran
+to the house and reached the first floor in a few bounds.
+
+There was no one in the little dining-room.
+
+Without hesitating, without knocking, he walked into Jeanne's bedroom:
+
+"Ah, here you are!" he said, with a sigh of relief, seeing Jeanne and
+the doctor sitting side by side, talking.
+
+"What? Any news?" asked the doctor, alarmed at seeing such a state of
+agitation in a man whose coolness he had had occasion to observe.
+
+"No," said Lupin. "No news. And here?"
+
+"None here, either. We have just left M. Darcieux. He has had an
+excellent day and he ate his dinner with a good appetite. As for Jeanne,
+you can see for yourself, she has all her pretty colour back again."
+
+"Then she must go."
+
+"Go? But it's out of the question!" protested the girl.
+
+"You must go, you must!" cried Lupin, with real violence, stamping his
+foot on the floor.
+
+He at once mastered himself, spoke a few words of apology and then, for
+three or four minutes, preserved a complete silence, which the doctor
+and Jeanne were careful not to disturb.
+
+At last, he said to the young girl:
+
+"You shall go to-morrow morning, mademoiselle. It will be only for one
+or two weeks. I will take you to your friend at Versailles, the one to
+whom you were writing. I entreat you to get everything ready to-night
+... without concealment of any kind. Let the servants know that you are
+going.... On the other hand, the doctor will be good enough to tell M.
+Darcieux and give him to understand, with every possible precaution,
+that this journey is essential to your safety. Besides, he can join you
+as soon as his strength permits.... That's settled, is it not?"
+
+"Yes," she said, absolutely dominated by Lupin's gentle and imperious
+voice.
+
+"In that case," he said, "be as quick as you can ... and do not stir
+from your room...."
+
+"But," said the girl, with a shudder, "am I to stay alone to-night?"
+
+"Fear nothing. Should there be the least danger, the doctor and I will
+come back. Do not open your door unless you hear three very light taps."
+
+Jeanne at once rang for her maid. The doctor went to M. Darcieux, while
+Lupin had some supper brought to him in the little dining-room.
+
+"That's done," said the doctor, returning to him in twenty minutes'
+time. "M. Darcieux did not raise any great difficulty. As a matter of
+fact, he himself thinks it just as well that we should send Jeanne
+away."
+
+They then went downstairs together and left the house.
+
+On reaching the lodge, Lupin called the keeper.
+
+"You can shut the gate, my man. If M. Darcieux should want us, send for
+us at once."
+
+The clock of Maupertuis church struck ten. The sky was overcast with
+black clouds, through which the moon broke at moments.
+
+The two men walked on for sixty or seventy yards.
+
+They were nearing the village, when Lupin gripped his companion by the
+arm:
+
+"Stop!"
+
+"What on earth's the matter?" exclaimed the doctor.
+
+"The matter is this," Lupin jerked out, "that, if my calculations turn
+out right, if I have not misjudged the business from start to finish,
+Mlle. Darcieux will be murdered before the night is out."
+
+"Eh? What's that?" gasped the doctor, in dismay. "But then why did we
+go?"
+
+"With the precise object that the miscreant, who is watching all our
+movements in the dark, may not postpone his crime and may perpetrate it,
+not at the hour chosen by himself, but at the hour which I have decided
+upon."
+
+"Then we are returning to the manor-house?"
+
+"Yes, of course we are, but separately."
+
+"In that case, let us go at once."
+
+"Listen to me, doctor," said Lupin, in a steady voice, "and let us
+waste no time in useless words. Above all, we must defeat any attempt to
+watch us. You will therefore go straight home and not come out again
+until you are quite certain that you have not been followed. You will
+then make for the walls of the property, keeping to the left, till you
+come to the little door of the kitchen-garden. Here is the key. When the
+church clock strikes eleven, open the door very gently and walk right up
+to the terrace at the back of the house. The fifth window is badly
+fastened. You have only to climb over the balcony. As soon as you are
+inside Mlle. Darcieux's room, bolt the door and don't budge. You quite
+understand, don't budge, either of you, whatever happens. I have noticed
+that Mlle. Darcieux leaves her dressing-room window ajar, isn't that
+so?"
+
+"Yes, it's a habit which I taught her."
+
+"That's the way they'll come."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"That's the way I shall come also."
+
+"And do you know who the villain is?"
+
+Lupin hesitated and then replied:
+
+"No, I don't know.... And that is just how we shall find out. But, I
+implore you, keep cool. Not a word, not a movement, _whatever happens_!"
+
+"I promise you."
+
+"I want more than that, doctor. You must give me your word of honour."
+
+"I give you my word of honour."
+
+The doctor went away. Lupin at once climbed a neighbouring mound from
+which he could see the windows of the first and second floor. Several of
+them were lighted.
+
+He waited for some little time. The lights went out one by one. Then,
+taking a direction opposite to that in which the doctor had gone, he
+branched off to the right and skirted the wall until he came to the
+clump of trees near which he had hidden his motor-cycle on the day
+before.
+
+Eleven o'clock struck. He calculated the time which it would take the
+doctor to cross the kitchen-garden and make his way into the house.
+
+"That's one point scored!" he muttered. "Everything's all right on that
+side. And now, Lupin to the rescue? The enemy won't be long before he
+plays his last trump ... and, by all the gods, I must be there!..."
+
+He went through the same performance as on the first occasion, pulled
+down the branch and hoisted himself to the top of the wall, from which
+he was able to reach the bigger boughs of the tree.
+
+Just then he pricked up his ears. He seemed to hear a rustling of dead
+leaves. And he actually perceived a dark form moving on the level thirty
+yards away:
+
+"Hang it all!" he said to himself. "I'm done: the scoundrel has smelt a
+rat."
+
+A moonbeam pierced through the clouds. Lupin distinctly saw the man take
+aim. He tried to jump to the ground and turned his head. But he felt
+something hit him in the chest, heard the sound of a report, uttered an
+angry oath and came crashing down from branch to branch, like a corpse.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile, Doctor Guéroult, following Arsène Lupin's instructions, had
+climbed the ledge of the fifth window and groped his way to the first
+floor. On reaching Jeanne's room, he tapped lightly, three times, at the
+door and, immediately on entering, pushed the bolt:
+
+"Lie down at once," he whispered to the girl, who had not taken off her
+things. "You must appear to have gone to bed. Brrrr, it's cold in here!
+Is the window open in your dressing-room?"
+
+"Yes ... would you like me to ...?"
+
+"No, leave it as it is. They are coming."
+
+"They are coming!" spluttered Jeanne, in affright.
+
+"Yes, beyond a doubt."
+
+"But who? Do you suspect any one?"
+
+"I don't know who.... I expect that there is some one hidden in the
+house ... or in the park."
+
+"Oh, I feel so frightened!"
+
+"Don't be frightened. The sportsman who's looking after you seems jolly
+clever and makes a point of playing a safe game. I expect he's on the
+look-out in the court."
+
+The doctor put out the night-light, went to the window and raised the
+blind. A narrow cornice, running along the first story, prevented him
+from seeing more than a distant part of the courtyard; and he came back
+and sat down by the bed.
+
+Some very painful minutes passed, minutes that appeared to them
+interminably long. The clock in the village struck; but, taken up as
+they were with all the little noises of the night, they hardly noticed
+the sound. They listened, listened, with all their nerves on edge:
+
+"Did you hear?" whispered the doctor.
+
+"Yes ... yes," said Jeanne, sitting up in bed.
+
+"Lie down ... lie down," he said, presently. "There's some one coming."
+
+There was a little tapping sound outside, against the cornice. Next came
+a series of indistinct noises, the nature of which they could not make
+out for certain. But they had a feeling that the window in the
+dressing-room was being opened wider, for they were buffeted by gusts of
+cold air.
+
+Suddenly, it became quite clear: there was some one next door.
+
+The doctor, whose hand was trembling a little, seized his revolver.
+Nevertheless, he did not move, remembering the formal orders which he
+had received and fearing to act against them.
+
+The room was in absolute darkness; and they were unable to see where the
+adversary was. But they felt his presence.
+
+They followed his invisible movements, the sound of his footsteps
+deadened by the carpet; and they did not doubt but that he had already
+crossed the threshold of the room.
+
+And the adversary stopped. Of that they were certain. He was standing
+six steps away from the bed, motionless, undecided perhaps, seeking to
+pierce the darkness with his keen eyes.
+
+Jeanne's hand, icy-cold and clammy, trembled in the doctor's grasp.
+
+With his other hand, the doctor clutched his revolver, with his finger
+on the trigger. In spite of his pledged word, he did not hesitate. If
+the adversary touched the end of the bed, the shot would be fired at a
+venture.
+
+The adversary took another step and then stopped again. And there was
+something awful about that silence, that impassive silence, that
+darkness in which those human beings were peering at one another,
+wildly.
+
+Who was it looming in the murky darkness? Who was the man? What horrible
+enmity was it that turned his hand against the girl and what abominable
+aim was he pursuing?
+
+Terrified though they were, Jeanne and the doctor thought only of that
+one thing: to see, to learn the truth, to gaze upon the adversary's
+face.
+
+He took one more step and did not move again. It seemed to them that his
+figure stood out, darker, against the dark space and that his arm rose
+slowly, slowly....
+
+A minute passed and then another minute....
+
+And, suddenly, beyond the man, on the right a sharp click.... A bright
+light flashed, was flung upon the man, lit him full in the face,
+remorselessly.
+
+Jeanne gave a cry of affright. She had seen--standing over her, with a
+dagger in his hand--she had seen ... her father!
+
+Almost at the same time, though the light was already turned off, there
+came a report: the doctor had fired.
+
+"Dash it all, don't shoot!" roared Lupin.
+
+He threw his arms round the doctor, who choked out:
+
+"Didn't you see?... Didn't you see?... Listen!... He's escaping!..."
+
+"Let him escape: it's the best thing that could happen."
+
+He pressed the spring of his electric lantern again, ran to the
+dressing-room, made certain that the man had disappeared and, returning
+quietly to the table, lit the lamp.
+
+Jeanne lay on her bed, pallid, in a dead faint.
+
+The doctor, huddled in his chair, emitted inarticulate sounds.
+
+"Come," said Lupin, laughing, "pull yourself together. There is nothing
+to excite ourselves about: it's all over."
+
+"Her father!... Her father!" moaned the old doctor.
+
+"If you please, doctor, Mlle. Darcieux is ill. Look after her."
+
+Without more words, Lupin went back to the dressing-room and stepped out
+on the window-ledge. A ladder stood against the ledge. He ran down it.
+Skirting the wall of the house, twenty steps farther, he tripped over
+the rungs of a rope-ladder, which he climbed and found himself in M.
+Darcieux's bedroom. The room was empty.
+
+"Just so," he said. "My gentleman did not like the position and has
+cleared out. Here's wishing him a good journey.... And, of course, the
+door is bolted?... Exactly!... That is how our sick man, tricking his
+worthy medical attendant, used to get up at night in full security,
+fasten his rope-ladder to the balcony and prepare his little games. He's
+no fool, is friend Darcieux!"
+
+He drew the bolts and returned to Jeanne's room. The doctor, who was
+just coming out of the doorway, drew him to the little dining-room:
+
+"She's asleep, don't let us disturb her. She has had a bad shock and
+will take some time to recover."
+
+Lupin poured himself out a glass of water and drank it down. Then he
+took a chair and, calmly:
+
+"Pooh! She'll be all right by to-morrow."
+
+"What do you say?"
+
+"I say that she'll be all right by to-morrow."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"In the first place, because it did not strike me that Mlle. Darcieux
+felt any very great affection for her father."
+
+"Never mind! Think of it: a father who tries to kill his daughter! A
+father who, for months on end, repeats his monstrous attempt four, five,
+six times over again!... Well, isn't that enough to blight a less
+sensitive soul than Jeanne's for good and all? What a hateful memory!"
+
+"She will forget."
+
+"One does not forget such a thing as that."
+
+"She will forget, doctor, and for a very simple reason...."
+
+"Explain yourself!"
+
+"She is not M. Darcieux's daughter!"
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"I repeat, she is not that villain's daughter."
+
+"What do you mean? M. Darcieux...."
+
+"M. Darcieux is only her step-father. She had just been born when her
+father, her real father, died. Jeanne's mother then married a cousin of
+her husband's, a man bearing the same name, and she died within a year
+of her second wedding. She left Jeanne in M. Darcieux's charge. He first
+took her abroad and then bought this country-house; and, as nobody knew
+him in the neighbourhood, he represented the child as being his
+daughter. She herself did not know the truth about her birth."
+
+The doctor sat confounded. He asked:
+
+"Are you sure of your facts?"
+
+"I spent my day in the town-halls of the Paris municipalities. I
+searched the registers, I interviewed two solicitors, I have seen all
+the documents. There is no doubt possible."
+
+"But that does not explain the crime, or rather the series of crimes."
+
+"Yes, it does," declared Lupin. "And, from the start, from the first
+hour when I meddled in this business, some words which Mlle. Darcieux
+used made me suspect that direction which my investigations must take.
+'I was not quite five years old when my mother died,' she said. 'That
+was sixteen years ago.' Mlle. Darcieux, therefore, was nearly
+twenty-one, that is to say, she was on the verge of attaining her
+majority. I at once saw that this was an important detail. The day on
+which you reach your majority is the day on which your accounts are
+rendered. What was the financial position of Mlle. Darcieux, who was her
+mother's natural heiress? Of course, I did not think of the father for a
+second. To begin with, one can't imagine a thing like that; and then the
+farce which M. Darcieux was playing ... helpless, bedridden, ill...."
+
+"Really ill," interrupted the doctor.
+
+"All this diverted suspicion from him ... the more so as I believe that
+he himself was exposed to criminal attacks. But was there not in the
+family some person who would be interested in their removal? My journey
+to Paris revealed the truth to me: Mlle. Darcieux inherits a large
+fortune from her mother, of which her step-father draws the income. The
+solicitor was to have called a meeting of the family in Paris next
+month. The truth would have been out. It meant ruin to M. Darcieux."
+
+"Then he had put no money by?"
+
+"Yes, but he had lost a great deal as the result of unfortunate
+speculations."
+
+"But, after all, Jeanne would not have taken the management of her
+fortune out of his hands!"
+
+"There is one detail which you do not know, doctor, and which I learnt
+from reading the torn letter. Mlle. Darcieux is in love with the brother
+of Marceline, her Versailles friend; M. Darcieux was opposed to the
+marriage; and--you now see the reason--she was waiting until she came of
+age to be married."
+
+"You're right," said the doctor, "you're right.... It meant his ruin."
+
+"His absolute ruin. One chance of saving himself remained, the death of
+his step-daughter, of whom he is the next heir."
+
+"Certainly, but on condition that no one suspected him."
+
+"Of course; and that is why he contrived the series of accidents, so
+that the death might appear to be due to misadventure. And that is why
+I, on my side, wishing to bring things to a head, asked you to tell him
+of Mlle. Darcieux's impending departure. From that moment, it was no
+longer enough for the would-be sick man to wander about the grounds and
+the passages, in the dark, and execute some leisurely thought-out plan.
+No, he had to act, to act at once, without preparation, violently,
+dagger in hand. I had no doubt that he would decide to do it. And he
+did."
+
+"Then he had no suspicions?"
+
+"Of me, yes. He felt that I would return to-night, and he kept a watch
+at the place where I had already climbed the wall."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well," said Lupin, laughing, "I received a bullet full in the chest
+... or rather my pocket-book received a bullet.... Here, you can see the
+hole.... So I tumbled from the tree, like a dead man. Thinking that he
+was rid of his only adversary, he went back to the house. I saw him
+prowl about for two hours. Then, making up his mind, he went to the
+coach-house, took a ladder and set it against the window. I had only to
+follow him."
+
+The doctor reflected and said:
+
+"You could have collared him earlier. Why did you let him come up? It
+was a sore trial for Jeanne ... and unnecessary."
+
+"On the contrary, it was indispensable! Mlle. Darcieux would never have
+accepted the truth. It was essential that she should see the murderer's
+very face. You must tell her all the circumstances when she wakes. She
+will soon be well again."
+
+"But ... M. Darcieux?"
+
+"You can explain his disappearance as you think best ... a sudden
+journey ... a fit of madness.... There will be a few inquiries.... And
+you may be sure that he will never be heard of again."
+
+The doctor nodded his head:
+
+"Yes ... that is so ... that is so ... you are right. You have managed
+all this business with extraordinary skill; and Jeanne owes you her
+life. She will thank you in person.... But now, can I be of use to you
+in any way? You told me that you were connected with the
+detective-service.... Will you allow me to write and praise your
+conduct, your courage?"
+
+Lupin began to laugh:
+
+"Certainly! A letter of that kind will do me a world of good. You might
+write to my immediate superior, Chief-inspector Ganimard. He will be
+glad to hear that his favourite officer, Paul Daubreuil, of the Rue de
+Surène, has once again distinguished himself by a brilliant action. As
+it happens, I have an appointment to meet him about a case of which you
+may have heard: the case of the red scarf.... How pleased my dear M.
+Ganimard will be!"
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+A TRAGEDY IN THE FOREST OF MORGUES
+
+
+The village was terror-stricken.
+
+It was on a Sunday morning. The peasants of Saint-Nicolas and the
+neighbourhood were coming out of church and spreading across the square,
+when, suddenly, the women who were walking ahead and who had already
+turned into the high-road fell back with loud cries of dismay.
+
+At the same moment, an enormous motor-car, looking like some appalling
+monster, came tearing into sight at a headlong rate of speed. Amid the
+shouts of the madly scattering people, it made straight for the church,
+swerved, just as it seemed about to dash itself to pieces against the
+steps, grazed the wall of the presbytery, regained the continuation of
+the national road, dashed along, turned the corner and disappeared,
+without, by some incomprehensible miracle, having so much as brushed
+against any of the persons crowding the square.
+
+But they had seen! They had seen a man in the driver's seat, wrapped in
+a goat-skin coat, with a fur cap on his head and his face disguised in a
+pair of large goggles, and, with him, on the front of that seat, flung
+back, bent in two, a woman whose head, all covered with blood, hung down
+over the bonnet....
+
+And they had heard! They had heard the woman's screams, screams of
+horror, screams of agony....
+
+And it was all such a vision of hell and carnage that the people stood,
+for some seconds, motionless, stupefied.
+
+"Blood!" roared somebody.
+
+There was blood everywhere, on the cobblestones of the square, on the
+ground hardened by the first frosts of autumn; and, when a number of men
+and boys rushed off in pursuit of the motor, they had but to take those
+sinister marks for their guide.
+
+The marks, on their part, followed the high-road, but in a very strange
+manner, going from one side to the other and leaving a zigzag track, in
+the wake of the tires, that made those who saw it shudder. How was it
+that the car had not bumped against that tree? How had it been righted,
+instead of smashing into that bank? What novice, what madman, what
+drunkard, what frightened criminal was driving that motor-car with such
+astounding bounds and swerves?
+
+One of the peasants declared:
+
+"They will never do the turn in the forest."
+
+And another said:
+
+"Of course they won't! She's bound to upset!"
+
+The Forest of Morgues began at half a mile beyond Saint-Nicolas; and the
+road, which was straight up to that point, except for a slight bend
+where it left the village, started climbing, immediately after entering
+the forest, and made an abrupt turn among the rocks and trees. No
+motor-car was able to take this turn without first slackening speed.
+There were posts to give notice of the danger.
+
+The breathless peasants reached the quincunx of beeches that formed the
+edge of the forest. And one of them at once cried:
+
+"There you are!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Upset!"
+
+The car, a limousine, had turned turtle and lay smashed, twisted and
+shapeless. Beside it, the woman's dead body. But the most horrible,
+sordid, stupefying thing was the woman's head, crushed, flattened,
+invisible under a block of stone, a huge block of stone lodged there by
+some unknown and prodigious agency. As for the man in the goat-skin
+coat he was nowhere to be found.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He was not found on the scene of the accident. He was not found either
+in the neighbourhood. Moreover, some workmen coming down the Côte de
+Morgues declared that they had not seen anybody.
+
+The man, therefore, had taken refuge in the woods.
+
+The gendarmes, who were at once sent for, made a minute search, assisted
+by the peasants, but discovered nothing. In the same way, the
+examining-magistrates, after a close inquiry lasting for several days,
+found no clue capable of throwing the least light upon this inscrutable
+tragedy. On the contrary, the investigations only led to further
+mysteries and further improbabilities.
+
+Thus it was ascertained that the block of stone came from where there
+had been a landslip, at least forty yards away. And the murderer, in a
+few minutes, had carried it all that distance and flung it on his
+victim's head.
+
+On the other hand, the murderer, who was most certainly not hiding in
+the forest--for, if so, he must inevitably have been discovered, the
+forest being of limited extent--had the audacity, eight days after the
+crime, to come back to the turn on the hill and leave his goat-skin coat
+there. Why? With what object? There was nothing in the pockets of the
+coat, except a corkscrew and a napkin. What did it all mean?
+
+Inquiries were made of the builder of the motor-car, who recognized the
+limousine as one which he had sold, three years ago, to a Russian. The
+said Russian, declared the manufacturer, had sold it again at once. To
+whom? No one knew. The car bore no number.
+
+Then again, it was impossible to identify the dead woman's body. Her
+clothes and underclothing were not marked in any way. And the face was
+quite unknown.
+
+Meanwhile, detectives were going along the national road in the
+direction opposite to that taken by the actors in this mysterious
+tragedy. But who was to prove that the car had followed that particular
+road on the previous night?
+
+They examined every yard of the ground, they questioned everybody. At
+last, they succeeded in learning that, on the Saturday evening, a
+limousine had stopped outside a grocer's shop in a small town situated
+about two hundred miles from Saint-Nicolas, on a highway branching out
+of the national road. The driver had first filled his tank, bought some
+spare cans of petrol and lastly taken away a small stock of provisions:
+a ham, fruit, biscuits, wine and a half-bottle of Three Star brandy.
+
+There was a lady on the driver's seat. She did not get down. The blinds
+of the limousine were drawn. One of these blinds was seen to move
+several times. The shopman was positive that there was somebody inside.
+
+Presuming the shopman's evidence to be correct, then the problem became
+even more complicated, for, so far, no clue had revealed the presence of
+a third person.
+
+Meanwhile, as the travellers had supplied themselves with provisions, it
+remained to be discovered what they had done with them and what had
+become of the remains.
+
+The detectives retraced their steps. It was not until they came to the
+fork of the two roads, at a spot eleven or twelve miles from
+Saint-Nicolas, that they met a shepherd who, in answer to their
+questions, directed them to a neighbouring field, hidden from view
+behind the screen of bushes, where he had seen an empty bottle and other
+things.
+
+The detectives were convinced at the first examination. The motor-car
+had stopped there; and the unknown travellers, probably after a night's
+rest in their car, had breakfasted and resumed their journey in the
+course of the morning.
+
+One unmistakable proof was the half-bottle of Three Star brandy sold by
+the grocer. This bottle had its neck broken clean off with a stone. The
+stone employed for the purpose was picked up, as was the neck of the
+bottle, with its cork, covered with a tin-foil seal. The seal showed
+marks of attempts that had been made to uncork the bottle in the
+ordinary manner.
+
+The detectives continued their search and followed a ditch that ran
+along the field at right angles to the road. It ended in a little
+spring, hidden under brambles, which seemed to emit an offensive smell.
+On lifting the brambles, they perceived a corpse, the corpse of a man
+whose head had been smashed in, so that it formed little more than a
+sort of pulp, swarming with vermin. The body was dressed in jacket and
+trousers of dark-brown leather. The pockets were empty: no papers, no
+pocket-book, no watch.
+
+The grocer and his shopman were summoned and, two days later, formally
+identified, by his dress and figure, the traveller who had bought the
+petrol and provisions on the Saturday evening.
+
+The whole case, therefore, had to be reopened on a fresh basis. The
+authorities were confronted with a tragedy no longer enacted by two
+persons, a man and a woman, of whom one had killed the other, but by
+three persons, including two victims, of whom one was the very man who
+was accused of killing his companion.
+
+As to the murderer, there was no doubt: he was the person who travelled
+inside the motor-car and who took the precaution to remain concealed
+behind the curtains. He had first got rid of the driver and rifled his
+pockets and then, after wounding the woman, carried her off in a mad
+dash for death.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Given a fresh case, unexpected discoveries, unforeseen evidence, one
+might have hoped that the mystery would be cleared up, or, at least,
+that the inquiry would point a few steps along the road to the truth.
+But not at all. The corpse was simply placed beside the first corpse.
+New problems were added to the old. The accusation of murder was shifted
+from the one to the other. And there it ended. Outside those tangible,
+obvious facts there was nothing but darkness. The name of the woman, the
+name of the man, the name of the murderer were so many riddles. And then
+what had become of the murderer? If he had disappeared from one moment
+to the other, that in itself would have been a tolerably curious
+phenomenon. But the phenomenon was actually something very like a
+miracle, inasmuch as the murderer had not absolutely disappeared. He was
+there! He made a practice of returning to the scene of the catastrophe!
+In addition to the goat-skin coat, a fur cap was picked up one day; and,
+by way of an unparalleled prodigy, one morning, after a whole night
+spent on guard in the rock, beside the famous turning, the detectives
+found, on the grass of the turning itself, a pair of motor-goggles,
+broken, rusty, dirty, done for. How had the murderer managed to bring
+back those goggles unseen by the detectives? And, above all, why had he
+brought them back?
+
+Men's brains reeled in the presence of such abnormalities. They were
+almost afraid to pursue the ambiguous adventure. They received the
+impression of a heavy, stifling, breathless atmosphere, which dimmed the
+eyes and baffled the most clear-sighted.
+
+The magistrate in charge of the case fell ill. Four days later, his
+successor confessed that the matter was beyond him.
+
+Two tramps were arrested and at once released. Another was pursued, but
+not caught; moreover, there was no evidence of any sort or kind against
+him. In short, it was nothing but one helpless muddle of mist and
+contradiction.
+
+An accident, the merest accident led to the solution, or rather produced
+a series of circumstances that ended by leading to the solution. A
+reporter on the staff of an important Paris paper, who had been sent to
+make investigations on the spot, concluded his article with the
+following words:
+
+"I repeat, therefore, that we must wait for fresh events, fresh facts;
+we must wait for some lucky accident. As things stand, we are simply
+wasting our time. The elements of truth are not even sufficient to
+suggest a plausible theory. We are in the midst of the most absolute,
+painful, impenetrable darkness. There is nothing to be done. All the
+Sherlock Holmeses in the world would not know what to make of the
+mystery, and Arsène Lupin himself, if he will allow me to say so, would
+have to pay forfeit here."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the day after the appearance of that article, the newspaper in
+question printed this telegram:
+
+
+    "Have sometimes paid forfeit, but never over such a silly thing as
+    this. The Saint-Nicolas tragedy is a mystery for babies.
+
+                                                      "ARSÈNE LUPIN."
+
+
+And the editor added:
+
+
+    "We insert this telegram as a matter of curiosity, for it is
+    obviously the work of a wag. Arsène Lupin, past-master though he be
+    in the art of practical joking, would be the last man to display
+    such childish flippancy."
+
+
+Two days elapsed; and then the paper published the famous letter, so
+precise and categorical in its conclusions, in which Arsène Lupin
+furnished the solution of the problem. I quote it in full:
+
+
+    "Sir:
+
+    "You have taken me on my weak side by defying me. You challenge me,
+    and I accept the challenge. And I will begin by declaring once more
+    that the Saint-Nicolas tragedy is a mystery for babies. I know
+    nothing so simple, so natural; and the proof of the simplicity
+    shall lie in the succinctness of my demonstration. It is contained
+    in these few words: when a crime seems to go beyond the ordinary
+    scope of things, when it seems unusual and stupid, then there are
+    many chances that its explanation is to be found in superordinary,
+    supernatural, superhuman motives.
+
+    "I say that there are many chances, for we must always allow for
+    the part played by absurdity in the most logical and commonplace
+    events. But, of course, it is impossible to see things as they are
+    and not to take account of the absurd and the disproportionate.
+
+    "I was struck from the very beginning by that very evident
+    character of unusualness. We have, first of all, the awkward,
+    zigzag course of the motor-car, which would give one the impression
+    that the car was driven by a novice. People have spoken of a
+    drunkard or a madman, a justifiable supposition in itself. But
+    neither madness nor drunkenness would account for the incredible
+    strength required to transport, especially in so short a space of
+    time, the stone with which the unfortunate woman's head was
+    crushed. That proceeding called for a muscular power so great that
+    I do not hesitate to look upon it as a second sign of the
+    unusualness that marks the whole tragedy. And why move that
+    enormous stone, to finish off the victim, when a mere pebble would
+    have done the work? Why again was the murderer not killed, or at
+    least reduced to a temporary state of helplessness, in the terrible
+    somersault turned by the car? How did he disappear? And why, having
+    disappeared, did he return to the scene of the accident? Why did he
+    throw his fur coat there; then, on another day, his cap; then, on
+    another day, his goggles?
+
+    "Unusual, useless, stupid acts.
+
+    "Why, besides, convey that wounded, dying woman on the driver's
+    seat of the car, where everybody could see her? Why do that,
+    instead of putting her inside, or flinging her into some corner,
+    dead, just as the man was flung under the brambles in the ditch?
+
+    "Unusualness, stupidity.
+
+    "Everything in the whole story is absurd. Everything points to
+    hesitation, incoherency, awkwardness, the silliness of a child or
+    rather of a mad, blundering savage, of a brute.
+
+    "Look at the bottle of brandy. There was a corkscrew: it was found
+    in the pocket of the great coat. Did the murderer use it? Yes, the
+    marks of the corkscrew can be seen on the seal. But the operation
+    was too complicated for him. He broke the neck with a stone. Always
+    stones: observe that detail. They are the only weapon, the only
+    implement which the creature employs. It is his customary weapon,
+    his familiar implement. He kills the man with a stone, he kills the
+    woman with a stone and he opens bottles with a stone!
+
+    "A brute, I repeat, a savage; disordered, unhinged, suddenly driven
+    mad. By what? Why, of course, by that same brandy, which he
+    swallowed at a draught while the driver and his companion were
+    having breakfast in the field. He got out of the limousine, in
+    which he was travelling, in his goat-skin coat and his fur cap,
+    took the bottle, broke off the neck and drank. There is the whole
+    story. Having drunk, he went raving mad and hit out at random,
+    without reason. Then, seized with instinctive fear, dreading the
+    inevitable punishment, he hid the body of the man. Then, like an
+    idiot, he took up the wounded woman and ran away. He ran away in
+    that motor-car which he did not know how to work, but which to him
+    represented safety, escape from capture.
+
+    "But the money, you will ask, the stolen pocket-book? Why, who says
+    that he was the thief? Who says that it was not some passing tramp,
+    some labourer, guided by the stench of the corpse?
+
+    "Very well, you object, but the brute would have been found, as he
+    is hiding somewhere near the turn, and as, after all, he must eat
+    and drink.
+
+    "Well, well, I see that you have not yet understood. The simplest
+    way, I suppose, to have done and to answer your objections is to
+    make straight for the mark. Then let the gentlemen of the police
+    and the gendarmerie themselves make straight for the mark. Let them
+    take firearms. Let them explore the forest within a radius of two
+    or three hundred yards from the turn, no more. But, instead of
+    exploring with their heads down and their eyes fixed on the ground,
+    let them look up into the air, yes, into the air, among the leaves
+    and branches of the tallest oaks and the most unlikely beeches.
+    And, believe me, they will see him. For he is there. He is there,
+    bewildered, piteously at a loss, seeking for the man and woman whom
+    he has killed, looking for them and waiting for them and not daring
+    to go away and quite unable to understand.
+
+    "I myself am exceedingly sorry that I am kept in town by urgent
+    private affairs and by some complicated matters of business which I
+    have to set going, for I should much have liked to see the end of
+    this rather curious adventure.
+
+    "Pray, therefore excuse me to my kind friends in the police and
+    permit me to be, sir,
+
+                             "Your obedient servant,
+
+                                        "ARSÈNE LUPIN."
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The upshot will be remembered. The "gentlemen of the police and the
+gendarmerie" shrugged their shoulders and paid no attention to this
+lucubration. But four of the local country gentry took their rifles and
+went shooting, with their eyes fixed skyward, as though they meant to
+pot a few rooks. In half an hour they had caught sight of the murderer.
+Two shots, and he came tumbling from bough to bough. He was only
+wounded, and they took him alive.
+
+That evening, a Paris paper, which did not yet know of the capture,
+printed the following paragraphs:
+
+
+    "Enquiries are being made after a M. and Mme. Bragoff, who landed
+    at Marseilles six weeks ago and there hired a motor-car. They had
+    been living in Australia for many years, during which time they had
+    not visited Europe; and they wrote to the director of the Jardin
+    d'Acclimatation, with whom they were in the habit of corresponding,
+    that they were bringing with them a curious creature, of an
+    entirely unknown species, of which it was difficult to say whether
+    it was a man or a monkey.
+
+    "According to M. Bragoff, who is an eminent archæologist, the
+    specimen in question is the anthropoid ape, or rather the ape-man,
+    the existence of which had not hitherto been definitely proved. The
+    structure is said to be exactly similar to that of _Pithecanthropus
+    erectus_, discovered by Dr. Dubois in Java in 1891.
+
+    "This curious, intelligent and observant animal acted as its
+    owner's servant on their property in Australia and used to clean
+    their motor-car and even attempt to drive it.
+
+    "The question that is being asked is where are M. and Mme. Bragoff?
+    Where is the strange primate that landed with them at Marseilles?"
+
+
+The answer to this question was now made easy. Thanks to the hints
+supplied by Arsène Lupin, all the elements of the tragedy were known.
+Thanks to him, the culprit was in the hands of the law.
+
+You can see him at the Jardin d'Acclimatation, where he is locked up
+under the name of "Three Stars." He is, in point of fact, a monkey; but
+he is also a man. He has the gentleness and the wisdom of the domestic
+animals and the sadness which they feel when their master dies. But he
+has many other qualities that bring him much closer to humanity: he is
+treacherous, cruel, idle, greedy and quarrelsome; and, above all, he is
+immoderately fond of brandy.
+
+Apart from that, he is a monkey. Unless indeed ...!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few days after Three Stars' arrest, I saw Arsène Lupin standing in
+front of his cage. Lupin was manifestly trying to solve this interesting
+problem for himself. I at once said, for I had set my heart upon having
+the matter out with him:
+
+"You know, Lupin, that intervention of yours, your argument, your
+letter, in short, did not surprise me so much as you might think!"
+
+"Oh, really?" he said, calmly. "And why?"
+
+"Why? Because the incident has occurred before, seventy or eighty years
+ago. Edgar Allan Poe made it the subject of one of his finest tales. In
+those circumstances, the key to the riddle was easy enough to find."
+
+Arsène Lupin took my arm, and walking away with me, said:
+
+"When did you guess it, yourself?"
+
+"On reading your letter," I confessed.
+
+"And at what part of my letter?"
+
+"At the end."
+
+"At the end, eh? After I had dotted all the i's. So here is a crime
+which accident causes to be repeated, under quite different conditions,
+it is true, but still with the same sort of hero; and your eyes had to
+be opened, as well as other people's. It needed the assistance of my
+letter, the letter in which I amused myself--apart from the exigencies
+of the facts--by employing the argument and sometimes the identical
+words used by the American poet in a story which everybody has read. So
+you see that my letter was not absolutely useless and that one may
+safely venture to repeat to people things which they have learnt only to
+forget them."
+
+Wherewith Lupin turned on his heel and burst out laughing in the face of
+an old monkey, who sat with the air of a philosopher, gravely
+meditating.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+LUPIN'S MARRIAGE
+
+
+    "Monsieur Arsène Lupin has the honour to inform you of his
+    approaching marriage with Mademoiselle Angélique de
+    Sarzeau-Vendôme, Princesse de Bourbon-Condé, and to request the
+    pleasure of your company at the wedding, which will take place at
+    the church of Sainte-Clotilde...."
+
+    "The Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme has the honour to inform you of the
+    approaching marriage of his daughter Angélique, Princesse de
+    Bourbon-Condé, with Monsieur Arsène Lupin, and to request...."
+
+
+Jean Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme could not finish reading the invitations
+which he held in his trembling hand. Pale with anger, his long, lean
+body shaking with tremors:
+
+"There!" he gasped, handing the two communications to his daughter.
+"This is what our friends have received! This has been the talk of Paris
+since yesterday! What do you say to that dastardly insult, Angélique?
+What would your poor mother say to it, if she were alive?"
+
+Angélique was tall and thin like her father, skinny and angular like
+him. She was thirty-three years of age, always dressed in black stuff,
+shy and retiring in manner, with a head too small in proportion to her
+height and narrowed on either side until the nose seemed to jut forth in
+protest against such parsimony. And yet it would be impossible to say
+that she was ugly, for her eyes were extremely beautiful, soft and
+grave, proud and a little sad: pathetic eyes which to see once was to
+remember.
+
+She flushed with shame at hearing her father's words, which told her the
+scandal of which she was the victim. But, as she loved him,
+notwithstanding his harshness to her, his injustice and despotism, she
+said:
+
+"Oh, I think it must be meant for a joke, father, to which we need pay
+no attention!"
+
+"A joke? Why, every one is gossiping about it! A dozen papers have
+printed the confounded notice this morning, with satirical comments.
+They quote our pedigree, our ancestors, our illustrious dead. They
+pretend to take the thing seriously...."
+
+"Still, no one could believe...."
+
+"Of course not. But that doesn't prevent us from being the by-word of
+Paris."
+
+"It will all be forgotten by to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow, my girl, people will remember that the name of Angélique de
+Sarzeau-Vendôme has been bandied about as it should not be. Oh, if I
+could find out the name of the scoundrel who has dared...."
+
+At that moment, Hyacinthe, the duke's valet, came in and said that
+monsieur le duc was wanted on the telephone. Still fuming, he took down
+the receiver and growled:
+
+"Well? Who is it? Yes, it's the Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme speaking."
+
+A voice replied:
+
+"I want to apologize to you, monsieur le duc, and to Mlle. Angélique.
+It's my secretary's fault."
+
+"Your secretary?"
+
+"Yes, the invitations were only a rough draft which I meant to submit to
+you. Unfortunately my secretary thought...."
+
+"But, tell me, monsieur, who are you?"
+
+"What, monsieur le duc, don't you know my voice? The voice of your
+future son-in-law?"
+
+"What!"
+
+"Arsène Lupin."
+
+The duke dropped into a chair. His face was livid.
+
+"Arsène Lupin ... it's he ... Arsène Lupin...."
+
+Angélique gave a smile:
+
+"You see, father, it's only a joke, a hoax."
+
+But the duke's rage broke out afresh and he began to walk up and down,
+moving his arms:
+
+"I shall go to the police!... The fellow can't be allowed to make a fool
+of me in this way!... If there's any law left in the land, it must be
+stopped!"
+
+Hyacinthe entered the room again. He brought two visiting-cards.
+
+"Chotois? Lepetit? Don't know them."
+
+"They are both journalists, monsieur le duc."
+
+"What do they want?"
+
+"They would like to speak to monsieur le duc with regard to ... the
+marriage...."
+
+"Turn them out!" exclaimed the duke. "Kick them out! And tell the porter
+not to admit scum of that sort to my house in future."
+
+"Please, father ..." Angélique ventured to say.
+
+"As for you, shut up! If you had consented to marry one of your cousins
+when I wanted you to this wouldn't have happened."
+
+The same evening, one of the two reporters printed, on the front page of
+his paper, a somewhat fanciful story of his expedition to the family
+mansion of the Sarzeau-Vendômes, in the Rue de Varennes, and expatiated
+pleasantly upon the old nobleman's wrathful protests.
+
+The next morning, another newspaper published an interview with Arsène
+Lupin which was supposed to have taken place in a lobby at the Opera.
+Arsène Lupin retorted in a letter to the editor:
+
+
+    "I share my prospective father-in-law's indignation to the full.
+    The sending out of the invitations was a gross breach of etiquette
+    for which I am not responsible, but for which I wish to make a
+    public apology. Why, sir, the date of the marriage is not yet
+    fixed. My bride's father suggests early in May. She and I think
+    that six weeks is really too long to wait!..."
+
+
+That which gave a special piquancy to the affair and added immensely to
+the enjoyment of the friends of the family was the duke's well-known
+character: his pride and the uncompromising nature of his ideas and
+principles. Duc Jean was the last descendant of the Barons de Sarzeau,
+the most ancient family in Brittany; he was the lineal descendant of
+that Sarzeau who, upon marrying a Vendôme, refused to bear the new title
+which Louis XV forced upon him until after he had been imprisoned for
+ten years in the Bastille; and he had abandoned none of the prejudices
+of the old régime. In his youth, he followed the Comte de Chambord into
+exile. In his old age, he refused a seat in the Chamber on the pretext
+that a Sarzeau could only sit with his peers.
+
+The incident stung him to the quick. Nothing could pacify him. He cursed
+Lupin in good round terms, threatened him with every sort of punishment
+and rounded on his daughter:
+
+"There, if you had only married!... After all you had plenty of chances.
+Your three cousins, Mussy, d'Emboise and Caorches, are noblemen of good
+descent, allied to the best families, fairly well-off; and they are
+still anxious to marry you. Why do you refuse them? Ah, because miss is
+a dreamer, a sentimentalist; and because her cousins are too fat, or too
+thin, or too coarse for her...."
+
+She was, in fact, a dreamer. Left to her own devices from childhood, she
+had read all the books of chivalry, all the colourless romances of
+olden-time that littered the ancestral presses; and she looked upon life
+as a fairy-tale in which the beauteous maidens are always happy, while
+the others wait till death for the bridegroom who does not come. Why
+should she marry one of her cousins when they were only after her money,
+the millions which she had inherited from her mother? She might as well
+remain an old maid and go on dreaming....
+
+She answered, gently:
+
+"You will end by making yourself ill, father. Forget this silly
+business."
+
+But how could he forget it? Every morning, some pin-prick renewed his
+wound. Three days running, Angélique received a wonderful sheaf of
+flowers, with Arsène Lupin's card peeping from it. The duke could not go
+to his club but a friend accosted him:
+
+"That was a good one to-day!"
+
+"What was?"
+
+"Why, your son-in-law's latest! Haven't you seen it? Here, read it for
+yourself: 'M. Arsène Lupin is petitioning the Council of State for
+permission to add his wife's name to his own and to be known henceforth
+as Lupin de Sarzeau-Vendôme.'"
+
+And, the next day, he read:
+
+
+    "As the young bride, by virtue of an unrepealed decree of Charles
+    X, bears the title and arms of the Bourbon-Condés, of whom she is
+    the heiress-of-line, the eldest son of the Lupins de
+    Sarzeau-Vendôme will be styled Prince de Bourbon-Condé."
+
+
+And, the day after, an advertisement.
+
+
+    "Exhibition of Mlle. de Sarzeau-Vendôme's trousseau at Messrs.
+    ----'s Great Linen Warehouse. Each article marked with initials L.
+    S. V."
+
+
+Then an illustrated paper published a photographic scene: the duke, his
+daughter and his son-in-law sitting at a table playing three-handed
+auction-bridge.
+
+And the date also was announced with a great flourish of trumpets: the
+4th of May.
+
+And particulars were given of the marriage-settlement. Lupin showed
+himself wonderfully disinterested. He was prepared to sign, the
+newspapers said, with his eyes closed, without knowing the figure of the
+dowry.
+
+All these things drove the old duke crazy. His hatred of Lupin assumed
+morbid proportions. Much as it went against the grain, he called on the
+prefect of police, who advised him to be on his guard:
+
+"We know the gentleman's ways; he is employing one of his favourite
+dodges. Forgive the expression, monsieur le duc, but he is 'nursing'
+you. Don't fall into the trap."
+
+"What dodge? What trap?" asked the duke, anxiously.
+
+"He is trying to make you lose your head and to lead you, by
+intimidation, to do something which you would refuse to do in cold
+blood."
+
+"Still, M. Arsène Lupin can hardly hope that I will offer him my
+daughter's hand!"
+
+"No, but he hopes that you will commit, to put it mildly, a blunder."
+
+"What blunder?"
+
+"Exactly that blunder which he wants you to commit."
+
+"Then you think, monsieur le préfet ...?"
+
+"I think the best thing you can do, monsieur le duc, is to go home, or,
+if all this excitement worries you, to run down to the country and stay
+there quietly, without upsetting yourself."
+
+This conversation only increased the old duke's fears. Lupin appeared to
+him in the light of a terrible person, who employed diabolical methods
+and kept accomplices in every sphere of society. Prudence was the
+watchword.
+
+And life, from that moment, became intolerable. The duke grew more
+crabbed and silent than ever and denied his door to all his old friends
+and even to Angélique's three suitors, her Cousins de Mussy, d'Emboise
+and de Caorches, who were none of them on speaking terms with the
+others, in consequence of their rivalry, and who were in the habit of
+calling, turn and turn about, every week.
+
+For no earthly reason, he dismissed his butler and his coachman. But he
+dared not fill their places, for fear of engaging creatures of Arsène
+Lupin's; and his own man, Hyacinthe, in whom he had every confidence,
+having had him in his service for over forty years, had to take upon
+himself the laborious duties of the stables and the pantry.
+
+"Come, father," said Angélique, trying to make him listen to
+common-sense. "I really can't see what you are afraid of. No one can
+force me into this ridiculous marriage."
+
+"Well, of course, that's not what I'm afraid of."
+
+"What then, father?"
+
+"How can I tell? An abduction! A burglary! An act of violence! There is
+no doubt that the villain is scheming something; and there is also no
+doubt that we are surrounded by spies."
+
+One afternoon, he received a newspaper in which the following paragraph
+was marked in red pencil:
+
+
+    "The signing of the marriage-contract is fixed for this evening, at
+    the Sarzeau-Vendôme town-house. It will be quite a private ceremony
+    and only a few privileged friends will be present to congratulate
+    the happy pair. The witnesses to the contract on behalf of Mlle. de
+    Sarzeau-Vendôme, the Prince de la Rochefoucauld-Limours and the
+    Comte de Chartres, will be introduced by M. Arsène Lupin to the two
+    gentlemen who have claimed the honour of acting as his groomsmen,
+    namely, the prefect of police and the governor of the Santé
+    Prison."
+
+
+Ten minutes later, the duke sent his servant Hyacinthe to the post with
+three express messages. At four o'clock, in Angélique's presence, he saw
+the three cousins: Mussy, fat, heavy, pasty-faced; d'Emboise, slender,
+fresh-coloured and shy: Caorches, short, thin and unhealthy-looking: all
+three, old bachelors by this time, lacking distinction in dress or
+appearance.
+
+The meeting was a short one. The duke had worked out his whole plan of
+campaign, a defensive campaign, of which he set forth the first stage in
+explicit terms:
+
+"Angélique and I will leave Paris to-night for our place in Brittany. I
+rely on you, my three nephews, to help us get away. You, d'Emboise, will
+come and fetch us in your car, with the hood up. You, Mussy, will bring
+your big motor and kindly see to the luggage with Hyacinthe, my man.
+You, Caorches, will go to the Gare d'Orléans and book our berths in the
+sleeping-car for Vannes by the 10.40 train. Is that settled?"
+
+The rest of the day passed without incident. The duke, to avoid any
+accidental indiscretion, waited until after dinner to tell Hyacinthe to
+pack a trunk and a portmanteau. Hyacinthe was to accompany them, as well
+as Angélique's maid.
+
+At nine o'clock, all the other servants went to bed, by their master's
+order. At ten minutes to ten, the duke, who was completing his
+preparations, heard the sound of a motor-horn. The porter opened the
+gates of the courtyard. The duke, standing at the window, recognized
+d'Emboise's landaulette:
+
+"Tell him I shall be down presently," he said to Hyacinthe, "and let
+mademoiselle know."
+
+In a few minutes, as Hyacinthe did not return, he left his room. But he
+was attacked on the landing by two masked men, who gagged and bound him
+before he could utter a cry. And one of the men said to him, in a low
+voice:
+
+"Take this as a first warning, monsieur le duc. If you persist in
+leaving Paris and refusing your consent, it will be a more serious
+matter."
+
+And the same man said to his companion:
+
+"Keep an eye on him. I will see to the young lady."
+
+By that time, two other confederates had secured the lady's maid; and
+Angélique, herself gagged, lay fainting on a couch in her boudoir.
+
+She came to almost immediately, under the stimulus of a bottle of salts
+held to her nostrils; and, when she opened her eyes, she saw bending
+over her a young man, in evening-clothes, with a smiling and friendly
+face, who said:
+
+"I implore your forgiveness, mademoiselle. All these happenings are a
+trifle sudden and this behaviour rather out of the way. But
+circumstances often compel us to deeds of which our conscience does not
+approve. Pray pardon me."
+
+He took her hand very gently and slipped a broad gold ring on the girl's
+finger, saying:
+
+"There, now we are engaged. Never forget the man who gave you this ring.
+He entreats you not to run away from him ... and to stay in Paris and
+await the proofs of his devotion. Have faith in him."
+
+He said all this in so serious and respectful a voice, with so much
+authority and deference, that she had not the strength to resist. Their
+eyes met. He whispered:
+
+"The exquisite purity of your eyes! It would be heavenly to live with
+those eyes upon one. Now close them...."
+
+He withdrew. His accomplices followed suit. The car drove off, and the
+house in the Rue de Varennes remained still and silent until the moment
+when Angélique, regaining complete consciousness, called out for the
+servants.
+
+They found the duke, Hyacinthe, the lady's maid and the porter and his
+wife all tightly bound. A few priceless ornaments had disappeared, as
+well as the duke's pocket-book and all his jewellery; tie pins, pearl
+studs, watch and so on.
+
+The police were advised without delay. In the morning it appeared that,
+on the evening before, d'Emboise, when leaving his house in the
+motor-car, was stabbed by his own chauffeur and thrown, half-dead, into
+a deserted street. Mussy and Caorches had each received a
+telephone-message, purporting to come from the duke, countermanding
+their attendance.
+
+Next week, without troubling further about the police investigation,
+without obeying the summons of the examining-magistrate, without even
+reading Arsène Lupin's letters to the papers on "the Varennes Flight,"
+the duke, his daughter and his valet stealthily took a slow train for
+Vannes and arrived one evening, at the old feudal castle that towers
+over the headland of Sarzeau. The duke at once organized a defence with
+the aid of the Breton peasants, true mediæval vassals to a man. On the
+fourth day, Mussy arrived; on the fifth, Caorches; and, on the seventh,
+d'Emboise, whose wound was not as severe as had been feared.
+
+The duke waited two days longer before communicating to those about him
+what, now that his escape had succeeded in spite of Lupin, he called the
+second part of his plan. He did so, in the presence of the three
+cousins, by a dictatorial order to Angélique, expressed in these
+peremptory terms:
+
+"All this bother is upsetting me terribly. I have entered on a struggle
+with this man whose daring you have seen for yourself; and the struggle
+is killing me. I want to end it at all costs. There is only one way of
+doing so, Angélique, and that is for you to release me from all
+responsibility by accepting the hand of one of your cousins. Before a
+month is out, you must be the wife of Mussy, Caorches or d'Emboise. You
+have a free choice. Make your decision."
+
+For four whole days Angélique wept and entreated her father, but in
+vain. She felt that he would be inflexible and that she must end by
+submitting to his wishes. She accepted:
+
+"Whichever you please, father. I love none of them. So I may as well be
+unhappy with one as with the other."
+
+Thereupon a fresh discussion ensued, as the duke wanted to compel her to
+make her own choice. She stood firm. Reluctantly and for financial
+considerations, he named d'Emboise.
+
+The banns were published without delay.
+
+From that moment, the watch in and around the castle was increased
+twofold, all the more inasmuch as Lupin's silence and the sudden
+cessation of the campaign which he had been conducting in the press
+could not but alarm the Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme. It was obvious that the
+enemy was getting ready to strike and would endeavour to oppose the
+marriage by one of his characteristic moves.
+
+Nevertheless, nothing happened: nothing two days before the ceremony,
+nothing on the day before, nothing on the morning itself. The marriage
+took place in the mayor's office, followed by the religious celebration
+in church; and the thing was done.
+
+Then and not till then, the duke breathed freely. Notwithstanding his
+daughter's sadness, notwithstanding the embarrassed silence of his
+son-in-law, who found the situation a little trying, he rubbed his hands
+with an air of pleasure, as though he had achieved a brilliant victory:
+
+"Tell them to lower the drawbridge," he said to Hyacinthe, "and to admit
+everybody. We have nothing more to fear from that scoundrel."
+
+After the wedding-breakfast, he had wine served out to the peasants and
+clinked glasses with them. They danced and sang.
+
+At three o'clock, he returned to the ground-floor rooms. It was the hour
+for his afternoon nap. He walked to the guard-room at the end of the
+suite. But he had no sooner placed his foot on the threshold than he
+stopped suddenly and exclaimed:
+
+"What are you doing here, d'Emboise? Is this a joke?"
+
+D'Emboise was standing before him, dressed as a Breton fisherman, in a
+dirty jacket and breeches, torn, patched and many sizes too large for
+him.
+
+The duke seemed dumbfounded. He stared with eyes of amazement at that
+face which he knew and which, at the same time, roused memories of a
+very distant past within his brain. Then he strode abruptly to one of
+the windows overlooking the castle-terrace and called:
+
+"Angélique!"
+
+"What is it, father?" she asked, coming forward.
+
+"Where's your husband?"
+
+"Over there, father," said Angélique, pointing to d'Emboise, who was
+smoking a cigarette and reading, some way off.
+
+The duke stumbled and fell into a chair, with a great shudder of fright:
+
+"Oh, I shall go mad!"
+
+But the man in the fisherman's garb knelt down before him and said:
+
+"Look at me, uncle. You know me, don't you? I'm your nephew, the one who
+used to play here in the old days, the one whom you called Jacquot....
+Just think a minute.... Here, look at this scar...."
+
+"Yes, yes," stammered the duke, "I recognize you. It's Jacques. But the
+other one...."
+
+He put his hands to his head:
+
+"And yet, no, it can't be ... Explain yourself.... I don't
+understand.... I don't want to understand...."
+
+There was a pause, during which the newcomer shut the window and closed
+the door leading to the next room. Then he came up to the old duke,
+touched him gently on the shoulder, to wake him from his torpor, and
+without further preface, as though to cut short any explanation that was
+not absolutely necessary, spoke as follows:
+
+"Four years ago, that is to say, in the eleventh year of my voluntary
+exile, when I settled in the extreme south of Algeria, I made the
+acquaintance, in the course of a hunting-expedition arranged by a big
+Arab chief, of a man whose geniality, whose charm of manner, whose
+consummate prowess, whose indomitable pluck, whose combined humour and
+depth of mind fascinated me in the highest degree. The Comte d'Andrésy
+spent six weeks as my guest. After he left, we kept up a correspondence
+at regular intervals. I also often saw his name in the papers, in the
+society and sporting columns. He was to come back and I was preparing to
+receive him, three months ago, when, one evening as I was out riding, my
+two Arab attendants flung themselves upon me, bound me, blindfolded me
+and took me, travelling day and night, for a week, along deserted roads,
+to a bay on the coast, where five men awaited them. I was at once
+carried on board a small steam-yacht, which weighed anchor without
+delay. There was nothing to tell me who the men were nor what their
+object was in kidnapping me. They had locked me into a narrow cabin,
+secured by a massive door and lighted by a port-hole protected by two
+iron cross-bars. Every morning, a hand was inserted through a hatch
+between the next cabin and my own and placed on my bunk two or three
+pounds of bread, a good helping of food and a flagon of wine and removed
+the remains of yesterday's meals, which I put there for the purpose.
+From time to time, at night, the yacht stopped and I heard the sound of
+the boat rowing to some harbour and then returning, doubtless with
+provisions. Then we set out once more, without hurrying, as though on a
+cruise of people of our class, who travel for pleasure and are not
+pressed for time. Sometimes, standing on a chair, I would see the
+coastline, through my port-hole, too indistinctly, however, to locate
+it. And this lasted for weeks. One morning, in the ninth week, I
+perceived that the hatch had been left unfastened and I pushed it open.
+The cabin was empty at the time. With an effort, I was able to take a
+nail-file from a dressing-table. Two weeks after that, by dint of
+patient perseverance, I had succeeded in filing through the bars of my
+port-hole and I could have escaped that way, only, though I am a good
+swimmer, I soon grow tired. I had therefore to choose a moment when the
+yacht was not too far from the land. It was not until yesterday that,
+perched on my chair, I caught sight of the coast; and, in the evening,
+at sunset, I recognized, to my astonishment, the outlines of the
+Château de Sarzeau, with its pointed turrets and its square keep. I
+wondered if this was the goal of my mysterious voyage. All night long,
+we cruised in the offing. The same all day yesterday. At last, this
+morning, we put in at a distance which I considered favourable, all the
+more so as we were steaming through rocks under cover of which I could
+swim unobserved. But, just as I was about to make my escape, I noticed
+that the shutter of the hatch, which they thought they had closed, had
+once more opened of itself and was flapping against the partition. I
+again pushed it ajar from curiosity. Within arm's length was a little
+cupboard which I managed to open and in which my hand, groping at
+random, laid hold of a bundle of papers. This consisted of letters,
+letters containing instructions addressed to the pirates who held me
+prisoner. An hour later, when I wriggled through the port-hole and
+slipped into the sea, I knew all: the reasons for my abduction, the
+means employed, the object in view and the infamous scheme plotted
+during the last three months against the Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme and his
+daughter. Unfortunately, it was too late. I was obliged, in order not to
+be seen from the yacht, to crouch in the cleft of a rock and did not
+reach land until mid-day. By the time that I had been to a fisherman's
+cabin, exchanged my clothes for his and come on here, it was three
+o'clock. On my arrival. I learnt that Angélique's marriage was
+celebrated this morning."
+
+The old duke had not spoken a word. With his eyes riveted on the
+stranger's, he was listening in ever-increasing dismay. At times, the
+thought of the warnings given him by the prefect of police returned to
+his mind:
+
+"They're nursing you, monsieur le duc, they are nursing you."
+
+He said, in a hollow voice:
+
+"Speak on ... finish your story.... All this is ghastly.... I don't
+understand it yet ... and I feel nervous...."
+
+The stranger resumed:
+
+"I am sorry to say, the story is easily pieced together and is summed up
+in a few sentences. It is like this: the Comte d'Andrésy remembered
+several things from his stay with me and from the confidences which I
+was foolish enough to make to him. First of all, I was your nephew and
+yet you had seen comparatively little of me, because I left Sarzeau when
+I was quite a child, and since then our intercourse was limited to the
+few weeks which I spent here, fifteen years ago, when I proposed for the
+hand of my Cousin Angélique; secondly, having broken with the past, I
+received no letters; lastly, there was a certain physical resemblance
+between d'Andrésy and myself which could be accentuated to such an
+extent as to become striking. His scheme was built up on those three
+points. He bribed my Arab servants to give him warning in case I left
+Algeria. Then he went back to Paris, bearing my name and made up to look
+exactly like me, came to see you, was invited to your house once a
+fortnight and lived under my name, which thus became one of the many
+aliases beneath which he conceals his real identity. Three months ago,
+when 'the apple was ripe,' as he says in his letters, he began the
+attack by a series of communications to the press; and, at the same
+time, fearing no doubt that some newspaper would tell me in Algeria the
+part that was being played under my name in Paris, he had me assaulted
+by my servants and kidnapped by his confederates. I need not explain any
+more in so far as you are concerned, uncle."
+
+The Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme was shaken with a fit of nervous trembling.
+The awful truth to which he refused to open his eyes appeared to him in
+its nakedness and assumed the hateful countenance of the enemy. He
+clutched his nephew's hands and said to him, fiercely, despairingly:
+
+"It's Lupin, is it not?"
+
+"Yes, uncle."
+
+"And it's to him ... it's to him that I have given my daughter!"
+
+"Yes, uncle, to him, who has stolen my name of Jacques d'Emboise from me
+and stolen your daughter from you. Angélique is the wedded wife of
+Arsène Lupin; and that in accordance with your orders. This letter in
+his handwriting bears witness to it. He has upset your whole life,
+thrown you off your balance, besieging your hours of waking and your
+nights of dreaming, rifling your town-house, until the moment when,
+seized with terror, you took refuge here, where, thinking that you would
+escape his artifices and his rapacity, you told your daughter to choose
+one of her three cousins, Mussy, d'Emboise or Caorches, as her husband.
+
+"But why did she select that one rather than the others?"
+
+"It was you who selected him, uncle."
+
+"At random ... because he had the biggest income...."
+
+"No, not at random, but on the insidious, persistent and very clever
+advice of your servant Hyacinthe."
+
+The duke gave a start:
+
+"What! Is Hyacinthe an accomplice?"
+
+"No, not of Arsène Lupin, but of the man whom he believes to be
+d'Emboise and who promised to give him a hundred thousand francs within
+a week after the marriage."
+
+"Oh, the villain!... He planned everything, foresaw everything...."
+
+"Foresaw everything, uncle, down to shamming an attempt upon his life so
+as to avert suspicion, down to shamming a wound received in your
+service."
+
+"But with what object? Why all these dastardly tricks?"
+
+"Angélique has a fortune of eleven million francs. Your solicitor in
+Paris was to hand the securities next week to the counterfeit d'Emboise,
+who had only to realize them forthwith and disappear. But, this very
+morning, you yourself were to hand your son-in-law, as a personal
+wedding-present, five hundred thousand francs' worth of bearer-stock,
+which he has arranged to deliver to one of his accomplices at nine
+o'clock this evening, outside the castle, near the Great Oak, so that
+they may be negotiated to-morrow morning in Brussels."
+
+The Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme had risen from his seat and was stamping
+furiously up and down the room:
+
+"At nine o'clock this evening?" he said. "We'll see about that.... We'll
+see about that.... I'll have the gendarmes here before then...."
+
+"Arsène Lupin laughs at gendarmes."
+
+"Let's telegraph to Paris."
+
+"Yes, but how about the five hundred thousand francs?... And, still
+worse, uncle, the scandal?... Think of this: your daughter, Angélique de
+Sarzeau-Vendôme, married to that swindler, that thief.... No, no, it
+would never do...."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"What?..."
+
+The nephew now rose and, stepping to a gun-rack, took down a rifle and
+laid it on the table, in front of the duke:
+
+"Away in Algeria, uncle, on the verge of the desert, when we find
+ourselves face to face with a wild beast, we do not send for the
+gendarmes. We take our rifle and we shoot the wild beast. Otherwise, the
+beast would tear us to pieces with its claws."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that, over there, I acquired the habit of dispensing with the
+gendarmes. It is a rather summary way of doing justice, but it is the
+best way, believe me, and to-day, in the present case, it is the only
+way. Once the beast is killed, you and I will bury it in some corner,
+unseen and unknown."
+
+"And Angélique?"
+
+"We will tell her later."
+
+"What will become of her?"
+
+"She will be my wife, the wife of the real d'Emboise. I desert her
+to-morrow and return to Algeria. The divorce will be granted in two
+months' time."
+
+The duke listened, pale and staring, with set jaws. He whispered:
+
+"Are you sure that his accomplices on the yacht will not inform him of
+your escape?"
+
+"Not before to-morrow."
+
+"So that ...?"
+
+"So that inevitably, at nine o'clock this evening, Arsène Lupin, on his
+way to the Great Oak, will take the patrol-path that follows the old
+ramparts and skirts the ruins of the chapel. I shall be there, in the
+ruins."
+
+"I shall be there too," said the Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme, quietly, taking
+down a gun.
+
+It was now five o'clock. The duke talked some time longer to his nephew,
+examined the weapons, loaded them with fresh cartridges. Then, when
+night came, he took d'Emboise through the dark passages to his bedroom
+and hid him in an adjoining closet.
+
+Nothing further happened until dinner. The duke forced himself to keep
+calm during the meal. From time to time, he stole a glance at his
+son-in-law and was surprised at the likeness between him and the real
+d'Emboise. It was the same complexion, the same cast of features, the
+same cut of hair. Nevertheless, the look of the eye was different,
+keener in this case and brighter; and gradually the duke discovered
+minor details which had passed unperceived till then and which proved
+the fellow's imposture.
+
+The party broke up after dinner. It was eight o'clock. The duke went to
+his room and released his nephew. Ten minutes later, under cover of the
+darkness, they slipped into the ruins, gun in hand.
+
+Meanwhile, Angélique, accompanied by her husband, had gone to the suite
+of rooms which she occupied on the ground-floor of a tower that flanked
+the left wing. Her husband stopped at the entrance to the rooms and
+said:
+
+"I am going for a short stroll, Angélique. May I come to you here, when
+I return?"
+
+"Yes," she replied.
+
+He left her and went up to the first floor, which had been assigned to
+him as his quarters. The moment he was alone, he locked the door,
+noiselessly opened a window that looked over the landscape and leant
+out. He saw a shadow at the foot of the tower, some hundred feet or more
+below him. He whistled and received a faint whistle in reply.
+
+He then took from a cupboard a thick leather satchel, crammed with
+papers, wrapped it in a piece of black cloth and tied it up. Then he
+sat down at the table and wrote:
+
+
+    "Glad you got my message, for I think it unsafe to walk out of the
+    castle with that large bundle of securities. Here they are. You
+    will be in Paris, on your motor-cycle, in time to catch the morning
+    train to Brussels, where you will hand over the bonds to Z.; and he
+    will negotiate them at once.
+
+                                                                 "A. L.
+
+    "P. S.--As you pass by the Great Oak, tell our chaps that I'm
+    coming. I have some instructions to give them. But everything is
+    going well. No one here has the least suspicion."
+
+
+He fastened the letter to the parcel and lowered both through the window
+with a length of string:
+
+"Good," he said. "That's all right. It's a weight off my mind."
+
+He waited a few minutes longer, stalking up and down the room and
+smiling at the portraits of two gallant gentlemen hanging on the wall:
+
+"Horace de Sarzeau-Vendôme, marshal of France.... And you, the Great
+Condé ... I salute you, my ancestors both. Lupin de Sarzeau-Vendôme will
+show himself worthy of you."
+
+At last, when the time came, he took his hat and went down. But, when he
+reached the ground-floor, Angélique burst from her rooms and exclaimed,
+with a distraught air:
+
+"I say ... if you don't mind ... I think you had better...."
+
+And then, without saying more, she went in again, leaving a vision of
+irresponsible terror in her husband's mind.
+
+"She's out of sorts," he said to himself. "Marriage doesn't suit her."
+
+He lit a cigarette and went out, without attaching importance to an
+incident that ought to have impressed him:
+
+"Poor Angélique! This will all end in a divorce...."
+
+The night outside was dark, with a cloudy sky.
+
+The servants were closing the shutters of the castle. There was no light
+in the windows, it being the duke's habit to go to bed soon after
+dinner.
+
+Lupin passed the gate-keeper's lodge and, as he put his foot on the
+drawbridge, said:
+
+"Leave the gate open. I am going for a breath of air; I shall be back
+soon."
+
+The patrol-path was on the right and ran along one of the old ramparts,
+which used to surround the castle with a second and much larger
+enclosure, until it ended at an almost demolished postern-gate. The
+park, which skirted a hillock and afterward followed the side of a deep
+valley, was bordered on the left by thick coppices.
+
+"What a wonderful place for an ambush!" he said. "A regular cut-throat
+spot!"
+
+He stopped, thinking that he heard a noise. But no, it was a rustling of
+the leaves. And yet a stone went rattling down the slopes, bounding
+against the rugged projections of the rock. But, strange to say, nothing
+seemed to disquiet him. The crisp sea-breeze came blowing over the
+plains of the headland; and he eagerly filled his lungs with it:
+
+"What a thing it is to be alive!" he thought. "Still young, a member of
+the old nobility, a multi-millionaire: what could a man want more?"
+
+At a short distance, he saw against the darkness the yet darker outline
+of the chapel, the ruins of which towered above the path. A few drops of
+rain began to fall; and he heard a clock strike nine. He quickened his
+pace. There was a short descent; then the path rose again. And suddenly,
+he stopped once more.
+
+A hand had seized his.
+
+He drew back, tried to release himself.
+
+But some one stepped from the clump of trees against which he was
+brushing; and a voice said; "Ssh!... Not a word!..."
+
+He recognized his wife, Angélique:
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked.
+
+She whispered, so low that he could hardly catch the words:
+
+"They are lying in wait for you ... they are in there, in the ruins,
+with their guns...."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Keep quiet.... Listen...."
+
+They stood for a moment without stirring; then she said:
+
+"They are not moving.... Perhaps they never heard me.... Let's go
+back...."
+
+"But...."
+
+"Come with me."
+
+Her accent was so imperious that he obeyed without further question. But
+suddenly she took fright:
+
+"Run!... They are coming!... I am sure of it!..."
+
+True enough, they heard a sound of footsteps.
+
+Then, swiftly, still holding him by the hand, she dragged him, with
+irresistible energy, along a shortcut, following its turns without
+hesitation in spite of the darkness and the brambles. And they very soon
+arrived at the drawbridge.
+
+She put her arm in his. The gate-keeper touched his cap. They crossed
+the courtyard and entered the castle; and she led him to the corner
+tower in which both of them had their apartments:
+
+"Come in here," she said.
+
+"To your rooms?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Two maids were sitting up for her. Their mistress ordered them to retire
+to their bedrooms, on the third floor.
+
+Almost immediately after, there was a knock at the door of the outer
+room; and a voice called:
+
+"Angélique!"
+
+"Is that you, father?" she asked, suppressing her agitation.
+
+"Yes. Is your husband here?"
+
+"We have just come in."
+
+"Tell him I want to speak to him. Ask him to come to my room. It's
+important."
+
+"Very well, father, I'll send him to you."
+
+She listened for a few seconds, then returned to the boudoir where her
+husband was and said:
+
+"I am sure my father is still there."
+
+He moved as though to go out:
+
+"In that case, if he wants to speak to me...."
+
+"My father is not alone," she said, quickly, blocking his way.
+
+"Who is with him?"
+
+"His nephew, Jacques d'Emboise."
+
+There was a moment's silence. He looked at her with a certain
+astonishment, failing quite to understand his wife's attitude. But,
+without pausing to go into the matter:
+
+"Ah, so that dear old d'Emboise is there?" he chuckled. "Then the fat's
+in the fire? Unless, indeed...."
+
+"My father knows everything," she said. "I overheard a conversation
+between them just now. His nephew has read certain letters.... I
+hesitated at first about telling you.... Then I thought that my
+duty...."
+
+He studied her afresh. But, at once conquered by the queerness of the
+situation, he burst out laughing:
+
+"What? Don't my friends on board ship burn my letters? And they have let
+their prisoner escape? The idiots! Oh, when you don't see to everything
+yourself!... No matter, its distinctly humorous.... D'Emboise versus
+d'Emboise.... Oh, but suppose I were no longer recognized? Suppose
+d'Emboise himself were to confuse me with himself?"
+
+He turned to a wash-hand-stand, took a towel, dipped it in the basin and
+soaped it and, in the twinkling of an eye, wiped the make-up from his
+face and altered the set of his hair:
+
+"That's it," he said, showing himself to Angélique under the aspect in
+which she had seen him on the night of the burglary in Paris. "I feel
+more comfortable like this for a discussion with my father-in-law."
+
+"Where are you going?" she cried, flinging herself in front of the door.
+
+"Why, to join the gentlemen."
+
+"You shall not pass!"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Suppose they kill you?"
+
+"Kill me?"
+
+"That's what they mean to do, to kill you ... to hide your body
+somewhere.... Who would know of it?"
+
+"Very well," he said, "from their point of view, they are quite right.
+But, if I don't go to them, they will come here. That door won't stop
+them.... Nor you, I'm thinking. Therefore, it's better to have done with
+it."
+
+"Follow me," commanded Angélique.
+
+She took up the lamp that lit the room, went into her bedroom, pushed
+aside the wardrobe, which slid easily on hidden castors, pulled back an
+old tapestry-hanging, and said:
+
+"Here is a door that has not been used for years. My father believes the
+key to be lost. I have it here. Unlock the door with it. A staircase in
+the wall will take you to the bottom of the tower. You need only draw
+the bolts of another door and you will be free."
+
+He could hardly believe his ears. Suddenly, he grasped the meaning of
+Angélique's whole behaviour. In front of that sad, plain, but
+wonderfully gentle face, he stood for a moment discountenanced, almost
+abashed. He no longer thought of laughing. A feeling of respect, mingled
+with remorse and kindness, overcame him.
+
+"Why are you saving me?" he whispered.
+
+"You are my husband."
+
+He protested:
+
+"No, no ... I have stolen that title. The law will never recognize my
+marriage."
+
+"My father does not want a scandal," she said.
+
+"Just so," he replied, sharply, "just so. I foresaw that; and that was
+why I had your cousin d'Emboise near at hand. Once I disappear, he
+becomes your husband. He is the man you have married in the eyes of
+men."
+
+"You are the man I have married in the eyes of the Church."
+
+"The Church! The Church! There are means of arranging matters with the
+Church.... Your marriage can be annulled."
+
+"On what pretext that we can admit?"
+
+He remained silent, thinking over all those points which he had not
+considered, all those points which were trivial and absurd for him, but
+which were serious for her, and he repeated several times:
+
+"This is terrible ... this is terrible.... I should have
+anticipated...."
+
+And, suddenly, seized with an idea, he clapped his hands and cried:
+
+"There, I have it! I'm hand in glove with one of the chief figures at
+the Vatican. The Pope never refuses me anything. I shall obtain an
+audience and I have no doubt that the Holy Father, moved by my
+entreaties...."
+
+His plan was so humorous and his delight so artless that Angélique could
+not help smiling; and she said:
+
+"I am your wife in the eyes of God."
+
+She gave him a look that showed neither scorn nor animosity, nor even
+anger; and he realized that she omitted to see in him the outlaw and the
+evil-doer and remembered only the man who was her husband and to whom
+the priest had bound her until the hour of death.
+
+He took a step toward her and observed her more attentively. She did not
+lower her eyes at first. But she blushed. And never had he seen so
+pathetic a face, marked with such modesty and such dignity. He said to
+her, as on that first evening in Paris:
+
+"Oh, your eyes ... the calm and sadness of your eyes ... the beauty of
+your eyes!"
+
+She dropped her head and stammered:
+
+"Go away ... go ..."
+
+In the presence of her confusion, he received a quick intuition of the
+deeper feelings that stirred her, unknown to herself. To that spinster
+soul, of which he recognized the romantic power of imagination, the
+unsatisfied yearnings, the poring over old-world books, he suddenly
+represented, in that exceptional moment and in consequence of the
+unconventional circumstances of their meetings, somebody special, a
+Byronic hero, a chivalrous brigand of romance. One evening, in spite of
+all obstacles, he, the world-famed adventurer, already ennobled in song
+and story and exalted by his own audacity, had come to her and slipped
+the magic ring upon her finger: a mystic and passionate betrothal, as in
+the days of the _Corsair_ and _Hernani_.... Greatly moved and touched,
+he was on the verge of giving way to an enthusiastic impulse and
+exclaiming:
+
+"Let us go away together!... Let us fly!... You are my bride ... my
+wife.... Share my dangers, my sorrows and my joys.... It will be a
+strange and vigorous, a proud and magnificent life...."
+
+But Angélique's eyes were raised to his again; and they were so pure and
+so noble that he blushed in his turn. This was not the woman to whom
+such words could be addressed.
+
+He whispered:
+
+"Forgive me.... I am a contemptible wretch.... I have wrecked your
+life...."
+
+"No," she replied, softly. "On the contrary, you have shown me where my
+real life lies."
+
+He was about to ask her to explain. But she had opened the door and was
+pointing the way to him. Nothing more could be spoken between them. He
+went out without a word, bowing very low as he passed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A month later, Angélique de Sarzeau-Vendôme, Princesse de Bourbon-Condé,
+lawful wife of Arsène Lupin, took the veil and, under the name of Sister
+Marie-Auguste, buried herself within the walls of the Visitation
+Convent.
+
+On the day of the ceremony, the mother superior of the convent received
+a heavy sealed envelope containing a letter with the following words:
+
+
+    "For Sister Marie-Auguste's poor."
+
+
+Enclosed with the letter were five hundred bank-notes of a thousand
+francs each.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE INVISIBLE PRISONER
+
+
+One day, at about four o'clock, as evening was drawing in, Farmer
+Goussot, with his four sons, returned from a day's shooting. They were
+stalwart men, all five of them, long of limb, broad-chested, with faces
+tanned by sun and wind. And all five displayed, planted on an enormous
+neck and shoulders, the same small head with the low forehead, thin
+lips, beaked nose and hard and repellent cast of countenance. They were
+feared and disliked by all around them. They were a money-grubbing,
+crafty family; and their word was not to be trusted.
+
+On reaching the old barbican-wall that surrounds the Héberville
+property, the farmer opened a narrow, massive door, putting the big key
+back in his pocket after his sons had passed in. And he walked behind
+them, along the path that led through the orchards. Here and there stood
+great trees, stripped by the autumn winds, and clumps of pines, the last
+survivors of the ancient park now covered by old Goussot's farm.
+
+One of the sons said:
+
+"I hope mother has lit a log or two."
+
+"There's smoke coming from the chimney," said the father.
+
+The outhouses and the homestead showed at the end of a lawn; and, above
+them, the village church, whose steeple seemed to prick the clouds that
+trailed along the sky.
+
+"All the guns unloaded?" asked old Goussot.
+
+"Mine isn't," said the eldest. "I slipped in a bullet to blow a
+kestrel's head off...."
+
+He was the one who was proudest of his skill. And he said to his
+brothers:
+
+"Look at that bough, at the top of the cherry tree. See me snap it off."
+
+On the bough sat a scarecrow, which had been there since spring and
+which protected the leafless branches with its idiot arms.
+
+He raised his gun and fired.
+
+The figure came tumbling down with large, comic gestures, and was caught
+on a big, lower branch, where it remained lying stiff on its stomach,
+with a great top hat on its head of rags and its hay-stuffed legs
+swaying from right to left above some water that flowed past the cherry
+tree through a wooden trough.
+
+They all laughed. The father approved:
+
+"A fine shot, my lad. Besides, the old boy was beginning to annoy me. I
+couldn't take my eyes from my plate at meals without catching sight of
+that oaf...."
+
+They went a few steps farther. They were not more than thirty yards from
+the house, when the father stopped suddenly and said:
+
+"Hullo! What's up?"
+
+The sons also had stopped and stood listening. One of them said, under
+his breath:
+
+"It comes from the house ... from the linen-room...."
+
+And another spluttered:
+
+"Sounds like moans.... And mother's alone!"
+
+Suddenly, a frightful scream rang out. All five rushed forward. Another
+scream, followed by cries of despair.
+
+"We're here! We're coming!" shouted the eldest, who was leading.
+
+And, as it was a roundabout way to the door, he smashed in a window with
+his fist and sprang into the old people's bedroom. The room next to it
+was the linen-room, in which Mother Goussot spent most of her time.
+
+"Damnation!" he said, seeing her lying on the floor, with blood all over
+her face. "Dad! Dad!"
+
+"What? Where is she?" roared old Goussot, appearing on the scene. "Good
+lord, what's this?... What have they done to your mother?"
+
+She pulled herself together and, with outstretched arm, stammered:
+
+"Run after him!... This way!... This way!... I'm all right ... only a
+scratch or two.... But run, you! He's taken the money."
+
+The father and sons gave a bound:
+
+"He's taken the money!" bellowed old Goussot, rushing to the door to
+which his wife was pointing. "He's taken the money! Stop thief!"
+
+But a sound of several voices rose at the end of the passage through
+which the other three sons were coming:
+
+"I saw him! I saw him!"
+
+"So did I! He ran up the stairs."
+
+"No, there he is, he's coming down again!"
+
+A mad steeplechase shook every floor in the house. Farmer Goussot, on
+reaching the end of the passage, caught sight of a man standing by the
+front door trying to open it. If he succeeded, it meant safety, escape
+through the market square and the back lanes of the village.
+
+Interrupted as he was fumbling at the bolts, the man turning stupid,
+lost his head, charged at old Goussot and sent him spinning, dodged the
+eldest brother and, pursued by the four sons, doubled back down the long
+passage, ran into the old couple's bedroom, flung his legs through the
+broken window and disappeared.
+
+The sons rushed after him across the lawns and orchards, now darkened by
+the falling night.
+
+"The villain's done for," chuckled old Goussot. "There's no way out for
+him. The walls are too high. He's done for, the scoundrel!"
+
+The two farm-hands returned, at that moment, from the village; and he
+told them what had happened and gave each of them a gun:
+
+"If the swine shows his nose anywhere near the house," he said, "let fly
+at him. Give him no mercy!"
+
+He told them where to stand, went to make sure that the farm-gates,
+which were only used for the carts, were locked, and, not till then,
+remembered that his wife might perhaps be in need of aid:
+
+"Well, mother, how goes it?"
+
+"Where is he? Have you got him?" she asked, in a breath.
+
+"Yes, we're after him. The lads must have collared him by now."
+
+The news quite restored her; and a nip of rum gave her the strength to
+drag herself to the bed, with old Goussot's assistance, and to tell her
+story. For that matter, there was not much to tell. She had just lit the
+fire in the living-hall; and she was knitting quietly at her bedroom
+window, waiting for the men to return, when she thought that she heard
+a slight grating sound in the linen-room next door:
+
+"I must have left the cat in there," she thought to herself.
+
+She went in, suspecting nothing, and was astonished to see the two doors
+of one of the linen-cupboards, the one in which they hid their money,
+wide open. She walked up to it, still without suspicion. There was a man
+there, hiding, with his back to the shelves.
+
+"But how did he get in?" asked old Goussot.
+
+"Through the passage, I suppose. We never keep the back door shut."
+
+"And then did he go for you?"
+
+"No, I went for him. He tried to get away."
+
+"You should have let him."
+
+"And what about the money?"
+
+"Had he taken it by then?"
+
+"Had he taken it! I saw the bundle of bank-notes in his hands, the
+sweep! I would have let him kill me sooner.... Oh, we had a sharp
+tussle, I give you my word!"
+
+"Then he had no weapon?'
+
+"No more than I did. We had our fingers, our nails and our teeth. Look
+here, where he bit me. And I yelled and screamed! Only, I'm an old woman
+you see.... I had to let go of him...."
+
+"Do you know the man?"
+
+"I'm pretty sure it was old Trainard."
+
+"The tramp? Why, of course it's old Trainard!" cried the farmer. "I
+thought I knew him too.... Besides, he's been hanging round the house
+these last three days. The old vagabond must have smelt the money. Aha,
+Trainard, my man, we shall see some fun! A number-one hiding in the
+first place; and then the police.... I say, mother, you can get up now,
+can't you? Then go and fetch the neighbours.... Ask them to run for the
+gendarmes.... By the by, the attorney's youngster has a bicycle.... How
+that damned old Trainard scooted! He's got good legs for his age, he
+has. He can run like a hare!"
+
+Goussot was holding his sides, revelling in the occurrence. He risked
+nothing by waiting. No power on earth could help the tramp escape or
+keep him from the sound thrashing which he had earned and from being
+conveyed, under safe escort, to the town gaol.
+
+The farmer took a gun and went out to his two labourers:
+
+"Anything fresh?"
+
+"No, Farmer Goussot, not yet."
+
+"We sha'n't have long to wait. Unless old Nick carries him over the
+walls...."
+
+From time to time, they heard the four brothers hailing one another in
+the distance. The old bird was evidently making a fight for it, was
+more active than they would have thought. Still, with sturdy fellows
+like the Goussot brothers....
+
+However, one of them returned, looking rather crestfallen, and made no
+secret of his opinion:
+
+"It's no use keeping on at it for the present. It's pitch dark. The old
+chap must have crept into some hole. We'll hunt him out to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow! Why, lad, you're off your chump!" protested the farmer.
+
+The eldest son now appeared, quite out of breath, and was of the same
+opinion as his brother. Why not wait till next day, seeing that the
+ruffian was as safe within the demesne as between the walls of a prison?
+
+"Well, I'll go myself," cried old Goussot. "Light me a lantern,
+somebody!"
+
+But, at that moment, three gendarmes arrived; and a number of village
+lads also came up to hear the latest.
+
+The sergeant of gendarmes was a man of method. He first insisted on
+hearing the whole story, in full detail; then he stopped to think; then
+he questioned the four brothers, separately, and took his time for
+reflection after each deposition. When he had learnt from them that the
+tramp had fled toward the back of the estate, that he had been lost
+sight of repeatedly and that he had finally disappeared near a place
+known as the Crows' Knoll, he meditated once more and announced his
+conclusion:
+
+"Better wait. Old Trainard might slip through our hands, amidst all the
+confusion of a pursuit in the dark, and then good-night, everybody!"
+
+The farmer shrugged his shoulders and, cursing under his breath, yielded
+to the sergeant's arguments. That worthy organized a strict watch,
+distributed the brothers Goussot and the lads from the village under his
+men's eyes, made sure that the ladders were locked away and established
+his headquarters in the dining-room, where he and Farmer Goussot sat and
+nodded over a decanter of old brandy.
+
+The night passed quietly. Every two hours, the sergeant went his rounds
+and inspected the posts. There were no alarms. Old Trainard did not
+budge from his hole.
+
+The battle began at break of day.
+
+It lasted four hours.
+
+In those four hours, the thirteen acres of land within the walls were
+searched, explored, gone over in every direction by a score of men who
+beat the bushes with sticks, trampled over the tall grass, rummaged in
+the hollows of the trees and scattered the heaps of dry leaves. And old
+Trainard remained invisible.
+
+"Well, this is a bit thick!" growled Goussot.
+
+"Beats me altogether," retorted the sergeant.
+
+And indeed there was no explaining the phenomenon. For, after all, apart
+from a few old clumps of laurels and spindle-trees, which were
+thoroughly beaten, all the trees were bare. There was no building, no
+shed, no stack, nothing, in short, that could serve as a hiding-place.
+
+As for the wall, a careful inspection convinced even the sergeant that
+it was physically impossible to scale it.
+
+In the afternoon, the investigations were begun all over again in the
+presence of the examining-magistrate and the public-prosecutor's deputy.
+The results were no more successful. Nay, worse, the officials looked
+upon the matter as so suspicious that they could not restrain their
+ill-humour and asked:
+
+"Are you quite sure, Farmer Goussot, that you and your sons haven't been
+seeing double?"
+
+"And what about my wife?" retorted the farmer, red with anger. "Did she
+see double when the scamp had her by the throat? Go and look at the
+marks, if you doubt me!"
+
+"Very well. But then where is the scamp?"
+
+"Here, between those four walls."
+
+"Very well. Then ferret him out. We give it up. It's quite clear, that
+if a man were hidden within the precincts of this farm, we should have
+found him by now."
+
+"I swear I'll lay hands on him, true as I stand here!" shouted Farmer
+Goussot. "It shall not be said that I've been robbed of six thousand
+francs. Yes, six thousand! There were three cows I sold; and then the
+wheat-crop; and then the apples. Six thousand-franc notes, which I was
+just going to take to the bank. Well, I swear to Heaven that the money's
+as good as in my pocket!"
+
+"That's all right and I wish you luck," said the examining-magistrate,
+as he went away, followed by the deputy and the gendarmes.
+
+The neighbours also walked off in a more or less facetious mood. And, by
+the end of the afternoon, none remained but the Goussots and the two
+farm-labourers.
+
+Old Goussot at once explained his plan. By day, they were to search. At
+night, they were to keep an incessant watch. It would last as long as it
+had to. Hang it, old Trainard was a man like other men; and men have to
+eat and drink! Old Trainard must needs, therefore, come out of his earth
+to eat and drink.
+
+"At most," said Goussot, "he can have a few crusts of bread in his
+pocket, or even pull up a root or two at night. But, as far as drink's
+concerned, no go. There's only the spring. And he'll be a clever dog if
+he gets near that."
+
+He himself, that evening, took up his stand near the spring. Three
+hours later, his eldest son relieved him. The other brothers and the
+farm-hands slept in the house, each taking his turn of the watch and
+keeping all the lamps and candles lit, so that there might be no
+surprise.
+
+So it went on for fourteen consecutive nights. And for fourteen days,
+while two of the men and Mother Goussot remained on guard, the five
+others explored the Héberville ground.
+
+At the end of that fortnight, not a sign.
+
+The farmer never ceased storming. He sent for a retired
+detective-inspector who lived in the neighbouring town. The inspector
+stayed with him for a whole week. He found neither old Trainard nor the
+least clue that could give them any hope of finding old Trainard.
+
+"It's a bit thick!" repeated Farmer Goussot. "For he's there, the
+rascal! As far as being anywhere goes, he's there. So...."
+
+Planting himself on the threshold, he railed at the enemy at the top of
+his voice:
+
+"You blithering idiot, would you rather croak in your hole than fork out
+the money? Then croak, you pig!"
+
+And Mother Goussot, in her turn, yelped, in her shrill voice:
+
+"Is it prison you're afraid of? Hand over the notes and you can hook
+it!"
+
+But old Trainard did not breathe a word; and the husband and wife tired
+their lungs in vain.
+
+Shocking days passed. Farmer Goussot could no longer sleep, lay
+shivering with fever. The sons became morose and quarrelsome and never
+let their guns out of their hands, having no other idea but to shoot the
+tramp.
+
+It was the one topic of conversation in the village; and the Goussot
+story, from being local at first, soon went the round of the press.
+Newspaper-reporters came from the assize-town, from Paris itself, and
+were rudely shown the door by Farmer Goussot.
+
+"Each man his own house," he said. "You mind your business. I mind mine.
+It's nothing to do with any one."
+
+"Still, Farmer Goussot...."
+
+"Go to blazes!"
+
+And he slammed the door in their face.
+
+Old Trainard had now been hidden within the walls of Héberville for
+something like four weeks. The Goussots continued their search as
+doggedly and confidently as ever, but with daily decreasing hope, as
+though they were confronted with one of those mysterious obstacles which
+discourage human effort. And the idea that they would never see their
+money again began to take root in them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One fine morning, at about ten o'clock, a motor-car, crossing the
+village square at full speed, broke down and came to a dead stop.
+
+The driver, after a careful inspection, declared that the repairs would
+take some little time, whereupon the owner of the car resolved to wait
+at the inn and lunch. He was a gentleman on the right side of forty,
+with close-cropped side-whiskers and a pleasant expression of face; and
+he soon made himself at home with the people at the inn.
+
+Of course, they told him the story of the Goussots. He had not heard it
+before, as he had been abroad; but it seemed to interest him greatly. He
+made them give him all the details, raised objections, discussed various
+theories with a number of people who were eating at the same table and
+ended by exclaiming:
+
+"Nonsense! It can't be so intricate as all that. I have had some
+experience of this sort of thing. And, if I were on the premises...."
+
+"That's easily arranged," said the inn-keeper. "I know Farmer
+Goussot.... He won't object...."
+
+The request was soon made and granted. Old Goussot was in one of those
+frames of mind when we are less disposed to protest against outside
+interference. His wife, at any rate, was very firm:
+
+"Let the gentleman come, if he wants to."
+
+The gentleman paid his bill and instructed his driver to try the car on
+the high-road as soon as the repairs were finished:
+
+"I shall want an hour," he said, "no more. Be ready in an hour's time."
+
+Then he went to Farmer Goussot's.
+
+He did not say much at the farm. Old Goussot, hoping against hope, was
+lavish with information, took his visitor along the walls down to the
+little door opening on the fields, produced the key and gave minute
+details of all the searches that had been made so far.
+
+Oddly enough, the stranger, who hardly spoke, seemed not to listen
+either. He merely looked, with a rather vacant gaze. When they had been
+round the estate, old Goussot asked, anxiously:
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well what?"
+
+"Do you think you know?"
+
+The visitor stood for a moment without answering. Then he said:
+
+"No, nothing."
+
+"Why, of course not!" cried the farmer, throwing up his arms. "How
+should you know! It's all hanky-panky. Shall I tell you what I think?
+Well, that old Trainard has been so jolly clever that he's lying dead in
+his hole ... and the bank-notes are rotting with him. Do you hear? You
+can take my word for it."
+
+The gentleman said, very calmly:
+
+"There's only one thing that interests me. The tramp, all said and done,
+was free at night and able to feed on what he could pick up. But how
+about drinking?"
+
+"Out of the question!" shouted the farmer. "Quite out of the question!
+There's no water except this; and we have kept watch beside it every
+night."
+
+"It's a spring. Where does it rise?"
+
+"Here, where we stand."
+
+"Is there enough pressure to bring it into the pool of itself?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And where does the water go when it runs out of the pool?"
+
+"Into this pipe here, which goes under ground and carries it to the
+house, for use in the kitchen. So there's no way of drinking, seeing
+that we were there and that the spring is twenty yards from the house."
+
+"Hasn't it rained during the last four weeks?"
+
+"Not once: I've told you that already."
+
+The stranger went to the spring and examined it. The trough was formed
+of a few boards of wood joined together just above the ground; and the
+water ran through it, slow and clear.
+
+"The water's not more than a foot deep, is it?" he asked.
+
+In order to measure it, he picked up from the grass a straw which he
+dipped into the pool. But, as he was stooping, he suddenly broke off and
+looked around him.
+
+"Oh, how funny!" he said, bursting into a peal of laughter.
+
+"Why, what's the matter?" spluttered old Goussot, rushing toward the
+pool, as though a man could have lain hidden between those narrow
+boards.
+
+And Mother Goussot clasped her hands.
+
+"What is it? Have you seen him? Where is he?"
+
+"Neither in it nor under it," replied the stranger, who was still
+laughing.
+
+He made for the house, eagerly followed by the farmer, the old woman and
+the four sons. The inn-keeper was there also, as were the people from
+the inn who had been watching the stranger's movements. And there was a
+dead silence, while they waited for the extraordinary disclosure.
+
+"It's as I thought," he said, with an amused expression. "The old chap
+had to quench his thirst somewhere; and, as there was only the
+spring...."
+
+"Oh, but look here," growled Farmer Goussot, "we should have seen him!"
+
+"It was at night."
+
+"We should have heard him ... and seen him too, as we were close by."
+
+"So was he."
+
+"And he drank the water from the pool?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How?"
+
+"From a little way off."
+
+"With what?"
+
+"With this."
+
+And the stranger showed the straw which he had picked up:
+
+"There, here's the straw for the customer's long drink. You will see,
+there's more of it than usual: in fact, it is made of three straws stuck
+into one another. That was the first thing I noticed: those three straws
+fastened together. The proof is conclusive."
+
+"But, hang it all, the proof of what?" cried Farmer Goussot, irritably.
+
+The stranger took a shotgun from the rack.
+
+"Is it loaded?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," said the youngest of the brothers. "I use it to kill the sparrows
+with, for fun. It's small shot."
+
+"Capital! A peppering where it won't hurt him will do the trick."
+
+His face suddenly assumed a masterful look. He gripped the farmer by the
+arm and rapped out, in an imperious tone:
+
+"Listen to me, Farmer Goussot. I'm not here to do policeman's work; and
+I won't have the poor beggar locked up at any price. Four weeks of
+starvation and fright is good enough for anybody. So you've got to swear
+to me, you and your sons, that you'll let him off without hurting him."
+
+"He must hand over the money!"
+
+"Well, of course. Do you swear?"
+
+"I swear."
+
+The gentleman walked back to the door-sill, at the entrance to the
+orchard. He took a quick aim, pointing his gun a little in the air, in
+the direction of the cherry tree which overhung the spring. He fired. A
+hoarse cry rang from the tree; and the scarecrow which had been
+straddling the main branch for a month past came tumbling to the ground,
+only to jump up at once and make off as fast as its legs could carry it.
+
+There was a moment's amazement, followed by outcries. The sons darted in
+pursuit and were not long in coming up with the runaway, hampered as he
+was by his rags and weakened by privation. But the stranger was already
+protecting him against their wrath:
+
+"Hands off there! This man belongs to me. I won't have him touched.... I
+hope I haven't stung you up too much, Trainard?"
+
+Standing on his straw legs wrapped round with strips of tattered cloth,
+with his arms and his whole body clad in the same materials, his head
+swathed in linen, tightly packed like a sausage, the old chap still had
+the stiff appearance of a lay-figure. And the whole effect was so
+ludicrous and so unexpected that the onlookers screamed with laughter.
+
+The stranger unbound his head; and they saw a veiled mask of tangled
+grey beard encroaching on every side upon a skeleton face lit up by two
+eyes burning with fever.
+
+The laughter was louder than ever.
+
+"The money! The six notes!" roared the farmer.
+
+The stranger kept him at a distance:
+
+"One moment ... we'll give you that back, sha'n't we, Trainard?"
+
+And, taking his knife and cutting away the straw and cloth, he jested,
+cheerily:
+
+"You poor old beggar, what a guy you look! But how on earth did you
+manage to pull off that trick? You must be confoundedly clever, or else
+you had the devil's own luck.... So, on the first night, you used the
+breathing-time they left you to rig yourself in these togs! Not a bad
+idea. Who could ever suspect a scarecrow?... They were so accustomed to
+seeing it stuck up in its tree! But, poor old daddy, how uncomfortable
+you must have felt, lying flat up there on your stomach, with your arms
+and legs dangling down! All day long, like that! The deuce of an
+attitude! And how you must have been put to it, when you ventured to
+move a limb, eh? And how you must have funked going to sleep!... And
+then you had to eat! And drink! And you heard the sentry and felt the
+barrel of his gun within a yard of your nose! Brrrr!... But the
+trickiest of all, you know, was your bit of straw!... Upon my word, when
+I think that, without a sound, without a movement so to speak, you had
+to fish out lengths of straw from your toggery, fix them end to end, let
+your apparatus down to the water and suck up the heavenly moisture drop
+by drop.... Upon my word, one could scream with admiration.... Well
+done, Trainard...." And he added, between his teeth, "Only you're in a
+very unappetizing state, my man. Haven't you washed yourself all this
+month, you old pig? After all, you had as much water as you wanted!...
+Here, you people, I hand him over to you. I'm going to wash my hands,
+that's what I'm going to do."
+
+Farmer Goussot and his four sons grabbed at the prey which he was
+abandoning to them:
+
+"Now then, come along, fork out the money."
+
+Dazed as he was, the tramp still managed to simulate astonishment.
+
+"Don't put on that idiot look," growled the farmer. "Come on. Out with
+the six notes...."
+
+"What?... What do you want of me?" stammered old Trainard.
+
+"The money ... on the nail...."
+
+"What money?"
+
+"The bank-notes."
+
+"The bank-notes?"
+
+"Oh, I'm getting sick of you! Here, lads...."
+
+They laid the old fellow flat, tore off the rags that composed his
+clothes, felt and searched him all over.
+
+There was nothing on him.
+
+"You thief and you robber!" yelled old Goussot. "What have you done with
+it?"
+
+The old beggar seemed more dazed than ever. Too cunning to confess, he
+kept on whining:
+
+"What do you want of me?... Money? I haven't three sous to call my
+own...."
+
+But his eyes, wide with wonder, remained fixed upon his clothes; and he
+himself seemed not to understand.
+
+The Goussots' rage could no longer be restrained. They rained blows upon
+him, which did not improve matters. But the farmer was convinced that
+Trainard had hidden the money before turning himself into the scarecrow:
+
+"Where have you put it, you scum? Out with it! In what part of the
+orchard have you hidden it?"
+
+"The money?" repeated the tramp with a stupid look.
+
+"Yes, the money! The money which you've buried somewhere.... Oh, if we
+don't find it, your goose is cooked!... We have witnesses, haven't
+we?... All of you, friends, eh? And then the gentleman...."
+
+He turned, with the intention of addressing the stranger, in the
+direction of the spring, which was thirty or forty steps to the left.
+And he was quite surprised not to see him washing his hands there:
+
+"Has he gone?" he asked.
+
+Some one answered:
+
+"No, he lit a cigarette and went for a stroll in the orchard."
+
+"Oh, that's all right!" said the farmer. "He's the sort to find the
+notes for us, just as he found the man."
+
+"Unless ..." said a voice.
+
+"Unless what?" echoed the farmer. "What do you mean? Have you something
+in your head? Out with it, then! What is it?"
+
+But he interrupted himself suddenly, seized with a doubt; and there was
+a moment's silence. The same idea dawned on all the country-folk. The
+stranger's arrival at Héberville, the breakdown of his motor, his
+manner of questioning the people at the inn and of gaining admission to
+the farm: were not all these part and parcel of a put-up job, the trick
+of a cracksman who had learnt the story from the papers and who had come
+to try his luck on the spot?...
+
+"Jolly smart of him!" said the inn-keeper. "He must have taken the money
+from old Trainard's pocket, before our eyes, while he was searching
+him."
+
+"Impossible!" spluttered Farmer Goussot. "He would have been seen going
+out that way ... by the house ... whereas he's strolling in the
+orchard."
+
+Mother Goussot, all of a heap, suggested:
+
+"The little door at the end, down there?..."
+
+"The key never leaves me."
+
+"But you showed it to him."
+
+"Yes; and I took it back again.... Look, here it is."
+
+He clapped his hand to his pocket and uttered a cry:
+
+"Oh, dash it all, it's gone!... He's sneaked it!..."
+
+He at once rushed away, followed and escorted by his sons and a number
+of the villagers.
+
+When they were halfway down the orchard, they heard the throb of a
+motor-car, obviously the one belonging to the stranger, who had given
+orders to his chauffeur to wait for him at that lower entrance.
+
+When the Goussots reached the door, they saw scrawled with a brick, on
+the worm-eaten panel, the two words:
+
+
+                          "ARSÈNE LUPIN."
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Stick to it as the angry Goussots might, they found it impossible to
+prove that old Trainard had stolen any money. Twenty persons had to bear
+witness that, when all was said, nothing was discovered on his person.
+He escaped with a few months' imprisonment for the assault.
+
+He did not regret them. As soon as he was released, he was secretly
+informed that, every quarter, on a given date, at a given hour, under a
+given milestone on a given road, he would find three gold louis.
+
+To a man like old Trainard that means wealth.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+EDITH SWAN-NECK
+
+
+"Arsène Lupin, what's your real opinion of Inspector Ganimard?"
+
+"A very high one, my dear fellow."
+
+"A very high one? Then why do you never miss a chance of turning him
+into ridicule?"
+
+"It's a bad habit; and I'm sorry for it. But what can I say? It's the
+way of the world. Here's a decent detective-chap, here's a whole pack of
+decent men, who stand for law and order, who protect us against the
+apaches, who risk their lives for honest people like you and me; and we
+have nothing to give them in return but flouts and gibes. It's
+preposterous!"
+
+"Bravo, Lupin! you're talking like a respectable ratepayer!"
+
+"What else am I? I may have peculiar views about other people's
+property; but I assure you that it's very different when my own's at
+stake. By Jove, it doesn't do to lay hands on what belongs to me! Then
+I'm out for blood! Aha! It's _my_ pocket, _my_ money, _my_ watch ...
+hands off! I have the soul of a conservative, my dear fellow, the
+instincts of a retired tradesman and a due respect for every sort of
+tradition and authority. And that is why Ganimard inspires me with no
+little gratitude and esteem."
+
+"But not much admiration?"
+
+"Plenty of admiration too. Over and above the dauntless courage which
+comes natural to all those gentry at the Criminal Investigation
+Department, Ganimard possesses very sterling qualities: decision,
+insight and judgment. I have watched him at work. He's somebody, when
+all's said. Do you know the Edith Swan-neck story, as it was called?"
+
+"I know as much as everybody knows."
+
+"That means that you don't know it at all. Well, that job was, I
+daresay, the one which I thought out most cleverly, with the utmost care
+and the utmost precaution, the one which I shrouded in the greatest
+darkness and mystery, the one which it took the biggest generalship to
+carry through. It was a regular game of chess, played according to
+strict scientific and mathematical rules. And yet Ganimard ended by
+unravelling the knot. Thanks to him, they know the truth to-day on the
+Quai des Orfèvres. And it is a truth quite out of the common, I assure
+you."
+
+"May I hope to hear it?"
+
+"Certainly ... one of these days ... when I have time.... But the
+Brunelli is dancing at the Opera to-night; and, if she were not to see
+me in my stall ...!"
+
+I do not meet Lupin often. He confesses with difficulty, when it suits
+him. It was only gradually, by snatches, by odds and ends of
+confidences, that I was able to obtain the different incidents and to
+piece the story together in all its details.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The main features are well known and I will merely mention the facts.
+
+Three years ago, when the train from Brest arrived at Rennes, the door
+of one of the luggage vans was found smashed in. This van had been
+booked by Colonel Sparmiento, a rich Brazilian, who was travelling with
+his wife in the same train. It contained a complete set of
+tapestry-hangings. The case in which one of these was packed had been
+broken open and the tapestry had disappeared.
+
+Colonel Sparmiento started proceedings against the railway-company,
+claiming heavy damages, not only for the stolen tapestry, but also for
+the loss in value which the whole collection suffered in consequence of
+the theft.
+
+The police instituted inquiries. The company offered a large reward. A
+fortnight later, a letter which had come undone in the post was opened
+by the authorities and revealed the fact that the theft had been
+carried out under the direction of Arsène Lupin and that a package was
+to leave next day for the United States. That same evening, the tapestry
+was discovered in a trunk deposited in the cloak-room at the Gare
+Saint-Lazare.
+
+The scheme, therefore, had miscarried. Lupin felt the disappointment so
+much that he vented his ill-humour in a communication to Colonel
+Sparmiento, ending with the following words, which were clear enough for
+anybody:
+
+
+    "It was very considerate of me to take only one. Next time, I shall
+    take the twelve. _Verbum sap._
+
+                                                 "A. L."
+
+
+Colonel Sparmiento had been living for some months in a house standing
+at the end of a small garden at the corner of the Rue de la Faisanderie
+and the Rue Dufresnoy. He was a rather thick-set, broad-shouldered man,
+with black hair and a swarthy skin, always well and quietly dressed. He
+was married to an extremely pretty but delicate Englishwoman, who was
+much upset by the business of the tapestries. From the first she
+implored her husband to sell them for what they would fetch. The Colonel
+had much too forcible and dogged a nature to yield to what he had every
+right to describe as a woman's fancies. He sold nothing, but he
+redoubled his precautions and adopted every measure that was likely to
+make an attempt at burglary impossible.
+
+To begin with, so that he might confine his watch to the garden-front,
+he walled up all the windows on the ground-floor and the first floor
+overlooking the Rue Dufresnoy. Next, he enlisted the services of a firm
+which made a speciality of protecting private houses against robberies.
+Every window of the gallery in which the tapestries were hung was fitted
+with invisible burglar alarms, the position of which was known, to none
+but himself. These, at the least touch, switched on all the electric
+lights and set a whole system of bells and gongs ringing.
+
+In addition to this, the insurance companies to which he applied refused
+to grant policies to any considerable amount unless he consented to let
+three men, supplied by the companies and paid by himself, occupy the
+ground-floor of his house every night. They selected for the purpose
+three ex-detectives, tried and trustworthy men, all of whom hated Lupin
+like poison. As for the servants, the colonel had known them for years
+and was ready to vouch for them.
+
+After taking these steps and organizing the defence of the house as
+though it were a fortress, the colonel gave a great house-warming, a
+sort of private view, to which he invited the members of both his
+clubs, as well as a certain number of ladies, journalists, art-patrons
+and critics.
+
+They felt, as they passed through the garden-gate, much as if they were
+walking into a prison. The three private detectives, posted at the foot
+of the stairs, asked for each visitor's invitation card and eyed him up
+and down suspiciously, making him feel as though they were going to
+search his pockets or take his finger-prints.
+
+The colonel, who received his guests on the first floor, made laughing
+apologies and seemed delighted at the opportunity of explaining the
+arrangements which he had invented to secure the safety of his hangings.
+His wife stood by him, looking charmingly young and pretty, fair-haired,
+pale and sinuous, with a sad and gentle expression, the expression of
+resignation often worn by those who are threatened by fate.
+
+When all the guests had come, the garden-gates and the hall-doors were
+closed. Then everybody filed into the middle gallery, which was reached
+through two steel doors, while its windows, with their huge shutters,
+were protected by iron bars. This was where the twelve tapestries were
+kept.
+
+They were matchless works of art and, taking their inspiration from the
+famous Bayeux Tapestry, attributed to Queen Matilda, they represented
+the story of the Norman Conquest. They had been ordered in the
+fourteenth century by the descendant of a man-at-arms in William the
+Conqueror's train; were executed by Jehan Gosset, a famous Arras weaver;
+and were discovered, five hundred years later, in an old Breton
+manor-house. On hearing of this, the colonel had struck a bargain for
+fifty thousand francs. They were worth ten times the money.
+
+But the finest of the twelve hangings composing the set, the most
+uncommon because the subject had not been treated by Queen Matilda, was
+the one which Arsène Lupin had stolen and which had been so fortunately
+recovered. It portrayed Edith Swan-neck on the battlefield of Hastings,
+seeking among the dead for the body of her sweetheart Harold, last of
+the Saxon kings.
+
+The guests were lost in enthusiasm over this tapestry, over the
+unsophisticated beauty of the design, over the faded colours, over the
+life-like grouping of the figures and the pitiful sadness of the scene.
+Poor Edith Swan-neck stood drooping like an overweighted lily. Her white
+gown revealed the lines of her languid figure. Her long, tapering hands
+were outstretched in a gesture of terror and entreaty. And nothing could
+be more mournful than her profile, over which flickered the most
+dejected and despairing of smiles.
+
+"A harrowing smile," remarked one of the critics, to whom the others
+listened with deference. "A very charming smile, besides; and it reminds
+me, Colonel, of the smile of Mme. Sparmiento."
+
+And seeing that the observation seemed to meet with approval, he
+enlarged upon his idea:
+
+"There are other points of resemblance that struck me at once, such as
+the very graceful curve of the neck and the delicacy of the hands ...
+and also something about the figure, about the general attitude...."
+
+"What you say is so true," said the colonel, "that I confess that it was
+this likeness that decided me to buy the hangings. And there was another
+reason, which was that, by a really curious chance, my wife's name
+happens to be Edith. I have called her Edith Swan-neck ever since." And
+the colonel added, with a laugh, "I hope that the coincidence will stop
+at this and that my dear Edith will never have to go in search of her
+true-love's body, like her prototype."
+
+He laughed as he uttered these words, but his laugh met with no echo;
+and we find the same impression of awkward silence in all the accounts
+of the evening that appeared during the next few days. The people
+standing near him did not know what to say. One of them tried to jest:
+
+"Your name isn't Harold, Colonel?"
+
+"No, thank you," he declared, with continued merriment. "No, that's not
+my name; nor am I in the least like the Saxon king."
+
+All have since agreed in stating that, at that moment, as the colonel
+finished speaking, the first alarm rang from the windows--the right or
+the middle window: opinions differ on this point--rang short and shrill
+on a single note. The peal of the alarm-bell was followed by an
+exclamation of terror uttered by Mme. Sparmiento, who caught hold of her
+husband's arm. He cried:
+
+"What's the matter? What does this mean?"
+
+The guests stood motionless, with their eyes staring at the windows. The
+colonel repeated:
+
+"What does it mean? I don't understand. No one but myself knows where
+that bell is fixed...."
+
+And, at that moment--here again the evidence is unanimous--at that
+moment came sudden, absolute darkness, followed immediately by the
+maddening din of all the bells and all the gongs, from top to bottom of
+the house, in every room and at every window.
+
+For a few seconds, a stupid disorder, an insane terror, reigned. The
+women screamed. The men banged with their fists on the closed doors.
+They hustled and fought. People fell to the floor and were trampled
+under foot. It was like a panic-stricken crowd, scared by threatening
+flames or by a bursting shell. And, above the uproar, rose the colonel's
+voice, shouting:
+
+"Silence!... Don't move!... It's all right!... The switch is over there,
+in the corner.... Wait a bit.... Here!"
+
+He had pushed his way through his guests and reached a corner of the
+gallery; and, all at once, the electric light blazed up again, while the
+pandemonium of bells stopped.
+
+Then, in the sudden light, a strange sight met the eyes. Two ladies had
+fainted. Mme. Sparmiento, hanging to her husband's arm, with her knees
+dragging on the floor, and livid in the face, appeared half dead. The
+men, pale, with their neckties awry, looked as if they had all been in
+the wars.
+
+"The tapestries are there!" cried some one.
+
+There was a great surprise, as though the disappearance of those
+hangings ought to have been the natural result and the only plausible
+explanation of the incident. But nothing had been moved. A few valuable
+pictures, hanging on the walls, were there still. And, though the same
+din had reverberated all over the house, though all the rooms had been
+thrown into darkness, the detectives had seen no one entering or trying
+to enter.
+
+"Besides," said the colonel, "it's only the windows of the gallery that
+have alarms. Nobody but myself understands how they work; and I had not
+set them yet."
+
+People laughed loudly at the way in which they had been frightened, but
+they laughed without conviction and in a more or less shamefaced
+fashion, for each of them was keenly alive to the absurdity of his
+conduct. And they had but one thought--to get out of that house where,
+say what you would, the atmosphere was one of agonizing anxiety.
+
+Two journalists stayed behind, however; and the colonel joined them,
+after attending to Edith and handing her over to her maids. The three of
+them, together with the detectives, made a search that did not lead to
+the discovery of anything of the least interest. Then the colonel sent
+for some champagne; and the result was that it was not until a late
+hour--to be exact, a quarter to three in the morning--that the
+journalists took their leave, the colonel retired to his quarters, and
+the detectives withdrew to the room which had been set aside for them on
+the ground-floor.
+
+They took the watch by turns, a watch consisting, in the first place, in
+keeping awake and, next, in looking round the garden and visiting the
+gallery at intervals.
+
+These orders were scrupulously carried out, except between five and
+seven in the morning, when sleep gained the mastery and the men ceased
+to go their rounds. But it was broad daylight out of doors. Besides, if
+there had been the least sound of bells, would they not have woke up?
+
+Nevertheless, when one of them, at twenty minutes past seven, opened the
+door of the gallery and flung back the shutters, he saw that the twelve
+tapestries were gone.
+
+This man and the others were blamed afterward for not giving the alarm
+at once and for starting their own investigations before informing the
+colonel and telephoning to the local commissary. Yet this very excusable
+delay can hardly be said to have hampered the action of the police. In
+any case, the colonel was not told until half-past eight. He was dressed
+and ready to go out. The news did not seem to upset him beyond measure,
+or, at least, he managed to control his emotion. But the effort must
+have been too much for him, for he suddenly dropped into a chair and,
+for some moments, gave way to a regular fit of despair and anguish, most
+painful to behold in a man of his resolute appearance.
+
+Recovering and mastering himself, he went to the gallery, stared at the
+bare walls and then sat down at a table and hastily scribbled a letter,
+which he put into an envelope and sealed.
+
+"There," he said. "I'm in a hurry.... I have an important engagement....
+Here is a letter for the commissary of police." And, seeing the
+detectives' eyes upon him, he added, "I am giving the commissary my
+views ... telling him of a suspicion that occurs to me.... He must
+follow it up.... I will do what I can...."
+
+He left the house at a run, with excited gestures which the detectives
+were subsequently to remember.
+
+A few minutes later, the commissary of police arrived. He was handed the
+letter, which contained the following words:
+
+
+    "I am at the end of my tether. The theft of those tapestries
+    completes the crash which I have been trying to conceal for the
+    past year. I bought them as a speculation and was hoping to get a
+    million francs for them, thanks to the fuss that was made about
+    them. As it was, an American offered me six hundred thousand. It
+    meant my salvation. This means utter destruction.
+
+    "I hope that my dear wife will forgive the sorrow which I am
+    bringing upon her. Her name will be on my lips at the last moment."
+
+
+Mme. Sparmiento was informed. She remained aghast with horror, while
+inquiries were instituted and attempts made to trace the colonel's
+movements.
+
+Late in the afternoon, a telephone-message came from Ville d'Avray. A
+gang of railway-men had found a man's body lying at the entrance to a
+tunnel after a train had passed. The body was hideously mutilated; the
+face had lost all resemblance to anything human. There were no papers in
+the pockets. But the description answered to that of the colonel.
+
+Mme. Sparmiento arrived at Ville d'Avray, by motor-car, at seven o'clock
+in the evening. She was taken to a room at the railway-station. When the
+sheet that covered it was removed, Edith, Edith Swan-neck, recognized
+her husband's body.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In these circumstances, Lupin did not receive his usual good notices in
+the press:
+
+
+    "Let him look to himself," jeered one leader-writer, summing up the
+    general opinion. "It would not take many exploits of this kind for
+    him to forfeit the popularity which has not been grudged him
+    hitherto. We have no use for Lupin, except when his rogueries are
+    perpetrated at the expense of shady company-promoters, foreign
+    adventurers, German barons, banks and financial companies. And,
+    above all, no murders! A burglar we can put up with; but a
+    murderer, no! If he is not directly guilty, he is at least
+    responsible for this death. There is blood upon his hands; the
+    arms on his escutcheon are stained gules...."
+
+
+The public anger and disgust were increased by the pity which Edith's
+pale face aroused. The guests of the night before gave their version of
+what had happened, omitting none of the impressive details; and a legend
+formed straightway around the fair-haired Englishwoman, a legend that
+assumed a really tragic character, owing to the popular story of the
+swan-necked heroine.
+
+And yet the public could not withhold its admiration of the
+extraordinary skill with which the theft had been effected. The police
+explained it, after a fashion. The detectives had noticed from the first
+and subsequently stated that one of the three windows of the gallery was
+wide open. There could be no doubt that Lupin and his confederates had
+entered through this window. It seemed a very plausible suggestion.
+Still, in that case, how were they able, first, to climb the garden
+railings, in coming and going, without being seen; secondly, to cross
+the garden and put up a ladder on the flower-border, without leaving the
+least trace behind; thirdly, to open the shutters and the window,
+without starting the bells and switching on the lights in the house?
+
+The police accused the three detectives of complicity. The magistrate
+in charge of the case examined them at length, made minute inquiries
+into their private lives and stated formally that they were above all
+suspicion. As for the tapestries, there seemed to be no hope that they
+would be recovered.
+
+It was at this moment that Chief-inspector Ganimard returned from India,
+where he had been hunting for Lupin on the strength of a number of most
+convincing proofs supplied by former confederates of Lupin himself.
+Feeling that he had once more been tricked by his everlasting adversary,
+fully believing that Lupin had dispatched him on this wild-goose chase
+so as to be rid of him during the business of the tapestries, he asked
+for a fortnight's leave of absence, called on Mme. Sparmiento and
+promised to avenge her husband.
+
+Edith had reached the point at which not even the thought of vengeance
+relieves the sufferer's pain. She had dismissed the three detectives on
+the day of the funeral and engaged just one man and an old
+cook-housekeeper to take the place of the large staff of servants the
+sight of whom reminded her too cruelly of the past. Not caring what
+happened, she kept her room and left Ganimard free to act as he pleased.
+
+He took up his quarters on the ground-floor and at once instituted a
+series of the most minute investigations. He started the inquiry
+afresh, questioned the people in the neighbourhood, studied the
+distribution of the rooms and set each of the burglar-alarms going
+thirty and forty times over.
+
+At the end of the fortnight, he asked for an extension of leave. The
+chief of the detective-service, who was at that time M. Dudouis, came to
+see him and found him perched on the top of a ladder, in the gallery.
+That day, the chief-inspector admitted that all his searches had proved
+useless.
+
+Two days later, however, M. Dudouis called again and discovered Ganimard
+in a very thoughtful frame of mind. A bundle of newspapers lay spread in
+front of him. At last, in reply to his superior's urgent questions, the
+chief-inspector muttered:
+
+"I know nothing, chief, absolutely nothing; but there's a confounded
+notion worrying me.... Only it seems so absurd.... And then it doesn't
+explain things.... On the contrary, it confuses them rather...."
+
+"Then ...?"
+
+"Then I implore you, chief, to have a little patience ... to let me go
+my own way. But if I telephone to you, some day or other, suddenly, you
+must jump into a taxi, without losing a minute. It will mean that I have
+discovered the secret."
+
+Forty-eight hours passed. Then, one morning, M. Dudouis received a
+telegram:
+
+
+"Going to Lille.
+
+                     "GANIMARD."
+
+
+"What the dickens can he want to go to Lille for?" wondered the
+chief-detective.
+
+The day passed without news, followed by another day. But M. Dudouis had
+every confidence in Ganimard. He knew his man, knew that the old
+detective was not one of those people who excite themselves for nothing.
+When Ganimard "got a move on him," it meant that he had sound reasons
+for doing so.
+
+As a matter of fact, on the evening of that second day, M. Dudouis was
+called to the telephone.
+
+"Is that you, chief?"
+
+"Is it Ganimard speaking?"
+
+Cautious men both, they began by making sure of each other's identity.
+As soon as his mind was eased on this point, Ganimard continued,
+hurriedly:
+
+"Ten men, chief, at once. And please come yourself."
+
+"Where are you?"
+
+"In the house, on the ground-floor. But I will wait for you just inside
+the garden-gate."
+
+"I'll come at once. In a taxi, of course?"
+
+"Yes, chief. Stop the taxi fifty yards from the house. I'll let you in
+when you whistle."
+
+Things took place as Ganimard had arranged. Shortly after midnight, when
+all the lights were out on the upper floors, he slipped into the street
+and went to meet M. Dudouis. There was a hurried consultation. The
+officers distributed themselves as Ganimard ordered. Then the chief and
+the chief-inspector walked back together, noiselessly crossed the garden
+and closeted themselves with every precaution:
+
+"Well, what's it all about?" asked M. Dudouis. "What does all this mean?
+Upon my word, we look like a pair of conspirators!"
+
+But Ganimard was not laughing. His chief had never seen him in such a
+state of perturbation, nor heard him speak in a voice denoting such
+excitement:
+
+"Any news, Ganimard?"
+
+"Yes, chief, and ... this time ...! But I can hardly believe it
+myself.... And yet I'm not mistaken: I know the real truth.... It may be
+as unlikely as you please, but it is the truth, the whole truth and
+nothing but the truth."
+
+He wiped away the drops of perspiration that trickled down his forehead
+and, after a further question from M. Dudouis, pulled himself together,
+swallowed a glass of water and began:
+
+"Lupin has often got the better of me...."
+
+"Look here, Ganimard," said M. Dudouis, interrupting him. "Why can't you
+come straight to the point? Tell me, in two words, what's happened."
+
+"No, chief," retorted the chief-inspector, "it is essential that you
+should know the different stages which I have passed through. Excuse me,
+but I consider it indispensable." And he repeated: "I was saying, chief,
+that Lupin has often got the better of me and led me many a dance. But,
+in this contest in which I have always come out worst ... so far ... I
+have at least gained experience of his manner of play and learnt to know
+his tactics. Now, in the matter of the tapestries, it occurred to me
+almost from the start to set myself two problems. In the first place,
+Lupin, who never makes a move without knowing what he is after, was
+obviously aware that Colonel Sparmiento had come to the end of his money
+and that the loss of the tapestries might drive him to suicide.
+Nevertheless, Lupin, who hates the very thought of bloodshed, stole the
+tapestries."
+
+"There was the inducement," said M. Dudouis, "of the five or six hundred
+thousand francs which they are worth."
+
+"No, chief, I tell you once more, whatever the occasion might be, Lupin
+would not take life, nor be the cause of another person's death, for
+anything in this world, for millions and millions. That's the first
+point. In the second place, what was the object of all that disturbance,
+in the evening, during the house-warming party? Obviously, don't you
+think, to surround the business with an atmosphere of anxiety and
+terror, in the shortest possible time, and also to divert suspicion from
+the truth, which, otherwise, might easily have been suspected?... You
+seem not to understand, chief?"
+
+"Upon my word, I do not!"
+
+"As a matter of fact," said Ganimard, "as a matter of fact, it is not
+particularly plain. And I myself, when I put the problem before my mind
+in those same words, did not understand it very clearly.... And yet I
+felt that I was on the right track.... Yes, there was no doubt about it
+that Lupin wanted to divert suspicions ... to divert them to himself,
+Lupin, mark you ... so that the real person who was working the business
+might remain unknown...."
+
+"A confederate," suggested M. Dudouis. "A confederate, moving among the
+visitors, who set the alarms going ... and who managed to hide in the
+house after the party had broken up."
+
+"You're getting warm, chief, you're getting warm! It is certain that the
+tapestries, as they cannot have been stolen by any one making his way
+surreptitiously into the house, were stolen by somebody who remained in
+the house; and it is equally certain that, by taking the list of the
+people invited and inquiring into the antecedents of each of them, one
+might...."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, chief, there's a 'but,' namely, that the three detectives had
+this list in their hands when the guests arrived and that they still had
+it when the guests left. Now sixty-three came in and sixty-three went
+away. So you see...."
+
+"Then do you suppose a servant?..."
+
+"No."
+
+"The detectives?"
+
+"No."
+
+"But, still ... but, still," said the chief, impatiently, "if the
+robbery was committed from the inside...."
+
+"That is beyond dispute," declared the inspector, whose excitement
+seemed to be nearing fever-point. "There is no question about it. All my
+investigations led to the same certainty. And my conviction gradually
+became so positive that I ended, one day, by drawing up this startling
+axiom: in theory and in fact, the robbery can only have been committed
+with the assistance of an accomplice staying in the house. Whereas there
+was no accomplice!"
+
+"That's absurd," said Dudouis.
+
+"Quite absurd," said Ganimard. "But, at the very moment when I uttered
+that absurd sentence, the truth flashed upon me."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"Oh, a very dim, very incomplete, but still sufficient truth! With that
+clue to guide me, I was bound to find the way. Do you follow me, chief?"
+
+M. Dudouis sat silent. The same phenomenon that had taken place in
+Ganimard was evidently taking place in him. He muttered:
+
+"If it's not one of the guests, nor the servants, nor the private
+detectives, then there's no one left...."
+
+"Yes, chief, there's one left...."
+
+M. Dudouis started as though he had received a shock; and, in a voice
+that betrayed his excitement:
+
+"But, look here, that's preposterous."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Come, think for yourself!"
+
+"Go on, chief: say what's in your mind."
+
+"Nonsense! What do you mean?"
+
+"Go on, chief."
+
+"It's impossible! How can Sparmiento have been Lupin's accomplice?"
+
+Ganimard gave a little chuckle.
+
+"Exactly, Arsène Lupin's accomplice!... That explains everything. During
+the night, while the three detectives were downstairs watching, or
+sleeping rather, for Colonel Sparmiento had given them champagne to
+drink and perhaps doctored it beforehand, the said colonel took down the
+hangings and passed them out through the window of his bedroom. The room
+is on the second floor and looks out on another street, which was not
+watched, because the lower windows are walled up."
+
+M. Dudouis reflected and then shrugged his shoulders:
+
+"It's preposterous!" he repeated.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Why? Because, if the colonel had been Arsène Lupin's accomplice, he
+would not have committed suicide after achieving his success."
+
+"Who says that he committed suicide?"
+
+"Why, he was found dead on the line!"
+
+"I told you, there is no such thing as death with Lupin."
+
+"Still, this was genuine enough. Besides, Mme. Sparmiento identified the
+body."
+
+"I thought you would say that, chief. The argument worried me too. There
+was I, all of a sudden, with three people in front of me instead of one:
+first, Arsène Lupin, cracksman; secondly, Colonel Sparmiento, his
+accomplice; thirdly, a dead man. Spare us! It was too much of a good
+thing!"
+
+Ganimard took a bundle of newspapers, untied it and handed one of them
+to Mr. Dudouis:
+
+"You remember, chief, last time you were here, I was looking through the
+papers.... I wanted to see if something had not happened, at that
+period, that might bear upon the case and confirm my supposition. Please
+read this paragraph."
+
+M. Dudouis took the paper and read aloud:
+
+
+    "Our Lille correspondent informs us that a curious incident has
+    occurred in that town. A corpse has disappeared from the local
+    morgue, the corpse of a man unknown who threw himself under the
+    wheels of a steam tram-car on the day before. No one is able to
+    suggest a reason for this disappearance."
+
+
+M. Dudouis sat thinking and then asked:
+
+"So ... you believe ...?"
+
+"I have just come from Lille," replied Ganimard, "and my inquiries leave
+not a doubt in my mind. The corpse was removed on the same night on
+which Colonel Sparmiento gave his house-warming. It was taken straight
+to Ville d'Avray by motor-car; and the car remained near the
+railway-line until the evening."
+
+"Near the tunnel, therefore," said M. Dudouis.
+
+"Next to it, chief."
+
+"So that the body which was found is merely that body, dressed in
+Colonel Sparmiento's clothes."
+
+"Precisely, chief."
+
+"Then Colonel Sparmiento is not dead?"
+
+"No more dead than you or I, chief."
+
+"But then why all these complications? Why the theft of one tapestry,
+followed by its recovery, followed by the theft of the twelve? Why that
+house-warming? Why that disturbance? Why everything? Your story won't
+hold water, Ganimard."
+
+"Only because you, chief, like myself, have stopped halfway; because,
+strange as this story already sounds, we must go still farther, very
+much farther, in the direction of the improbable and the astounding. And
+why not, after all? Remember that we are dealing with Arsène Lupin. With
+him, is it not always just the improbable and the astounding that we
+must look for? Must we not always go straight for the maddest
+suppositions? And, when I say the maddest, I am using the wrong word. On
+the contrary, the whole thing is wonderfully logical and so simple that
+a child could understand it. Confederates only betray you. Why employ
+confederates, when it is so easy and so natural to act for yourself, by
+yourself, with your own hands and by the means within your own reach?"
+
+"What are you saying?... What are you saying?... What are you saying?"
+cried M. Dudouis, in a sort of sing-song voice and a tone of
+bewilderment that increased with each separate exclamation.
+
+Ganimard gave a fresh chuckle.
+
+"Takes your breath away, chief, doesn't it? So it did mine, on the day
+when you came to see me here and when the notion was beginning to grow
+upon me. I was flabbergasted with astonishment. And yet I've had
+experience of my customer. I know what he's capable of.... But this, no,
+this was really a bit too stiff!"
+
+"It's impossible! It's impossible!" said M. Dudouis, in a low voice.
+
+"On the contrary, chief, it's quite possible and quite logical and quite
+normal. It's the threefold incarnation of one and the same individual. A
+schoolboy would solve the problem in a minute, by a simple process of
+elimination. Take away the dead man: there remains Sparmiento and Lupin.
+Take away Sparmiento...."
+
+"There remains Lupin," muttered the chief-detective.
+
+"Yes, chief, Lupin simply, Lupin in five letters and two syllables,
+Lupin taken out of his Brazilian skin, Lupin revived from the dead,
+Lupin translated, for the past six months, into Colonel Sparmiento,
+travelling in Brittany, hearing of the discovery of the twelve
+tapestries, buying them, planning the theft of the best of them, so as
+to draw attention to himself, Lupin, and divert it from himself,
+Sparmiento. Next, he brings about, in full view of the gaping public, a
+noisy contest between Lupin and Sparmiento or Sparmiento and Lupin,
+plots and gives the house-warming party, terrifies his guests and, when
+everything is ready, arranges for Lupin to steal Sparmiento's tapestries
+and for Sparmiento, Lupin's victim, to disappear from sight and die
+unsuspected, unsuspectable, regretted by his friends, pitied by the
+public and leaving behind him, to pocket the profits of the swindle...."
+
+Ganimard stopped, looked the chief in the eyes and, in a voice that
+emphasized the importance of his words, concluded:
+
+"Leaving behind him a disconsolate widow."
+
+"Mme. Sparmiento! You really believe....?
+
+"Hang it all!" said the chief-inspector. "People don't work up a whole
+business of this sort, without seeing something ahead of them ... solid
+profits."
+
+"But the profits, it seems to me, lie in the sale of the tapestries
+which Lupin will effect in America or elsewhere."
+
+"First of all, yes. But Colonel Sparmiento could effect that sale just
+as well. And even better. So there's something more."
+
+"Something more?"
+
+"Come, chief, you're forgetting that Colonel Sparmiento has been the
+victim of an important robbery and that, though he may be dead, at least
+his widow remains. So it's his widow who will get the money."
+
+"What money?"
+
+"What money? Why, the money due to her! The insurance-money, of course!"
+
+M. Dudouis was staggered. The whole business suddenly became clear to
+him, with its real meaning. He muttered:
+
+"That's true!... That's true!... The colonel had insured his
+tapestries...."
+
+"Rather! And for no trifle either."
+
+"For how much?"
+
+"Eight hundred thousand francs."
+
+"Eight hundred thousand?"
+
+"Just so. In five different companies."
+
+"And has Mme. Sparmiento had the money?"
+
+"She got a hundred and fifty thousand francs yesterday and two hundred
+thousand to-day, while I was away. The remaining payments are to be made
+in the course of this week."
+
+"But this is terrible! You ought to have...."
+
+"What, chief? To begin with, they took advantage of my absence to
+settle up accounts with the companies. I only heard about it on my
+return when I ran up against an insurance-manager whom I happen to know
+and took the opportunity of drawing him out."
+
+The chief-detective was silent for some time, not knowing what to say.
+Then he mumbled:
+
+"What a fellow, though!"
+
+Ganimard nodded his head:
+
+"Yes, chief, a blackguard, but, I can't help saying, a devil of a clever
+fellow. For his plan to succeed, he must have managed in such a way
+that, for four or five weeks, no one could express or even conceive the
+least suspicion of the part played by Colonel Sparmiento. All the
+indignation and all the inquiries had to be concentrated upon Lupin
+alone. In the last resort, people had to find themselves faced simply
+with a mournful, pitiful, penniless widow, poor Edith Swan-neck, a
+beautiful and legendary vision, a creature so pathetic that the
+gentlemen of the insurance-companies were almost glad to place something
+in her hands to relieve her poverty and her grief. That's what was
+wanted and that's what happened."
+
+The two men were close together and did not take their eyes from each
+other's faces.
+
+The chief asked:
+
+"Who is that woman?"
+
+"Sonia Kritchnoff."
+
+"Sonia Kritchnoff?"
+
+"Yes, the Russian girl whom I arrested last year at the time of the
+theft of the coronet, and whom Lupin helped to escape."[E]
+
+
+  [E] _Arsène Lupin._ The Novel of the Play. By Edgar Jepson and Maurice
+  Leblanc (Mills & Boon).
+
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Absolutely. I was put off the scent, like everybody else, by Lupin's
+machinations, and had paid no particular attention to her. But, when I
+knew the part which she was playing, I remembered. She is certainly
+Sonia, metamorphosed into an Englishwoman; Sonia, the most
+innocent-looking and the trickiest of actresses; Sonia, who would not
+hesitate to face death for love of Lupin."
+
+"A good capture, Ganimard," said M. Dudouis, approvingly.
+
+"I've something better still for you, chief!"
+
+"Really? What?"
+
+"Lupin's old foster-mother."
+
+"Victoire?"[F]
+
+
+  [F] _The Hollow Needle._ By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by Alexander
+  Teixeira de Mattos (Nash). _813_ By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by
+  Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (Mills & Boon).
+
+
+"She has been here since Mme. Sparmiento began playing the widow; she's
+the cook."
+
+"Oho!" said M. Dudouis. "My congratulations, Ganimard!"
+
+"I've something for you, chief, that's even better than that!"
+
+M. Dudouis gave a start. The inspector's hand clutched his and was
+shaking with excitement.
+
+"What do you mean, Ganimard?"
+
+"Do you think, chief, that I would have brought you here, at this late
+hour, if I had had nothing more attractive to offer you than Sonia and
+Victoire? Pah! They'd have kept!"
+
+"You mean to say ...?" whispered M. Dudouis, at last, understanding the
+chief-inspector's agitation.
+
+"You've guessed it, chief!"
+
+"Is he here?"
+
+"He's here."
+
+"In hiding?"
+
+"Not a bit of it. Simply in disguise. He's the man-servant."
+
+This time, M. Dudouis did not utter a word nor make a gesture. Lupin's
+audacity confounded him.
+
+Ganimard chuckled.
+
+"It's no longer a threefold, but a fourfold incarnation. Edith Swan-neck
+might have blundered. The master's presence was necessary; and he had
+the cheek to return. For three weeks, he has been beside me during my
+inquiry, calmly following the progress made."
+
+"Did you recognize him?"
+
+"One doesn't recognize him. He has a knack of making-up his face and
+altering the proportions of his body so as to prevent any one from
+knowing him. Besides, I was miles from suspecting.... But, this evening,
+as I was watching Sonia in the shadow of the stairs, I heard Victoire
+speak to the man-servant and call him, 'Dearie.' A light flashed in upon
+me. 'Dearie!' That was what she always used to call him. And I knew
+where I was."
+
+M. Dudouis seemed flustered, in his turn, by the presence of the enemy,
+so often pursued and always so intangible:
+
+"We've got him, this time," he said, between his teeth. "We've got him;
+and he can't escape us."
+
+"No, chief, he can't: neither he nor the two women."
+
+"Where are they?"
+
+"Sonia and Victoire are on the second floor; Lupin is on the third."
+
+M. Dudouis suddenly became anxious:
+
+"Why, it was through the windows of one of those floors that the
+tapestries were passed when they disappeared!"
+
+"That's so, chief."
+
+"In that case, Lupin can get away too. The windows look out on the Rue
+Dufresnoy."
+
+"Of course they do, chief; but I have taken my precautions. The moment
+you arrived, I sent four of our men to keep watch under the windows in
+the Rue Dufresnoy. They have strict instructions to shoot, if any one
+appears at the windows and looks like coming down. Blank cartridges for
+the first shot, ball-cartridges for the next."
+
+"Good, Ganimard! You have thought of everything. We'll wait here; and,
+immediately after sunrise...."
+
+"Wait, chief? Stand on ceremony with that rascal? Bother about rules and
+regulations, legal hours and all that rot? And suppose he's not quite so
+polite to us and gives us the slip meanwhile? Suppose he plays us one of
+his Lupin tricks? No, no, we must have no nonsense! We've got him: let's
+collar him; and that without delay!"
+
+And Ganimard, all a-quiver with indignant impatience, went out, walked
+across the garden and presently returned with half-a-dozen men:
+
+"It's all right, chief. I've told them, in the Rue Dufresnoy, to get
+their revolvers out and aim at the windows. Come along."
+
+These alarums and excursions had not been effected without a certain
+amount of noise, which was bound to be heard by the inhabitants of the
+house. M. Dudouis felt that his hand was forced. He made up his mind to
+act:
+
+"Come on, then," he said.
+
+The thing did not take long. The eight of them, Browning pistols in
+hand, went up the stairs without overmuch precaution, eager to surprise
+Lupin before he had time to organize his defences.
+
+"Open the door!" roared Ganimard, rushing at the door of Mme.
+Sparmiento's bedroom.
+
+A policeman smashed it in with his shoulder.
+
+There was no one in the room; and no one in Victoire's bedroom either.
+
+"They're all upstairs!" shouted Ganimard. "They've gone up to Lupin in
+his attic. Be careful now!"
+
+All the eight ran up the third flight of stairs. To his great
+astonishment, Ganimard found the door of the attic open and the attic
+empty. And the other rooms were empty too.
+
+"Blast them!" he cursed. "What's become of them?"
+
+But the chief called him. M. Dudouis, who had gone down again to the
+second floor, noticed that one of the windows was not latched, but just
+pushed to:
+
+"There," he said, to Ganimard, "that's the road they took, the road of
+the tapestries. I told you as much: the Rue Dufresnoy...."
+
+"But our men would have fired on them," protested Ganimard, grinding his
+teeth with rage. "The street's guarded."
+
+"They must have gone before the street was guarded."
+
+"They were all three of them in their rooms when I rang you up, chief!"
+
+"They must have gone while you were waiting for me in the garden."
+
+"But why? Why? There was no reason why they should go to-day rather than
+to-morrow, or the next day, or next week, for that matter, when they had
+pocketed all the insurance-money!"
+
+Yes, there was a reason; and Ganimard knew it when he saw, on the table,
+a letter addressed to himself and opened it and read it. The letter was
+worded in the style of the testimonials which we hand to people in our
+service who have given satisfaction:
+
+
+    "I, the undersigned, Arsène Lupin, gentleman-burglar, ex-colonel,
+    ex-man-of-all-work, ex-corpse, hereby certify that the person of
+    the name of Ganimard gave proof of the most remarkable qualities
+    during his stay in this house. He was exemplary in his behaviour,
+    thoroughly devoted and attentive; and, unaided by the least clue,
+    he foiled a part of my plans and saved the insurance-companies four
+    hundred and fifty thousand francs. I congratulate him; and I am
+    quite willing to overlook his blunder in not anticipating that the
+    downstairs telephone communicates with the telephone in Sonia
+    Kritchnoff's bedroom and that, when telephoning to Mr.
+    Chief-detective, he was at the same time telephoning to me to clear
+    out as fast as I could. It was a pardonable slip, which must not be
+    allowed to dim the glamour of his services nor to detract from the
+    merits of his victory.
+
+    "Having said this, I beg him to accept the homage of my admiration
+    and of my sincere friendship.
+
+                                         "ARSÈNE LUPIN"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Confessions of Arsène Lupin, by Maurice Leblanc
+
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Confessions of Ars&egrave;ne Lupin, by Maurice Leblanc.
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Confessions of Arsène Lupin, by Maurice Leblanc
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Confessions of Arsène Lupin
+
+Author: Maurice Leblanc
+
+Release Date: February 15, 2009 [EBook #28093]
+[This file last updated on August 30, 2010]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONFESSIONS OF ARSÈNE LUPIN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Meredith Bach, and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="image border2" style="width: 440px; height: 539px;">
+<img src="images/ifrontis.jpg" width="440" height="539" alt="&quot;Suddenly he rushed at her and caught
+her by the arm&quot;" title="" /><br />
+<span class="caption"><i>&quot;Suddenly he rushed at her and caught
+her by the arm&quot;</i></span>
+</div>
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="image"><img src="images/ititle.jpg" width="437" height="680" alt="Title Page" title="" /></div>
+
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="border2" style="width: 550px; height: 575px; padding: 2em;">
+<h2>THE INTERNATIONAL<br />
+ADVENTURE LIBRARY</h2>
+
+<h3>THREE OWLS EDITION</h3>
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h1>THE CONFESSIONS<br />
+OF ARSÈNE LUPIN</h1>
+
+<h2>An Adventure Story</h2>
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<h3>BY<br />
+<span style="font-size: 130%;">MAURICE LEBLANC</span><br />
+Author of "Arsène Lupin"</h3>
+
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h2 style="font-size: 130%;">W. R. CALDWELL &amp; CO.<br />
+NEW YORK</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<hr />
+<h4><i>Copyright, 1912, 1913, by</i><br />
+<span class="smcap">Maurice Leblanc</span></h4>
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h4><i>All rights reserved, including that of<br />
+translation into foreign languages,<br />
+including the Scandinavian</i></h4>
+<hr />
+
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="table of contents" width="50%">
+<tr><td align="right" class="stext">CHAPTER</td><td></td><td align="right" class="stext">PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">I.</td> <td align="left" class="sc">Two Hundred Thousand Francs Reward!</td><td align="right"><a href="#I">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">II.</td> <td align="left" class="sc">The Wedding-Ring</td><td align="right"><a href="#II">36</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">III.</td> <td align="left" class="sc">The Sign of the Shadow</td><td align="right"><a href="#III">66</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">IV.</td> <td align="left" class="sc">The Infernal Trap</td><td align="right"><a href="#IV">101</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">V.</td> <td align="left" class="sc">The Red Silk Scarf</td><td align="right"><a href="#V">138</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VI.</td> <td align="left" class="sc">Shadowed by Death</td><td align="right"><a href="#VI">177</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VII.</td> <td align="left" class="sc">A Tragedy in the Forest of Morgues</td><td align="right"><a href="#VII">210</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">VIII.</td> <td align="left" class="sc">Lupin's Marriage</td><td align="right"><a href="#VIII">228</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">IX.</td> <td align="left" class="sc">The Invisible Prisoner</td><td align="right"><a href="#IX">266</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">X.</td> <td align="left" class="sc">Edith Swan-Neck</td><td align="right"><a href="#X">291</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter3">THE CONFESSIONS OF ARSÈNE LUPIN</h2>
+<hr />
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<h2>THE CONFESSIONS<br />
+OF ARSÈNE LUPIN</h2>
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+
+
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND FRANCS REWARD!...</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Lupin," I said, "tell me something about yourself."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why, what would you have me tell you? Everybody
+knows my life!" replied Lupin, who lay drowsing
+on the sofa in my study.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody knows it!" I protested. "People know
+from your letters in the newspapers that you were
+mixed up in this case, that you started that case.
+But the part which you played in it all, the plain facts
+of the story, the upshot of the mystery: these are
+things of which they know nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh! A heap of uninteresting twaddle!"</p>
+
+<p>"What! Your present of fifty thousand francs
+to Nicolas Dugrival's wife! Do you call that uninteresting?
+And what about the way in which you
+solved the puzzle of the three pictures?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lupin laughed:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that was a queer puzzle, certainly. I can
+suggest a title for you if you like: what do you say
+to <i>The Sign of the Shadow</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"And your successes in society and with the fair
+sex?" I continued. "The dashing Arsène's love-affairs!...
+And the clue to your good actions?
+Those chapters in your life to which you have so
+often alluded under the names of <i>The Wedding-ring</i>,
+<i>Shadowed by Death</i>, and so on!... Why
+delay these confidences and confessions, my dear
+Lupin?... Come, do what I ask you!..."</p>
+
+<p>It was at the time when Lupin, though already
+famous, had not yet fought his biggest battles; the
+time that preceded the great adventures of <i>The
+Hollow Needle</i> and <i>813</i>. He had not yet dreamt
+of annexing the accumulated treasures of the French
+Royal House<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> nor of changing the map of Europe
+under the Kaiser's nose<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a>: he contented himself with
+milder surprises and humbler profits, making his
+daily effort, doing evil from day to day and doing
+a little good as well, naturally and for the love of
+the thing, like a whimsical and compassionate Don
+Quixote.</p>
+
+<p>He was silent; and I insisted:</p>
+
+<p>"Lupin, I wish you would!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>To my astonishment, he replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Take a sheet of paper, old fellow, and a pencil."</p>
+
+<p>I obeyed with alacrity, delighted at the thought
+that he at last meant to dictate to me some of those
+pages which he knows how to clothe with such
+vigour and fancy, pages which I, unfortunately,
+am obliged to spoil with tedious explanations and
+boring developments.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you ready?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite."</p>
+
+<p>"Write down, 20, 1, 11, 5, 14, 15."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Write it down, I tell you."</p>
+
+<p>He was now sitting up, with his eyes turned to
+the open window and his fingers rolling a Turkish
+cigarette. He continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Write down, 21, 14, 14, 5...."</p>
+
+<p>He stopped. Then he went on:</p>
+
+<p>"3, 5, 19, 19 ..."</p>
+
+<p>And, after a pause:</p>
+
+<p>"5, 18, 25 ..."</p>
+
+<p>Was he mad? I looked at him hard and,
+presently, I saw that his eyes were no longer listless,
+as they had been a little before, but keen and attentive
+and that they seemed to be watching, somewhere,
+in space, a sight that apparently captivated
+them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, he dictated, with intervals between
+each number:</p>
+
+<p>"18, 9, 19, 11, 19 ..."</p>
+
+<p>There was hardly anything to be seen through the
+window but a patch of blue sky on the right and
+the front of the building opposite, an old private
+house, whose shutters were closed as usual. There
+was nothing particular about all this, no detail that
+struck me as new among those which I had had before
+my eyes for years....</p>
+
+<p>"1, 2...."</p>
+
+<p>And suddenly I understood ... or rather I
+thought I understood, for how could I admit that
+Lupin, a man so essentially level-headed under his
+mask of frivolity, could waste his time upon such
+childish nonsense? What he was counting was the
+intermittent flashes of a ray of sunlight playing
+on the dingy front of the opposite house, at the height
+of the second floor!</p>
+
+<p>"15, 22 ..." said Lupin.</p>
+
+<p>The flash disappeared for a few seconds and then
+struck the house again, successively, at regular
+intervals, and disappeared once more.</p>
+
+<p>I had instinctively counted the flashes and I
+said, aloud:</p>
+
+<p>"5...."</p>
+
+<p>"Caught the idea? I congratulate you!" he
+replied, sarcastically.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He went to the window and leant out, as though
+to discover the exact direction followed by the
+ray of light. Then he came and lay on the sofa again,
+saying:</p>
+
+<p>"It's your turn now. Count away!"</p>
+
+<p>The fellow seemed so positive that I did as he told
+me. Besides, I could not help confessing that there
+was something rather curious about the ordered frequency
+of those gleams on the front of the house
+opposite, those appearances and disappearances,
+turn and turn about, like so many flash signals.</p>
+
+<p>They obviously came from a house on our side
+of the street, for the sun was entering my windows
+slantwise. It was as though some one were alternately
+opening and shutting a casement, or, more
+likely, amusing himself by making sunlight flashes
+with a pocket-mirror.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a child having a game!" I cried, after a
+moment or two, feeling a little irritated by the trivial
+occupation that had been thrust upon me.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, go on!"</p>
+
+<p>And I counted away.... And I put down
+rows of figures.... And the sun continued to
+play in front of me, with mathematical precision.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" said Lupin, after a longer pause than
+usual.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it seems finished.... There has been
+nothing for some minutes...."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We waited and, as no more light flashed through
+space, I said, jestingly:</p>
+
+<p>"My idea is that we have been wasting our time.
+A few figures on paper: a poor result!"</p>
+
+<p>Lupin, without stirring from his sofa, rejoined:</p>
+
+<p>"Oblige me, old chap, by putting in the place
+of each of those numbers the corresponding letter
+of the alphabet. Count A as 1, B as 2 and so on.
+Do you follow me?"</p>
+
+<p>"But it's idiotic!"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely idiotic, but we do such a lot of
+idiotic things in this life.... One more or less,
+you know!..."</p>
+
+<p>I sat down to this silly work and wrote out the
+first letters:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"<i>Take no....</i>"</p></div>
+
+<p>I broke off in surprise:</p>
+
+<p>"Words!" I exclaimed. "Two English words
+meaning...."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, old chap."</p>
+
+<p>And I went on and the next letters formed two
+more words, which I separated as they appeared.
+And, to my great amazement, a complete English
+sentence lay before my eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Done?" asked Lupin, after a time.</p>
+
+<p>"Done!... By the way, there are mistakes
+in the spelling...."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Never mind those and read it out, please....
+Read slowly."</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon I read out the following unfinished
+communication, which I will set down as it appeared
+on the paper in front of me:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"<i>Take no unnecessery risks. Above all, avoid atacks,
+approach ennemy with great prudance and....</i>"</p></div>
+
+<p>I began to laugh:</p>
+
+<p>"And there you are! <i>Fiat lux!</i> We're simply
+dazed with light! But, after all, Lupin, confess
+that this advice, dribbled out by a kitchen-maid,
+doesn't help you much!"</p>
+
+<p>Lupin rose, without breaking his contemptuous
+silence, and took the sheet of paper.</p>
+
+<p>I remembered soon after that, at this moment,
+I happened to look at the clock. It was eighteen
+minutes past five.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin was standing with the paper in his hand;
+and I was able at my ease to watch, on his
+youthful features, that extraordinary mobility of
+expression which baffles all observers and constitutes
+his great strength and his chief safeguard.
+By what signs can one hope to identify a face which
+changes at pleasure, even without the help of
+make-up, and whose every transient expression
+seems to be the final, definite expression?...
+By what signs? There was one which I knew well,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+an invariable sign: Two little crossed wrinkles
+that marked his forehead whenever he made a powerful
+effort of concentration. And I saw it at that
+moment, saw the tiny tell-tale cross, plainly
+and deeply scored.</p>
+
+<p>He put down the sheet of paper and muttered:</p>
+
+<p>"Child's play!"</p>
+
+<p>The clock struck half-past five.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" I cried. "Have you succeeded?...
+In twelve minutes?..."</p>
+
+<p>He took a few steps up and down the room, lit
+a cigarette and said:</p>
+
+<p>"You might ring up Baron Repstein, if you don't
+mind, and tell him I shall be with him at ten o'clock
+this evening."</p>
+
+<p>"Baron Repstein?" I asked. "The husband of
+the famous baroness?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you serious?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite serious."</p>
+
+<p>Feeling absolutely at a loss, but incapable of
+resisting him, I opened the telephone-directory
+and unhooked the receiver. But, at that moment,
+Lupin stopped me with a peremptory gesture and
+said, with his eyes on the paper, which he had taken
+up again:</p>
+
+<p>"No, don't say anything.... It's no use
+letting him know.... There's something more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+urgent ... a queer thing that puzzles me.... Why
+on earth wasn't the last sentence finished?
+Why is the sentence...."</p>
+
+<p>He snatched up his hat and stick:</p>
+
+<p>"Let's be off. If I'm not mistaken, this is a business
+that requires immediate solution; and I don't
+believe I <i>am</i> mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>He put his arm through mine, as we went down
+the stairs, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I know what everybody knows. Baron Repstein,
+the company-promoter and racing-man,
+whose colt Etna won the Derby and the Grand
+Prix this year, has been victimized by his wife.
+The wife, who was well known for her fair hair,
+her dress and her extravagance, ran away a fortnight
+ago, taking with her a sum of three million francs,
+stolen from her husband, and quite a collection of
+diamonds, pearls and jewellery which the Princesse
+de Berny had placed in her hands and which she
+was supposed to buy. For two weeks the police
+have been pursuing the baroness across France
+and the continent: an easy job, as she scatters
+gold and jewels wherever she goes. They think they
+have her every moment. Two days ago, our champion
+detective, the egregious Ganimard, arrested
+a visitor at a big hotel in Belgium, a woman against
+whom the most positive evidence seemed to be
+heaped up. On enquiry, the lady turned out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+to be a notorious chorus-girl called Nelly Darbal.
+As for the baroness, she has vanished. The baron,
+on his side, has offered a reward of two hundred
+thousand francs to whosoever finds his wife. The
+money is in the hands of a solicitor. Moreover, he
+has sold his racing-stud, his house on the Boulevard
+Haussmann and his country-seat of Roquencourt
+in one lump, so that he may indemnify the Princesse
+de Berny for her loss."</p>
+
+<p>"And the proceeds of the sale," I added, "are
+to be paid over at once. The papers say that
+the princess will have her money to-morrow.
+Only, frankly, I fail to see the connection between
+this story, which you have told very well, and the
+puzzling sentence...."</p>
+
+<p>Lupin did not condescend to reply.</p>
+
+<p>We had been walking down the street in which I
+live and had passed some four or five houses, when
+he stepped off the pavement and began to examine
+a block of flats, not of the latest construction,
+which looked as if it contained a large number of
+tenants:</p>
+
+<p>"According to my calculations," he said, "this
+is where the signals came from, probably from that
+open window."</p>
+
+<p>"On the third floor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>He went to the portress and asked her:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Does one of your tenants happen to be acquainted
+with Baron Repstein?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course!" replied the woman. "We
+have M. Lavernoux here, such a nice gentleman;
+he is the baron's secretary and agent. I look after
+his flat."</p>
+
+<p>"And can we see him?"</p>
+
+<p>"See him?... The poor gentleman is very ill."</p>
+
+<p>"Ill?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's been ill a fortnight ... ever since the
+trouble with the baroness.... He came home
+the next day with a temperature and took to his
+bed."</p>
+
+<p>"But he gets up, surely?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that I can't say!"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you mean, you can't say?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, his doctor won't let any one into his room.
+He took my key from me."</p>
+
+<p>"Who did?"</p>
+
+<p>"The doctor. He comes and sees to his wants,
+two or three times a day. He left the house only
+twenty minutes ago ... an old gentleman with
+a grey beard and spectacles.... Walks quite
+bent.... But where are you going sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going up, show me the way," said Lupin,
+with his foot on the stairs. "It's the third floor,
+isn't it, on the left?"</p>
+
+<p>"But I mustn't!" moaned the portress, run<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>ning
+after him. "Besides, I haven't the key ...
+the doctor...."</p>
+
+<p>They climbed the three flights, one behind the
+other. On the landing, Lupin took a tool from his
+pocket and, disregarding the woman's protests,
+inserted it in the lock. The door yielded almost
+immediately. We went in.</p>
+
+<p>At the back of a small dark room we saw a streak
+of light filtering through a door that had been left
+ajar. Lupin ran across the room and, on reaching
+the threshold, gave a cry:</p>
+
+<p>"Too late! Oh, hang it all!"</p>
+
+<p>The portress fell on her knees, as though fainting.</p>
+
+<p>I entered the bedroom, in my turn, and saw a
+man lying half-dressed on the carpet, with his legs
+drawn up under him, his arms contorted and his
+face quite white, an emaciated, fleshless face, with
+the eyes still staring in terror and the mouth twisted
+into a hideous grin.</p>
+
+<p>"He's dead," said Lupin, after a rapid examination.</p>
+
+<p>"But why?" I exclaimed. "There's not a trace
+of blood!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, there is," replied Lupin, pointing to
+two or three drops that showed on the chest,
+through the open shirt. "Look, they must have
+taken him by the throat with one hand and pricked
+him to the heart with the other. I say, 'pricked,'
+because really the wound can't be seen. It suggests
+a hole made by a very long needle."</p>
+
+<div class="nanospace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="image border2" style="width: 430px; height: 533px;">
+<img src="images/i012.jpg" width="430" height="533" alt="&quot;Lupin took a tool from his pocket ... and
+inserted it in the lock&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption"><i>&quot;Lupin took a tool from his pocket ... and
+inserted it in the lock&quot;</i></span>
+</div>
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p style="margin-top: 2em;">He looked on the floor, all round the corpse. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+was nothing to attract his attention, except a little
+pocket-mirror, the little mirror with which M.
+Lavernoux had amused himself by making the sunbeams
+dance through space.</p>
+
+<p>But, suddenly, as the portress was breaking into
+lamentations and calling for help, Lupin flung himself
+on her and shook her:</p>
+
+<p>"Stop that!... Listen to me ... you
+can call out later.... Listen to me and answer
+me. It is most important. M. Lavernoux had a
+friend living in this street, had he not? On the same
+side, to the right? An intimate friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"A friend whom he used to meet at the café in
+the evening and with whom he exchanged the illustrated
+papers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Was the friend an Englishman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"What's his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hargrove."</p>
+
+<p>"Where does he live?"</p>
+
+<p>"At No. 92 in this street."</p>
+
+<p>"One word more: had that old doctor been attending
+him long?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No. I did not know him. He came on the
+evening when M. Lavernoux was taken ill."</p>
+
+<p>Without another word, Lupin dragged me away
+once more, ran down the stairs and, once in the
+street, turned to the right, which took us past my
+flat again. Four doors further, he stopped at
+No. 92, a small, low-storied house, of which the
+ground-floor was occupied by the proprietor of a
+dram-shop, who stood smoking in his doorway,
+next to the entrance-passage. Lupin asked if Mr.
+Hargrove was at home.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hargrove went out about half-an-hour
+ago," said the publican. "He seemed very much
+excited and took a taxi-cab, a thing he doesn't
+often do."</p>
+
+<p>"And you don't know...."</p>
+
+<p>"Where he was going? Well, there's no secret
+about it He shouted it loud enough! 'Prefecture
+of Police' is what he said to the driver...."</p>
+
+<p>Lupin was himself just hailing a taxi, when he
+changed his mind; and I heard him mutter:</p>
+
+<p>"What's the good? He's got too much start of
+us...."</p>
+
+<p>He asked if any one called after Mr. Hargrove had
+gone.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, an old gentleman with a grey beard and
+spectacles. He went up to Mr. Hargrove's, rang the
+bell, and went away again."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am much obliged," said Lupin, touching his
+hat.</p>
+
+<p>He walked away slowly without speaking to me,
+wearing a thoughtful air. There was no doubt that
+the problem struck him as very difficult, and that
+he saw none too clearly in the darkness through which
+he seemed to be moving with such certainty.</p>
+
+<p>He himself, for that matter, confessed to me:</p>
+
+<p>"These are cases that require much more intuition
+than reflection. But this one, I may tell you, is well
+worth taking pains about."</p>
+
+<p>We had now reached the boulevards. Lupin
+entered a public reading-room and spent a long
+time consulting the last fortnight's newspapers.
+Now and again, he mumbled:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes ... yes ... of course ... it's
+only a guess, but it explains everything....
+Well, a guess that answers every question is not far
+from being the truth...."</p>
+
+<p>It was now dark. We dined at a little restaurant
+and I noticed that Lupin's face became gradually
+more animated. His gestures were more decided.
+He recovered his spirits, his liveliness. When we
+left, during the walk which he made me take along
+the Boulevard Haussmann, towards Baron Repstein's
+house, he was the real Lupin of the great
+occasions, the Lupin who had made up his mind to
+go in and win.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We slackened our pace just short of the Rue de
+Courcelles. Baron Repstein lived on the left-hand
+side, between this street and the Faubourg Saint-Honoré,
+in a three-storied private house of which
+we could see the front, decorated with columns and
+caryatides.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" said Lupin, suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Another proof to confirm my supposition...."</p>
+
+<p>"What proof? I see nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"I do.... That's enough...."</p>
+
+<p>He turned up the collar of his coat, lowered the
+brim of his soft hat and said:</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, it'll be a stiff fight! Go to bed, my
+friend. I'll tell you about my expedition to-morrow
+... if it doesn't cost me my life."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you talking about?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know what I'm saying! I'm risking a
+lot. First of all, getting arrested, which isn't much.
+Next, getting killed, which is worse. But...."
+He gripped my shoulder. "But there's a third
+thing I'm risking, which is getting hold of two millions....
+And, once I possess a capital of
+two millions, I'll show people what I can do! Good-night,
+old chap, and, if you never see me again...."
+He spouted Musset's lines:</p>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem">
+<span class="i0">"Plant a willow by my grave,</span><br />
+<span class="i2">The weeping willow that I love...."</span><br />
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I walked away. Three minutes later&mdash;I am<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+continuing the narrative as he told it to me next
+day&mdash;three minutes later, Lupin rang at the door
+of the Hôtel Repstein.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>"Is monsieur le baron at home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied the butler, examining the intruder
+with an air of surprise, "but monsieur le baron does
+not see people as late as this."</p>
+
+<p>"Does monsieur le baron know of the murder of
+M. Lavernoux, his land-agent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, please tell monsieur le baron that I have
+come about the murder and that there is not a moment
+to lose."</p>
+
+<p>A voice called from above:</p>
+
+<p>"Show the gentleman up, Antoine."</p>
+
+<p>In obedience to this peremptory order, the butler
+led the way to the first floor. In an open doorway
+stood a gentleman whom Lupin recognized
+from his photograph in the papers as Baron Repstein,
+husband of the famous baroness and owner of Etna,
+the horse of the year.</p>
+
+<p>He was an exceedingly tall, square-shouldered
+man. His clean-shaven face wore a pleasant, almost
+smiling expression, which was not affected by the
+sadness of his eyes. He was dressed in a well-cut
+morning-coat, with a tan waistcoat and a dark<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+tie fastened with a pearl pin, the value of which struck
+Lupin as considerable.</p>
+
+<p>He took Lupin into his study, a large, three-windowed
+room, lined with book-cases, sets of pigeonholes,
+an American desk and a safe. And he at once
+asked, with ill-concealed eagerness:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, monsieur le baron."</p>
+
+<p>"About the murder of that poor Lavernoux?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, monsieur le baron, and about madame le
+baronne also."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really mean it? Quick, I entreat
+you...."</p>
+
+<p>He pushed forward a chair. Lupin sat down and
+began:</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur le baron, the circumstances are very
+serious. I will be brief."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, do, please."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, monsieur le baron, in a few words, it
+amounts to this: five or six hours ago, Lavernoux,
+who, for the last fortnight, had been kept in a sort
+of enforced confinement by his doctor, Lavernoux&mdash;how
+shall I put it?&mdash;telegraphed certain revelations
+by means of signals which were partly taken
+down by me and which put me on the track of this
+case. He himself was surprised in the act of making
+this communication and was murdered."</p>
+
+<p>"But by whom? By whom?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"By his doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is this doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. But one of M. Lavernoux's
+friends, an Englishman called Hargrove, the friend,
+in fact, with whom he was communicating, is
+bound to know and is also bound to know the
+exact and complete meaning of the communication,
+because, without waiting for the end, he jumped
+into a motor-cab and drove to the Prefecture of
+Police."</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Why?... And what is the result
+of that step?"</p>
+
+<p>"The result, monsieur le baron, is that your house
+is surrounded. There are twelve detectives under
+your windows. The moment the sun rises, they
+will enter in the name of the law and arrest the
+criminal."</p>
+
+<p>"Then is Lavernoux's murderer concealed in my
+house? Who is he? One of the servants? But no,
+for you were speaking of a doctor!..."</p>
+
+<p>"I would remark, monsieur le baron, that when
+this Mr. Hargrove went to the police to tell them
+of the revelations made by his friend Lavernoux, he
+was not aware that his friend Lavernoux was going to
+be murdered. The step taken by Mr Hargrove had
+to do with something else...."</p>
+
+<p>"With what?"</p>
+
+<p>"With the disappearance of madame la baronne,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+of which he knew the secret, thanks to the communication
+made by Lavernoux."</p>
+
+<p>"What! They know at last! They have found
+the baroness! Where is she? And the jewels? And
+the money she robbed me of?"</p>
+
+<p>Baron Repstein was talking in a great state of
+excitement. He rose and, almost shouting at
+Lupin, cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Finish your story, sir! I can't endure this
+suspense!"</p>
+
+<p>Lupin continued, in a slow and hesitating voice:</p>
+
+<p>"The fact is ... you see ... it is rather
+difficult to explain ... for you and I are looking
+at the thing from a totally different point of view."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet you ought to understand, monsieur le
+baron.... We begin by saying&mdash;I am quoting
+the newspapers&mdash;by saying, do we not, that Baroness
+Repstein knew all the secrets of your business and
+that she was able to open not only that safe over
+there, but also the one at the Crédit Lyonnais in
+which you kept your securities locked up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, one evening, a fortnight ago, while you
+were at your club, Baroness Repstein, who, unknown
+to yourself, had converted all those securities into
+cash, left this house with a travelling-bag, containing
+your money and all the Princesse de Berny's jewels?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And, since then, she has not been seen?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there is an excellent reason why she has
+not been seen."</p>
+
+<p>"What reason?"</p>
+
+<p>"This, that Baroness Repstein has been murdered...."</p>
+
+<p>"Murdered!... The baroness!... But
+you're mad!"</p>
+
+<p>"Murdered ... and probably that same evening."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you again, you are mad! How can the
+baroness have been murdered, when the police are
+following her tracks, so to speak, step by step?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are following the tracks of another
+woman."</p>
+
+<p>"What woman?"</p>
+
+<p>"The murderer's accomplice."</p>
+
+<p>"And who is the murderer?"</p>
+
+<p>"The same man who, for the last fortnight, knowing
+that Lavernoux, through the situation which
+he occupied in this house, had discovered the truth,
+kept him imprisoned, forced him to silence, threatened
+him, terrorized him; the same man who, finding
+Lavernoux in the act of communicating with a friend,
+made away with him in cold blood by stabbing him
+to the heart."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The doctor, therefore?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"But who is this doctor? Who is this malevolent
+genius, this infernal being who appears and
+disappears, who slays in the dark and whom nobody
+suspects?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you guess?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you want to know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do I want to know?... Why, speak, man,
+speak!... You know where he is hiding?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"In this house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And it is he whom the police are after?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And I know him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"You!"</p>
+
+<p>"I!..."</p>
+
+<p>Lupin had not been more than ten minutes with
+the baron; and the duel was commencing. The
+accusation was hurled, definitely, violently, implacably.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin repeated:</p>
+
+<p>"You yourself, got up in a false beard and a
+pair of spectacles, bent in two, like an old man.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+In short, you, Baron Repstein; and it is you for a
+very good reason, of which nobody has thought,
+which is that, if it was not you who contrived the
+whole plot, the case becomes inexplicable. Whereas,
+taking you as the criminal, you as murdering the
+baroness in order to get rid of her and run through
+those millions with another woman, you as murdering
+Lavernoux, your agent, in order to suppress
+an unimpeachable witness, oh, then the whole case
+is explained! Well, is it pretty clear? And are not
+you yourself convinced?"</p>
+
+<p>The baron, who, throughout this conversation,
+had stood bending over his visitor, waiting for each
+of his words with feverish avidity, now drew himself
+up and looked at Lupin as though he undoubtedly
+had to do with a madman. When Lupin had finished
+speaking, the baron stepped back two or three
+paces, seemed on the point of uttering words which
+he ended by not saying, and then, without taking
+his eyes from his strange visitor, went to the fireplace
+and rang the bell.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin did not make a movement. He waited
+smiling.</p>
+
+<p>The butler entered. His master said:</p>
+
+<p>"You can go to bed, Antoine. I will let this
+gentleman out."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I put out the lights, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Leave a light in the hall."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Antoine left the room and the baron, after taking
+a revolver from his desk, at once came back to
+Lupin, put the weapon in his pocket and said,
+very calmly:</p>
+
+<p>"You must excuse this little precaution, sir.
+I am obliged to take it in case you should be mad,
+though that does not seem likely. No, you are
+not mad. But you have come here with an object
+which I fail to grasp; and you have sprung upon
+me an accusation of so astounding a character
+that I am curious to know the reason. I have
+experienced so much disappointment and undergone
+so much suffering that an outrage of this kind leaves
+me indifferent. Continue, please."</p>
+
+<p>His voice shook with emotion and his sad eyes
+seemed moist with tears.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin shuddered. Had he made a mistake?
+Was the surmise which his intuition had suggested
+to him and which was based upon a frail groundwork
+of slight facts, was this surmise wrong?</p>
+
+<p>His attention was caught by a detail: through
+the opening in the baron's waistcoat he saw the
+point of the pin fixed in the tie and was thus
+able to realize the unusual length of the pin. Moreover,
+the gold stem was triangular and formed a sort
+of miniature dagger, very thin and very delicate, yet
+formidable in an expert hand.</p>
+
+<p>And Lupin had no doubt but that the pin attached<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+to that magnificent pearl was the weapon which had
+pierced the heart of the unfortunate M. Lavernoux.</p>
+
+<p>He muttered:</p>
+
+<p>"You're jolly clever, monsieur le baron!"</p>
+
+<p>The other, maintaining a rather scornful gravity,
+kept silence, as though he did not understand and
+as though waiting for the explanation to which he
+felt himself entitled. And, in spite of everything,
+this impassive attitude worried Arsène Lupin.
+Nevertheless, his conviction was so profound and,
+besides, he had staked so much on the adventure that
+he repeated:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, jolly clever, for it is evident that the
+baroness only obeyed your orders in realizing
+your securities and also in borrowing the princess's
+jewels on the pretence of buying them. And it
+is evident that the person who walked out of your
+house with a bag was not your wife, but an accomplice,
+that chorus-girl probably, and that it is your
+chorus-girl who is deliberately allowing herself
+to be chased across the continent by our worthy
+Ganimard. And I look upon the trick as marvellous.
+What does the woman risk, seeing that
+it is the baroness who is being looked for? And
+how could they look for any other woman than
+the baroness, seeing that you have promised a
+reward of two hundred thousand francs to the
+person who finds the baroness?... Oh, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+two hundred thousand francs lodged with a solicitor:
+what a stroke of genius! It has dazzled the
+police! It has thrown dust in the eyes of the most
+clear-sighted! A gentleman who lodges two hundred
+thousand francs with a solicitor is a gentleman
+who speaks the truth.... So they go on
+hunting the baroness! And they leave you quietly
+to settle your affairs, to sell your stud and your
+two houses to the highest bidder and to prepare your
+flight! Heavens, what a joke!"</p>
+
+<p>The baron did not wince. He walked up to
+Lupin and asked, without abandoning his imperturbable
+coolness:</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>Lupin burst out laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"What can it matter who I am? Take it that
+I am an emissary of fate, looming out of the darkness
+for your destruction!"</p>
+
+<p>He sprang from his chair, seized the baron by the
+shoulder and jerked out:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, for your destruction, my bold baron! Listen
+to me! Your wife's three millions, almost
+all the princess's jewels, the money you received
+to-day from the sale of your stud and your real
+estate: it's all there, in your pocket, or in that
+safe. Your flight is prepared. Look, I can see
+the leather of your portmanteau behind that
+hanging. The papers on your desk are in order.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+This very night, you would have done a guy. This
+very night, disguised beyond recognition, after
+taking all your precautions, you would have
+joined your chorus-girl, the creature for whose
+sake you have committed murder, that same Nelly
+Darbal, no doubt, whom Ganimard arrested in
+Belgium. But for one sudden, unforeseen obstacle:
+the police, the twelve detectives who, thanks
+to Lavernoux's revelations, have been posted
+under your windows. They've cooked your
+goose, old chap!... Well, I'll save you.
+A word through the telephone; and, by three or
+four o'clock in the morning, twenty of my friends
+will have removed the obstacle, polished off the
+twelve detectives, and you and I will slip away
+quietly. My conditions? Almost nothing; a trifle
+to you: we share the millions and the jewels. Is it
+a bargain?"</p>
+
+<p>He was leaning over the baron, thundering at him
+with irresistible energy. The baron whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm beginning to understand. It's blackmail...."</p>
+
+<p>"Blackmail or not, call it what you please, my
+boy, but you've got to go through with it and do
+as I say. And don't imagine that I shall give
+way at the last moment. Don't say to yourself,
+'Here's a gentleman whom the fear of the police
+will cause to think twice. If I run a big risk in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+refusing, he also will be risking the handcuffs,
+the cells and the rest of it, seeing that we are both
+being hunted down like wild beasts.' That would
+be a mistake, monsieur le baron. I can always
+get out of it. It's a question of yourself, of yourself
+alone.... Your money or your life, my lord!
+Share and share alike ... if not, the scaffold!
+Is it a bargain?"</p>
+
+<p>A quick movement. The baron released himself,
+grasped his revolver and fired.</p>
+
+<p>But Lupin was prepared for the attack, the more
+so as the baron's face had lost its assurance and
+gradually, under the slow impulse of rage and
+fear, acquired an expression of almost bestial ferocity
+that heralded the rebellion so long kept under
+control.</p>
+
+<p>He fired twice. Lupin first flung himself to one
+side and then dived at the baron's knees, seized
+him by both legs and brought him to the ground.
+The baron freed himself with an effort. The two
+enemies rolled over in each other's grip; and a stubborn,
+crafty, brutal, savage struggle followed.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, Lupin felt a pain at his chest:</p>
+
+<p>"You villain!" he yelled. "That's your Lavernoux
+trick; the tie-pin!"</p>
+
+<p>Stiffening his muscles with a desperate effort,
+he overpowered the baron and clutched him by the
+throat victorious at last and omnipotent.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You ass!" he cried. "If you hadn't shown
+your cards, I might have thrown up the game!
+You have such a look of the honest man about
+you! But what a biceps, my lord!... I thought
+for a moment.... But it's all over, now!...
+Come, my friend, hand us the pin and look cheerful....
+No, that's what I call pulling a face....
+I'm holding you too tight, perhaps? My
+lord's at his last gasp?... Come, be good!...
+That's it, just a wee bit of string round the
+wrists; do you allow me?... Why, you and I
+are agreeing like two brothers! It's touching!...
+At heart, you know, I'm rather fond of you....
+And now, my bonnie lad, mind yourself! And a
+thousand apologies!..."</p>
+
+<p>Half raising himself, with all his strength he
+caught the other a terrible blow in the pit of the
+stomach. The baron gave a gurgle and lay stunned
+and unconscious.</p>
+
+<p>"That comes of having a deficient sense of logic,
+my friend," said Lupin. "I offered you half your
+money. Now I'll give you none at all ...
+provided I know where to find any of it. For that's
+the main thing. Where has the beggar hidden his
+dust? In the safe? By George, it'll be a tough job!
+Luckily, I have all the night before me...."</p>
+
+<p>He began to feel in the baron's pockets, came
+upon a bunch of keys, first made sure that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+portmanteau behind the curtain held no papers or
+jewels, and then went to the safe.</p>
+
+<p>But, at that moment, he stopped short: he heard
+a noise somewhere. The servants? Impossible.
+Their attics were on the top floor. He listened.
+The noise came from below. And, suddenly, he
+understood: the detectives, who had heard the
+two shots, were banging at the front door, as was
+their duty, without waiting for daybreak. Then
+an electric bell rang, which Lupin recognized as that
+in the hall:</p>
+
+<p>"By Jupiter!" he said. "Pretty work! Here
+are these jokers coming ... and just as we were
+about to gather the fruits of our laborious efforts!
+Tut, tut, Lupin, keep cool! What's expected of
+you? To open a safe, of which you don't know
+the secret, in thirty seconds. That's a mere trifle
+to lose your head about! Come, all you have to do
+is to discover the secret! How many letters are there
+in the word? Four?"</p>
+
+<p>He went on thinking, while talking and listening
+to the noise outside. He double-locked the door
+of the outer room and then came back to the safe:</p>
+
+<p>"Four ciphers.... Four letters ... four
+letters.... Who can lend me a hand?...
+Who can give me just a tiny hint?... Who?
+Why, Lavernoux, of course! That good Lavernoux,
+seeing that he took the trouble to indulge in optical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+telegraphy at the risk of his life.... Lord, what
+a fool I am!... Why, of course, why, of course,
+that's it!... By Jove, this is too exciting!...
+Lupin, you must count ten and suppress that
+distracted beating of your heart. If not, it means
+bad work."</p>
+
+<p>He counted ten and, now quite calm, knelt in front
+of the safe. He turned the four knobs with careful
+attention. Next, he examined the bunch of keys,
+selected one of them, then another, and attempted,
+in vain, to insert them in the lock:</p>
+
+<p>"There's luck in odd numbers," he muttered,
+trying a third key. "Victory! This is the right one!
+Open Sesame, good old Sesame, open!"</p>
+
+<p>The lock turned. The door moved on its hinges.
+Lupin pulled it to him, after taking out the bunch of
+keys:</p>
+
+<p>"The millions are ours," he said. "Baron, I
+forgive you!"</p>
+
+<p>And then he gave a single bound backward,
+hiccoughing with fright. His legs staggered beneath
+him. The keys jingled together in his
+fevered hand with a sinister sound. And, for
+twenty, for thirty seconds, despite the din that was
+being raised and the electric bells that kept ringing
+through the house, he stood there, wild-eyed, gazing
+at the most horrible, the most abominable sight:
+a woman's body, half-dressed, bent in two in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+safe, crammed in, like an over-large parcel ...
+and fair hair hanging down ... and blood ...
+clots of blood ... and livid flesh, blue in places,
+decomposing, flaccid.</p>
+
+<p>"The baroness!" he gasped. "The baroness!...
+Oh, the monster!..."</p>
+
+<p>He roused himself from his torpor, suddenly, to spit
+in the murderer's face and pound him with his
+heels:</p>
+
+<p>"Take that, you wretch!... Take that, you
+villain!... And, with it, the scaffold, the bran-basket!..."</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, shouts came from the upper floors in
+reply to the detectives' ringing. Lupin heard footsteps
+scurrying down the stairs. It was time to think
+of beating a retreat.</p>
+
+<p>In reality, this did not trouble him greatly. During
+his conversation with the baron, the enemy's
+extraordinary coolness had given him the feeling that
+there must be a private outlet. Besides, how could
+the baron have begun the fight, if he were not sure
+of escaping the police?</p>
+
+<p>Lupin went into the next room. It looked out
+on the garden. At the moment when the detectives
+were entering the house, he flung his legs over
+the balcony and let himself down by a rain-pipe.
+He walked round the building. On the opposite
+side was a wall lined with shrubs. He slipped in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+between the shrubs and the wall and at once found
+a little door which he easily opened with one of
+the keys on the bunch. All that remained for him
+to do was to walk across a yard and pass through
+the empty rooms of a lodge; and in a few moments
+he found himself in the Rue du Faubourg
+Saint-Honoré. Of course&mdash;and this he had reckoned
+on&mdash;the police had not provided for this secret
+outlet.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>"Well, what do you think of Baron Repstein?"
+cried Lupin, after giving me all the details of
+that tragic night. "What a dirty scoundrel! And
+how it teaches one to distrust appearances! I
+swear to you, the fellow looked a thoroughly honest
+man!"</p>
+
+<p>"But what about the millions?" I asked.
+"The princess's jewels?"</p>
+
+<p>"They were in the safe. I remember seeing the
+parcel."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are there still."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!"</p>
+
+<p>"They are, upon my word! I might tell you
+that I was afraid of the detectives, or else plead a
+sudden attack of delicacy. But the truth is
+simpler ... and more prosaic: the smell was
+too awful!..."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear fellow, the smell that came from
+that safe ... from that coffin.... No, I
+couldn't do it ... my head swam....
+Another second and I should have been ill....
+Isn't it silly?... Look, this is all I got from my
+expedition: the tie-pin.... The bed-rock value
+of the pearl is thirty thousand francs.... But
+all the same, I feel jolly well annoyed. What a sell!"</p>
+
+<p>"One more question," I said. "The word that
+opened the safe!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"How did you guess it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, quite easily! In fact, I am surprised that I
+didn't think of it sooner."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"It was contained in the revelations telegraphed by
+that poor Lavernoux."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just think, my dear chap, the mistakes in
+spelling...."</p>
+
+<p>"The mistakes in spelling?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course! They were deliberate. Surely,
+you don't imagine that the agent, the private
+secretary of the baron&mdash;who was a company-promoter,
+mind you, and a racing-man&mdash;did not
+know English better than to spell 'necessery'
+with an 'e,' 'atack' with one 't,' 'ennemy'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+with two 'n's' and 'prudance' with an 'a'!
+The thing struck me at once. I put the four letters
+together and got 'Etna,' the name of the famous
+horse."</p>
+
+<p>"And was that one word enough?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course! It was enough to start with, to
+put me on the scent of the Repstein case, of which
+all the papers were full, and, next, to make me guess
+that it was the key-word of the safe, because, on
+the one hand, Lavernoux knew the gruesome contents
+of the safe and, on the other, he was denouncing
+the baron. And it was in the same way that I was
+led to suppose that Lavernoux had a friend in the
+street, that they both frequented the same café,
+that they amused themselves by working out the
+problems and cryptograms in the illustrated papers
+and that they had contrived a way of exchanging
+telegrams from window to window."</p>
+
+<p>"That makes it all quite simple!" I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"Very simple. And the incident once more
+shows that, in the discovery of crimes, there is
+something much more valuable than the examination
+of facts, than observations, deductions, inferences
+and all that stuff and nonsense. What I
+mean is, as I said before, intuition ... intuition
+and intelligence.... And Arsène Lupin, without
+boasting, is deficient in neither one nor the
+other!..."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">THE WEDDING-RING</h3>
+
+
+<p>Yvonne d'Origny kissed her son and told him to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+be good:</p>
+
+<p>"You know your grandmother d'Origny is not
+very fond of children. Now that she has sent for
+you to come and see her, you must show her what
+a sensible little boy you are." And, turning to the
+governess, "Don't forget, Fräulein, to bring him
+home immediately after dinner.... Is monsieur
+still in the house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, madame, monsieur le comte is in his
+study."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as she was alone, Yvonne d'Origny walked
+to the window to catch a glimpse of her son as
+he left the house. He was out in the street in
+a moment, raised his head and blew her a kiss,
+as was his custom every day. Then the governess
+took his hand with, as Yvonne remarked to her
+surprise, a movement of unusual violence. Yvonne
+leant further out of the window and, when the
+boy reached the corner of the boulevard, she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
+suddenly saw a man step out of a motor-car and go
+up to him. The man, in whom she recognized
+Bernard, her husband's confidential servant, took
+the child by the arm, made both him and the
+governess get into the car, and ordered the chauffeur
+to drive off.</p>
+
+<p>The whole incident did not take ten seconds.</p>
+
+<p>Yvonne, in her trepidation, ran to her bedroom,
+seized a wrap and went to the door. The door was
+locked; and there was no key in the lock.</p>
+
+<p>She hurried back to the boudoir. The door of the
+boudoir also was locked.</p>
+
+<p>Then, suddenly, the image of her husband appeared
+before her, that gloomy face which no smile
+ever lit up, those pitiless eyes in which, for years,
+she had felt so much hatred and malice.</p>
+
+<p>"It's he ... it's he!" she said to herself. "He
+has taken the child.... Oh, it's horrible!"</p>
+
+<p>She beat against the door with her fists, with her
+feet, then flew to the mantelpiece and pressed the
+bell fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>The shrill sound rang through the house from
+top to bottom. The servants would be sure to
+come. Perhaps a crowd would gather in the street.
+And, impelled by a sort of despairing hope, she kept
+her finger on the button.</p>
+
+<p>A key turned in the lock.... The door was
+flung wide open. The count appeared on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+threshold of the boudoir. And the expression of his
+face was so terrible that Yvonne began to tremble.</p>
+
+<p>He entered the room. Five or six steps separated
+him from her. With a supreme effort, she
+tried to stir, but all movement was impossible; and,
+when she attempted to speak, she could only flutter
+her lips and emit incoherent sounds. She felt
+herself lost. The thought of death unhinged her.
+Her knees gave way beneath her and she sank into
+a huddled heap, with a moan.</p>
+
+<p>The count rushed at her and seized her by the
+throat:</p>
+
+<p>"Hold your tongue ... don't call out!" he
+said, in a low voice. "That will be best for
+you!..."</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that she was not attempting to defend
+herself, he loosened his hold of her and took from
+his pocket some strips of canvas ready rolled and
+of different lengths. In a few minutes, Yvonne was
+lying on a sofa, with her wrists and ankles bound
+and her arms fastened close to her body.</p>
+
+<p>It was now dark in the boudoir. The count
+switched on the electric light and went to a little
+writing-desk where Yvonne was accustomed to
+keep her letters. Not succeeding in opening it, he
+picked the lock with a bent wire, emptied the drawers
+and collected all the contents into a bundle, which
+he carried off in a cardboard file:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Waste of time, eh?" he grinned. "Nothing
+but bills and letters of no importance.... No
+proof against you.... Tah! I'll keep my
+son for all that; and I swear before Heaven that I
+will not let him go!"</p>
+
+<p>As he was leaving the room, he was joined, near
+the door, by his man Bernard. The two stopped
+and talked, in a low voice; but Yvonne heard these
+words spoken by the servant:</p>
+
+<p>"I have had an answer from the working jeweller.
+He says he holds himself at my disposal."</p>
+
+<p>And the count replied:</p>
+
+<p>"The thing is put off until twelve o'clock midday,
+to-morrow. My mother has just telephoned to say
+that she could not come before."</p>
+
+<p>Then Yvonne heard the key turn in the lock and
+the sound of steps going down to the ground-floor,
+where her husband's study was.</p>
+
+<p>She long lay inert, her brain reeling with vague,
+swift ideas that burnt her in passing, like flames.
+She remembered her husband's infamous behaviour,
+his humiliating conduct to her, his threats, his
+plans for a divorce; and she gradually came to
+understand that she was the victim of a regular
+conspiracy, that the servants had been sent away
+until the following evening by their master's orders,
+that the governess had carried off her son by the
+count's instructions and with Bernard's assistance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+that her son would not come back and that she would
+never see him again.</p>
+
+<p>"My son!" she cried. "My son!..."</p>
+
+<p>Exasperated by her grief, she stiffened herself,
+with every nerve, with every muscle tense, to make
+a violent effort. And she was astonished to find
+that her right hand, which the count had fastened too
+hurriedly, still retained a certain freedom.</p>
+
+<p>Then a mad hope invaded her; and, slowly, patiently,
+she began the work of self-deliverance.</p>
+
+<p>It was long in the doing. She needed a deal of
+time to widen the knot sufficiently and a deal of time
+afterward, when the hand was released, to undo
+those other bonds which tied her arms to her body and
+those which fastened her ankles.</p>
+
+<p>Still, the thought of her son sustained her; and
+the last shackle fell as the clock struck eight. She
+was free!</p>
+
+<p>She was no sooner on her feet than she flew to
+the window and flung back the latch, with the
+intention of calling the first passer-by. At that
+moment a policeman came walking along the
+pavement. She leant out. But the brisk evening
+air, striking her face, calmed her. She thought
+of the scandal, of the judicial investigation, of the
+cross-examination, of her son. O Heaven! What
+could she do to get him back? How could she
+escape? The count might appear at the least<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+sound. And who knew but that, in a moment of
+fury ...?</p>
+
+<p>She shivered from head to foot, seized with a sudden
+terror. The horror of death mingled, in her poor
+brain, with the thought of her son; and she stammered,
+with a choking throat:</p>
+
+<p>"Help!... Help!..."</p>
+
+<p>She stopped and said to herself, several times
+over, in a low voice, "Help!... Help!..."
+as though the word awakened an idea, a memory
+within her, and as though the hope of assistance
+no longer seemed to her impossible. For some
+minutes she remained absorbed in deep meditation,
+broken by fears and starts. Then, with an
+almost mechanical series of movements, she put
+out her arm to a little set of shelves hanging over
+the writing-desk, took down four books, one after
+the other, turned the pages with a distraught air,
+replaced them and ended by finding, between the
+pages of the fifth, a visiting-card on which her eyes
+spelt the name:</p>
+
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="center">
+HORACE VELMONT,
+</div>
+
+<p>followed by an address written in pencil:</p>
+
+<div class="center stext">
+<span class="smcap">CERCLE DE LA RUE ROYALE.</span>
+</div>
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+
+<p>And her memory conjured up the strange thing
+which that man had said to her, a few years before,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+in that same house, on a day when she was at home
+to her friends:</p>
+
+<p>"If ever a danger threatens you, if you need help,
+do not hesitate; post this card, which you see me
+put into this book; and, whatever the hour, whatever
+the obstacles, I will come."</p>
+
+<p>With what a curious air he had spoken these
+words and how well he had conveyed the impression
+of certainty, of strength, of unlimited power, of
+indomitable daring!</p>
+
+<p>Abruptly, unconsciously, acting under the impulse
+of an irresistible determination, the consequences
+of which she refused to anticipate, Yvonne,
+with the same automatic gestures, took a pneumatic-delivery
+envelope, slipped in the card, sealed it,
+directed it to "Horace Velmont, Cercle de la Rue
+Royale" and went to the open window. The policeman
+was walking up and down outside. She flung
+out the envelope, trusting to fate. Perhaps it would
+be picked up, treated as a lost letter and posted.</p>
+
+<p>She had hardly completed this act when she realized
+its absurdity. It was mad to suppose that the
+message would reach the address and madder still
+to hope that the man to whom she was sending
+could come to her assistance, "whatever the hour,
+whatever the obstacles."</p>
+
+<p>A reaction followed which was all the greater
+inasmuch as the effort had been swift and violent.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+Yvonne staggered, leant against a chair and, losing
+all energy, let herself fall.</p>
+
+<p>The hours passed by, the dreary hours of winter
+evenings when nothing but the sound of carriages
+interrupts the silence of the street. The clock struck,
+pitilessly. In the half-sleep that numbed her limbs,
+Yvonne counted the strokes. She also heard certain
+noises, on different floors of the house, which
+told her that her husband had dined, that he was
+going up to his room, that he was going down again
+to his study. But all this seemed very shadowy to
+her; and her torpor was such that she did not even
+think of lying down on the sofa, in case he should
+come in....</p>
+
+<p>The twelve strokes of midnight.... Then
+half-past twelve ... then one.... Yvonne
+thought of nothing, awaiting the events which were
+preparing and against which rebellion was useless. She
+pictured her son and herself as one pictures those
+beings who have suffered much and who suffer no
+more and who take each other in their loving arms.
+But a nightmare shattered this dream. For now
+those two beings were to be torn asunder; and she
+had the awful feeling, in her delirium, that she was
+crying and choking....</p>
+
+<p>She leapt from her seat. The key had turned in
+the lock. The count was coming, attracted by her
+cries. Yvonne glanced round for a weapon with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+which to defend herself. But the door was pushed
+back quickly and, astounded, as though the sight
+that presented itself before her eyes seemed to her
+the most inexplicable prodigy, she stammered:</p>
+
+<p>"You!... You!..."</p>
+
+<p>A man was walking up to her, in dress-clothes,
+with his opera-hat and cape under his arm, and this
+man, young, slender and elegant, she had recognized
+as Horace Velmont.</p>
+
+<p>"You!" she repeated.</p>
+
+<p>He said, with a bow:</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, madame, but I did not receive
+your letter until very late."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible? Is it possible that this is you ...
+that you were able to ...?"</p>
+
+<p>He seemed greatly surprised:</p>
+
+<p>"Did I not promise to come in answer to your
+call?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes ... but ..."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, here I am," he said, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>He examined the strips of canvas from which
+Yvonne had succeeded in freeing herself and nodded
+his head, while continuing his inspection:</p>
+
+<p>"So those are the means employed? The Comte
+d'Origny, I presume?... I also saw that
+he locked you in.... But then the pneumatic
+letter?... Ah, through the window!...
+How careless of you not to close it!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He pushed both sides to. Yvonne took fright:</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose they hear!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no one in the house. I have been over
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Still ..."</p>
+
+<p>"Your husband went out ten minutes ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"With his mother, the Comtesse d'Origny."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's very simple! He was rung up by telephone
+and I awaited the result at the corner
+of this street and the boulevard. As I expected,
+the count came out hurriedly, followed by his
+man. I at once entered, with the aid of special
+keys."</p>
+
+<p>He told this in the most natural way, just as
+one tells a meaningless anecdote in a drawing-room.
+But Yvonne, suddenly seized with fresh
+alarm, asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's not true?... His mother is not
+ill?... In that case, my husband will be coming
+back...."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, the count will see that a trick has
+been played on him and in three quarters of an hour
+at the latest...."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go.... I don't want him to find me
+here.... I must go to my son...."</p>
+
+<p>"One moment...."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"One moment!... But don't you know that
+they have taken him from me?... That they
+are hurting him, perhaps?..."</p>
+
+<p>With set face and feverish gestures, she tried to
+push Velmont back. He, with great gentleness,
+compelled her to sit down and, leaning over her in
+a respectful attitude, said, in a serious voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, madame, and let us not waste time,
+when every minute is valuable. First of all,
+remember this: we met four times, six years ago....
+And, on the fourth occasion, when I was
+speaking to you, in the drawing-room of this house,
+with too much&mdash;what shall I say?&mdash;with too much
+feeling, you gave me to understand that my visits
+were no longer welcome. Since that day I have
+not seen you. And, nevertheless, in spite of all,
+your faith in me was such that you kept the card
+which I put between the pages of that book and,
+six years later, you send for me and none other.
+That faith in me I ask you to continue. You must
+obey me blindly. Just as I surmounted every
+obstacle to come to you, so I will save you, whatever
+the position may be."</p>
+
+<p>Horace Velmont's calmness, his masterful voice,
+with the friendly intonation, gradually quieted the
+countess. Though still very weak, she gained a
+fresh sense of ease and security in that man's
+presence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Have no fear," he went on. "The Comtesse
+d'Origny lives at the other end of the Bois
+de Vincennes. Allowing that your husband finds
+a motor-cab, it is impossible for him to be back
+before a quarter-past three. Well, it is twenty-five
+to three now. I swear to take you away at three
+o'clock exactly and to take you to your son. But
+I will not go before I know everything."</p>
+
+<p>"What am I to do?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Answer me and very plainly. We have twenty
+minutes. It is enough. But it is not too much."</p>
+
+<p>"Ask me what you want to know."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think that the count had any ...
+any murderous intentions?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it concerns your son?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"He is taking him away, I suppose, because
+he wants to divorce you and marry another woman,
+a former friend of yours, whom you have turned
+out of your house. Is that it? Oh, I entreat
+you, answer me frankly! These are facts of public
+notoriety; and your hesitation, your scruples,
+must all cease, now that the matter concerns your
+son. So your husband wished to marry another
+woman?</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"The woman has no money. Your husband,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+on his side, has gambled away all his property and
+has no means beyond the allowance which he receives
+from his mother, the Comtesse d'Origny,
+and the income of a large fortune which your son
+inherited from two of your uncles. It is this
+fortune which your husband covets and which he
+would appropriate more easily if the child were
+placed in his hands. There is only one way:
+divorce. Am I right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And what has prevented him until now is your
+refusal?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mine and that of my mother-in-law, whose
+religious feelings are opposed to divorce. The Comtesse
+d'Origny would only yield in case ..."</p>
+
+<p>"In case ...?"</p>
+
+<p>"In case they could prove me guilty of shameful
+conduct."</p>
+
+<p>Velmont shrugged his shoulders:</p>
+
+<p>"Therefore he is powerless to do anything against
+you or against your son. Both from the legal point
+of view and from that of his own interests, he stumbles
+against an obstacle which is the most insurmountable
+of all: the virtue of an honest woman.
+And yet, in spite of everything, he suddenly shows
+fight."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that, if a man like the count, after so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+many hesitations and in the face of so many difficulties,
+risks so doubtful an adventure, it must be because
+he thinks he has command of weapons ..."</p>
+
+<p>"What weapons?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. But they exist ... or else he
+would not have begun by taking away your son."</p>
+
+<p>Yvonne gave way to her despair:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, this is horrible!... How do I know
+what he may have done, what he may have invented?"</p>
+
+<p>"Try and think.... Recall your memories....
+Tell me, in this desk which he has broken
+open, was there any sort of letter which he could possibly
+turn against you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No ... only bills and addresses...."</p>
+
+<p>"And, in the words he used to you, in his threats,
+is there nothing that allows you to guess?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Still ... still," Velmont insisted, "there must
+be something." And he continued, "Has the count
+a particularly intimate friend ... in whom he
+confides?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Did anybody come to see him yesterday?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, nobody."</p>
+
+<p>"Was he alone when he bound you and locked you
+in?"</p>
+
+<p>"At that moment, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"But afterward?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"His man, Bernard, joined him near the door
+and I heard them talking about a working jeweller...."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that all?"</p>
+
+<p>"And about something that was to happen the
+next day, that is, to-day, at twelve o'clock, because
+the Comtesse d'Origny could not come earlier."</p>
+
+<p>Velmont reflected:</p>
+
+<p>"Has that conversation any meaning that throws
+a light upon your husband's plans?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see any."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are your jewels?"</p>
+
+<p>"My husband has sold them all."</p>
+
+<p>"You have nothing at all left?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Not even a ring?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said, showing her hands, "none except
+this."</p>
+
+<p>"Which is your wedding-ring?"</p>
+
+<p>"Which is my ... wedding&mdash;..."</p>
+
+<p>She stopped, nonplussed. Velmont saw her flush
+as she stammered:</p>
+
+<p>"Could it be possible?... But no ...
+no ... he doesn't know...."</p>
+
+<p>Velmont at once pressed her with questions and
+Yvonne stood silent, motionless, anxious-faced. At
+last, she replied, in a low voice:</p>
+
+<p>"This is not my wedding-ring. One day, long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+ago, it dropped from the mantelpiece in my bedroom,
+where I had put it a minute before and, hunt for
+it as I might, I could not find it again. So I ordered
+another, without saying anything about it ...
+and this is the one, on my hand...."</p>
+
+<p>"Did the real ring bear the date of your wedding?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes ... the 23rd of October."</p>
+
+<p>"And the second?"</p>
+
+<p>"This one has no date."</p>
+
+<p>He perceived a slight hesitation in her and a
+confusion which, in point of fact, she did not try to
+conceal.</p>
+
+<p>"I implore you," he exclaimed, "don't hide anything
+from me.... You see how far we have
+gone in a few minutes, with a little logic and calmness....
+Let us go on, I ask you as a favour."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure," she said, "that it is necessary?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure that the least detail is of importance
+and that we are nearly attaining our object. But
+we must hurry. This is a crucial moment."</p>
+
+<p>"I have nothing to conceal," she said, proudly
+raising her head. "It was the most wretched and
+the most dangerous period of my life. While
+suffering humiliation at home, outside I was surrounded
+with attentions, with temptations, with
+pitfalls, like any woman who is seen to be neglected
+by her husband. Then I remembered: before my
+marriage, a man had been in love with me. I had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+guessed his unspoken love; and he has died since. I
+had the name of that man engraved inside the ring;
+and I wore it as a talisman. There was no love in me,
+because I was the wife of another. But, in my secret
+heart, there was a memory, a sad dream, something
+sweet and gentle that protected me...."</p>
+
+<p>She had spoken slowly, without embarrassment,
+and Velmont did not doubt for a second that she
+was telling the absolute truth. He kept silent; and
+she, becoming anxious again, asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose ... that my husband ...?"</p>
+
+<p>He took her hand and, while examining the plain
+gold ring, said:</p>
+
+<p>"The puzzle lies here. Your husband, I don't
+know how, knows of the substitution of one ring for
+the other. His mother will be here at twelve o'clock.
+In the presence of witnesses, he will compel you
+to take off your ring; and, in this way, he will obtain
+the approval of his mother and, at the same time,
+will be able to obtain his divorce, because he will
+have the proof for which he was seeking."</p>
+
+<p>"I am lost!" she moaned. "I am lost!"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, you are saved! Give me
+that ring ... and presently he will find another
+there, another which I will send you, to reach you
+before twelve, and which will bear the date of the
+23rd of October. So...."</p>
+
+<p>He suddenly broke off. While he was speaking,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+Yvonne's hand had turned ice-cold in his; and,
+raising his eyes, he saw that the young woman was
+pale, terribly pale:</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter? I beseech you ..."</p>
+
+<p>She yielded to a fit of mad despair:</p>
+
+<p>"This is the matter, that I am lost!... This
+is the matter, that I can't get the ring off! It has
+grown too small for me!... Do you understand?...
+It made no difference and I did not give it a
+thought.... But to-day ... this proof ...
+this accusation.... Oh, what torture!... Look ...
+it forms part of my finger ... it has grown
+into my flesh ... and I can't ... I can't...."</p>
+
+<p>She pulled at the ring, vainly, with all her might, at
+the risk of injuring herself. But the flesh swelled up
+around the ring; and the ring did not budge.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" she cried, seized with an idea that terrified
+her. "I remember ... the other night ...
+a nightmare I had.... It seemed to me that
+some one entered my room and caught hold of my
+hand.... And I could not wake up....
+It was he! It was he! He had put me to sleep, I was
+sure of it ... and he was looking at the ring....
+And presently he will pull it off before his
+mother's eyes.... Ah, I understand everything:
+that working jeweller!... He will cut
+it from my hand to-morrow.... You see, you
+see.... I am lost!..."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She hid her face in her hands and began to weep.
+But, amid the silence, the clock struck once ...
+and twice ... and yet once more. And
+Yvonne drew herself up with a jerk:</p>
+
+<p>"There he is!" she cried. "He is coming!...
+It is three o'clock!... Let us go!..."</p>
+
+<p>She grabbed at her cloak and ran to the door ...
+Velmont barred the way and, in a masterful tone:</p>
+
+<p>"You shall not go!"</p>
+
+<p>"My son.... I want to see him, to take him
+back...."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't even know where he is!"</p>
+
+<p>"I want to go."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall not go!... It would be madness...."</p>
+
+<p>He took her by the wrists. She tried to release
+herself; and Velmont had to employ a little force
+to overcome her resistance. In the end, he succeeded
+in getting her back to the sofa, then in laying
+her at full length and, at once, without heeding her
+lamentations, he took the canvas strips and fastened
+her wrists and ankles:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "It would be madness! Who
+would have set you free? Who would have opened
+that door for you? An accomplice? What an
+argument against you and what a pretty use your
+husband would make of it with his mother!...
+And, besides, what's the good? To run away<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+means accepting divorce ... and what might
+that not lead to?... You must stay here...."</p>
+
+<p>She sobbed:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm frightened.... I'm frightened ...
+this ring burns me.... Break it.... Take
+it away.... Don't let him find it!"</p>
+
+<p>"And if it is not found on your finger, who will
+have broken it? Again an accomplice.... No,
+you must face the music ... and face it boldly,
+for I answer for everything.... Believe me ...
+I answer for everything.... If I have
+to tackle the Comtesse d'Origny bodily and thus delay
+the interview.... If I had to come myself
+before noon ... it is the real wedding-ring that
+shall be taken from your finger&mdash;that I swear!&mdash;and
+your son shall be restored to you."</p>
+
+<p>Swayed and subdued, Yvonne instinctively held
+out her hands to the bonds. When he stood up, she
+was bound as she had been before.</p>
+
+<p>He looked round the room to make sure that no
+trace of his visit remained. Then he stooped over the
+countess again and whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Think of your son and, whatever happens, fear
+nothing.... I am watching over you."</p>
+
+<p>She heard him open and shut the door of the boudoir
+and, a few minutes later, the hall-door.</p>
+
+<p>At half-past three, a motor-cab drew up. The
+door downstairs was slammed again; and, almost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+immediately after, Yvonne saw her husband hurry in,
+with a furious look in his eyes. He ran up to her,
+felt to see if she was still fastened and, snatching her
+hand, examined the ring. Yvonne fainted....</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>She could not tell, when she woke, how long she had
+slept. But the broad light of day was filling the
+boudoir; and she perceived, at the first movement
+which she made, that her bonds were cut. Then
+she turned her head and saw her husband standing
+beside her, looking at her:</p>
+
+<p>"My son ... my son ..." she moaned.
+"I want my son...."</p>
+
+<p>He replied, in a voice of which she felt the jeering
+insolence:</p>
+
+<p>"Our son is in a safe place. And, for the moment,
+it's a question not of him, but of you. We are
+face to face with each other, probably for the
+last time, and the explanation between us will be
+a very serious one. I must warn you that it will
+take place before my mother. Have you any
+objection?"</p>
+
+<p>Yvonne tried to hide her agitation and answered:</p>
+
+<p>"None at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Can I send for her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Leave me, in the meantime. I shall be
+ready when she comes."</p>
+
+<p>"My mother is here."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Your mother is here?" cried Yvonne, in dismay,
+remembering Horace Velmont's promise.</p>
+
+<p>"What is there to astonish you in that?"</p>
+
+<p>"And is it now ... is it at once that you
+want to ...?</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?... Why not this evening?...
+Why not to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"To-day and now," declared the count. "A rather
+curious incident happened in the course of last
+night, an incident which I cannot account for and
+which decided me to hasten the explanation. Don't
+you want something to eat first?"</p>
+
+<p>"No ... no...."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will go and fetch my mother."</p>
+
+<p>He turned to Yvonne's bedroom. Yvonne
+glanced at the clock. It marked twenty-five minutes
+to eleven!</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" she said, with a shiver of fright.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty-five minutes to eleven! Horace Velmont
+would not save her and nobody in the world
+and nothing in the world would save her, for there
+was no miracle that could place the wedding-ring
+upon her finger.</p>
+
+<p>The count, returning with the Comtesse d'Origny,
+asked her to sit down. She was a tall, lank, angular
+woman, who had always displayed a hostile feeling
+to Yvonne. She did not even bid her daughter-in-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>law
+good-morning, showing that her mind was made
+up as regards the accusation:</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think," she said, "that we need speak at
+length. In two words, my son maintains...."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't maintain, mother," said the count, "I
+declare. I declare on my oath that, three months
+ago, during the holidays, the upholsterer, when laying
+the carpet in this room and the boudoir, found
+the wedding-ring which I gave my wife lying in
+a crack in the floor. Here is the ring. The date of
+the 23rd of October is engraved inside."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said the countess, "the ring which your
+wife carries...."</p>
+
+<p>"That is another ring, which she ordered in exchange
+for the real one. Acting on my instructions,
+Bernard, my man, after long searching, ended by
+discovering in the outskirts of Paris, where he now
+lives, the little jeweller to whom she went. This
+man remembers perfectly and is willing to bear
+witness that his customer did not tell him to
+engrave a date, but a name. He has forgotten
+the name, but the man who used to work with him
+in his shop may be able to remember it. This
+working jeweller has been informed by letter that
+I required his services and he replied yesterday,
+placing himself at my disposal. Bernard went to
+fetch him at nine o'clock this morning. They are
+both waiting in my study."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He turned to his wife:</p>
+
+<p>"Will you give me that ring of your own free
+will?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know," she said, "from the other night, that
+it won't come off my finger."</p>
+
+<p>"In that case, can I have the man up? He has the
+necessary implements with him."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, in a voice faint as a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>She was resigned. She conjured up the future
+as in a vision: the scandal, the decree of divorce
+pronounced against herself, the custody of the
+child awarded to the father; and she accepted this,
+thinking that she would carry off her son, that she
+would go with him to the ends of the earth and
+that the two of them would live alone together and
+happy....</p>
+
+<p>Her mother-in-law said:</p>
+
+<p>"You have been very thoughtless, Yvonne."</p>
+
+<p>Yvonne was on the point of confessing to her and
+asking for her protection. But what was the good?
+How could the Comtesse d'Origny possibly believe
+her innocent? She made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, the count at once returned, followed by
+his servant and by a man carrying a bag of tools under
+his arm.</p>
+
+<p>And the count said to the man:</p>
+
+<p>"You know what you have to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the workman. "It's to cut a ring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+that's grown too small.... That's easily done....
+A touch of the nippers...."</p>
+
+<p>"And then you will see," said the count, "if
+the inscription inside the ring was the one you engraved."</p>
+
+<p>Yvonne looked at the clock. It was ten minutes
+to eleven. She seemed to hear, somewhere in the
+house, a sound of voices raised in argument; and,
+in spite of herself, she felt a thrill of hope. Perhaps
+Velmont has succeeded.... But the sound was
+renewed; and she perceived that it was produced
+by some costermongers passing under her window
+and moving farther on.</p>
+
+<p>It was all over. Horace Velmont had been unable
+to assist her. And she understood that, to recover
+her child, she must rely upon her own strength, for
+the promises of others are vain.</p>
+
+<p>She made a movement of recoil. She had felt
+the workman's heavy hand on her hand; and that
+hateful touch revolted her.</p>
+
+<p>The man apologized, awkwardly. The count said
+to his wife:</p>
+
+<p>"You must make up your mind, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Then she put out her slim and trembling hand
+to the workman, who took it, turned it over and
+rested it on the table, with the palm upward.
+Yvonne felt the cold steel. She longed to die,
+then and there; and, at once attracted by that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+idea of death, she thought of the poisons which she
+would buy and which would send her to sleep almost
+without her knowing it.</p>
+
+<p>The operation did not take long. Inserted on the
+slant, the little steel pliers pushed back the flesh,
+made room for themselves and bit the ring. A strong
+effort ... and the ring broke. The two ends
+had only to be separated to remove the ring from
+the finger. The workman did so.</p>
+
+<p>The count exclaimed, in triumph:</p>
+
+<p>"At last! Now we shall see!... The proof
+is there! And we are all witnesses...."</p>
+
+<p>He snatched up the ring and looked at the inscription.
+A cry of amazement escaped him. The
+ring bore the date of his marriage to Yvonne: "23rd
+of October"!...</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>We were sitting on the terrace at Monte Carlo.
+Lupin finished his story, lit a cigarette and calmly
+puffed the smoke into the blue air.</p>
+
+<p>I said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, the end of the story...."</p>
+
+<p>"The end of the story? But what other end could
+there be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come ... you're joking ..."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. Isn't that enough for you? The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+countess is saved. The count, not possessing the
+least proof against her, is compelled by his mother
+to forego the divorce and to give up the child.
+That is all. Since then, he has left his wife,
+who is living happily with her son, a fine lad of
+sixteen."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes ... yes ... but the way in which
+the countess was saved?"</p>
+
+<p>Lupin burst out laughing:</p>
+
+<p>"My dear old chap"&mdash;Lupin sometimes condescends
+to address me in this affectionate manner&mdash;"my
+dear old chap, you may be rather smart at
+relating my exploits, but, by Jove, you do want to
+have the i's dotted for you! I assure you, the countess
+did not ask for explanations!"</p>
+
+<p>"Very likely. But there's no pride about me,"
+I added, laughing. "Dot those i's for me, will
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>He took out a five-franc piece and closed his hand
+over it.</p>
+
+<p>"What's in my hand?"</p>
+
+<p>"A five-franc piece."</p>
+
+<p>He opened his hand. The five-franc piece was
+gone.</p>
+
+<p>"You see how easy it is! A working jeweller,
+with his nippers, cuts a ring with a date engraved
+upon it: 23rd of October. It's a simple little
+trick of sleight-of-hand, one of many which I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+in my bag. By Jove, I didn't spend six months with
+Dickson, the conjurer,<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> for nothing!"</p>
+
+<p>"But then ...?"</p>
+
+<p>"Out with it!"</p>
+
+<p>"The working jeweller?"</p>
+
+<p>"Was Horace Velmont! Was good old Lupin!
+Leaving the countess at three o'clock in the morning,
+I employed the few remaining minutes before the
+husband's return to have a look round his study.
+On the table I found the letter from the working
+jeweller. The letter gave me the address. A bribe
+of a few louis enabled me to take the workman's
+place; and I arrived with a wedding-ring ready cut
+and engraved. Hocus-pocus! Pass!... The
+count couldn't make head or tail of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Splendid!" I cried. And I added, a little chaffingly,
+in my turn, "But don't you think that
+you were humbugged a bit yourself, on this occasion?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! And by whom, pray?"</p>
+
+<p>"By the countess?"</p>
+
+<p>"In what way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hang it all, that name engraved as a talisman!...
+The mysterious Adonis who loved her
+and suffered for her sake!... All that story
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>seems very unlikely; and I wonder whether, Lupin
+though you be, you did not just drop upon a pretty
+love-story, absolutely genuine and ... none too
+innocent."</p>
+
+<p>Lupin looked at me out of the corner of his eye:</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"If the countess made a misstatement in telling
+me that she knew that man before her marriage&mdash;and
+that he was dead&mdash;and if she really did love
+him in her secret heart, I, at least, have a positive
+proof that it was an ideal love and that he did
+not suspect it."</p>
+
+<p>"And where is the proof?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is inscribed inside the ring which I myself
+broke on the countess's finger ... and which I
+carry on me. Here it is. You can read the name she
+had engraved on it."</p>
+
+<p>He handed me the ring. I read:</p>
+
+<p>"Horace Velmont."</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment of silence between Lupin
+and myself; and, noticing it, I also observed on his
+face a certain emotion, a tinge of melancholy.</p>
+
+<p>I resumed:</p>
+
+<p>"What made you tell me this story ... to
+which you have often alluded in my presence?"</p>
+
+<p>"What made me ...?"</p>
+
+<p>He drew my attention to a woman, still ex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>ceedingly
+handsome, who was passing on a young
+man's arm. She saw Lupin and bowed.</p>
+
+<p>"It's she," he whispered. "She and her son."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she recognized you?"</p>
+
+<p>"She always recognizes me, whatever my disguise."</p>
+
+<p>"But since the burglary at the Château de Thibermesnil,<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a>
+the police have identified the two names of
+Arsène Lupin and Horace Velmont."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Therefore she knows who you are."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And she bows to you?" I exclaimed, in spite of
+myself.</p>
+
+<p>He caught me by the arm and, fiercely:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think that I am Lupin to her? Do you
+think that I am a burglar in her eyes, a rogue, a
+cheat?... Why, I might be the lowest of
+miscreants, I might be a murderer even ... and
+still she would bow to me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Because she loved you once?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rot! That would be an additional reason, on
+the contrary, why she should now despise me."</p>
+
+<p>"What then?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am the man who gave her back her son!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">THE SIGN OF THE SHADOW</h3>
+
+
+<p>"I received your telegram and here I am," said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+a gentleman with a grey moustache, who entered
+my study, dressed in a dark-brown frock-coat and
+a wide-brimmed hat, with a red ribbon in his
+buttonhole. "What's the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>Had I not been expecting Arsène Lupin, I should
+certainly never have recognized him in the person
+of this old half-pay officer:</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" I echoed. "Oh, nothing
+much: a rather curious coincidence, that's all.
+And, as I know that you would just as soon clear
+up a mystery as plan one...."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"You seem in a great hurry!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am ... unless the mystery in question is
+worth putting myself out for. So let us get to the
+point."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. Just begin by casting your eye on
+this little picture, which I picked up, a week or
+two ago, in a grimy old shop on the other side of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+the river. I bought it for the sake of its Empire
+frame, with the palm-leaf ornaments on the
+mouldings ... for the painting is execrable."</p>
+
+<p>"Execrable, as you say," said Lupin, after he
+had examined it, "but the subject itself is rather
+nice. That corner of an old courtyard, with its
+rotunda of Greek columns, its sun-dial and its
+fish-pond and that ruined well with the Renascence
+roof and those stone steps and stone benches: all
+very picturesque."</p>
+
+<p>"And genuine," I added. "The picture, good
+or bad, has never been taken out of its Empire
+frame. Besides, it is dated.... There, in the
+left-hand bottom corner: those red figures, 15. 4. 2,
+which obviously stand for 15 April, 1802."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say ... I dare say.... But
+you were speaking of a coincidence and, so far, I
+fail to see...."</p>
+
+<p>I went to a corner of my study, took a telescope,
+fixed it on its stand and pointed it, through the
+open window, at the open window of a little room
+facing my flat, on the other side of the street. And
+I asked Lupin to look through it.</p>
+
+<p>He stooped forward. The slanting rays of the
+morning sun lit up the room opposite, revealing
+a set of mahogany furniture, all very simple, a
+large bed and a child's bed hung with cretonne
+curtains.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" cried Lupin, suddenly. "The same
+picture!"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly the same!" I said. "And the date:
+do you see the date, in red? 15. 4. 2."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I see.... And who lives in that room?"</p>
+
+<p>"A lady ... or, rather, a workwoman,
+for she has to work for her living ... needlework,
+hardly enough to keep herself and her child."</p>
+
+<p>"What is her name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Louise d'Ernemont.... From what I
+hear, she is the great-granddaughter of a farmer-general
+who was guillotined during the Terror."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, on the same day as André Chénier," said
+Lupin. "According to the memoirs of the time,
+this d'Ernemont was supposed to be a very rich
+man." He raised his head and said, "It's an
+interesting story.... Why did you wait before
+telling me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because this is the 15th of April."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I discovered yesterday&mdash;I heard them
+talking about it in the porter's box&mdash;that the 15th
+of April plays an important part in the life of
+Louise d'Ernemont."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!"</p>
+
+<p>"Contrary to her usual habits, this woman who
+works every day of her life, who keeps her two
+rooms tidy, who cooks the lunch which her little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+girl eats when she comes home from the parish
+school ... this woman, on the 15th of April, goes
+out with the child at ten o'clock in the morning
+and does not return until nightfall. And this has
+happened for years and in all weathers. You must
+admit that there is something queer about this date
+which I find on an old picture, which is inscribed
+on another, similar picture and which controls the
+annual movements of the descendant of d'Ernemont
+the farmer-general."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it's curious ... you're quite right," said
+Lupin, slowly. "And don't you know where she
+goes to?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody knows. She does not confide in a
+soul. As a matter of fact, she talks very little."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure of your information?"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely. And the best proof of its accuracy
+is that here she comes."</p>
+
+<p>A door had opened at the back of the room
+opposite, admitting a little girl of seven or eight,
+who came and looked out of the window. A lady
+appeared behind her, tall, good-looking still and
+wearing a sad and gentle air. Both of them were
+ready and dressed, in clothes which were simple
+in themselves, but which pointed to a love of
+neatness and a certain elegance on the part of the
+mother.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," I whispered, "they are going out."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And presently the mother took the child by the
+hand and they left the room together.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin caught up his hat:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you coming?"</p>
+
+<p>My curiosity was too great for me to raise the
+least objection. I went downstairs with Lupin.</p>
+
+<p>As we stepped into the street, we saw my neighbour
+enter a baker's shop. She bought two rolls
+and placed them in a little basket which her
+daughter was carrying and which seemed already
+to contain some other provisions. Then they went
+in the direction of the outer boulevards and followed
+them as far as the Place de l'Étoile, where
+they turned down the Avenue Kléber to walk toward
+Passy.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin strolled silently along, evidently obsessed
+by a train of thought which I was glad to have
+provoked. From time to time, he uttered a sentence
+which showed me the thread of his reflections; and
+I was able to see that the riddle remained as much
+a mystery to him as to myself.</p>
+
+<p>Louise d'Ernemont, meanwhile, had branched
+off to the left, along the Rue Raynouard, a quiet
+old street in which Franklin and Balzac once
+lived, one of those streets which, lined with old-fashioned
+houses and walled gardens, give you the
+impression of being in a country-town. The Seine
+flows at the foot of the slope which the street<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+crowns; and a number of lanes run down to the
+river.</p>
+
+<p>My neighbour took one of these narrow, winding,
+deserted lanes. The first building, on the right,
+was a house the front of which faced the Rue Raynouard.
+Next came a moss-grown wall, of a
+height above the ordinary, supported by buttresses
+and bristling with broken glass.</p>
+
+<p>Half-way along the wall was a low, arched door.
+Louise d'Ernemont stopped in front of this door
+and opened it with a key which seemed to us enormous.
+Mother and child entered and closed the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"In any case," said Lupin, "she has nothing to
+conceal, for she has not looked round once...."</p>
+
+<p>He had hardly finished his sentence when we
+heard the sound of footsteps behind us. It was
+two old beggars, a man and a woman, tattered,
+dirty, squalid, covered in rags. They passed us
+without paying the least attention to our presence.
+The man took from his wallet a key similar to my
+neighbour's and put it into the lock. The door
+closed behind them.</p>
+
+<p>And, suddenly, at the top of the lane, came the
+noise of a motor-car stopping.... Lupin dragged
+me fifty yards lower down, to a corner in which we
+were able to hide. And we saw coming down the
+lane, carrying a little dog under her arm, a young<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+and very much over-dressed woman, wearing a
+quantity of jewellery, a young woman whose eyes
+were too dark, her lips too red, her hair too fair.
+In front of the door, the same performance, with
+the same key.... The lady and the dog disappeared
+from view.</p>
+
+<p>"This promises to be most amusing," said
+Lupin, chuckling. "What earthly connection can
+there be between those different people?"</p>
+
+<p>There hove in sight successively two elderly
+ladies, lean and rather poverty-stricken in appearance,
+very much alike, evidently sisters; a footman
+in livery; an infantry corporal; a fat gentleman
+in a soiled and patched jacket-suit; and, lastly,
+a workman's family, father, mother, and four
+children, all six of them pale and sickly, looking
+like people who never eat their fill. And each of
+the newcomers carried a basket or string-bag
+filled with provisions.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a picnic!" I cried.</p>
+
+<p>"It grows more and more surprising," said
+Lupin, "and I sha'n't be satisfied till I know what
+is happening behind that wall."</p>
+
+<p>To climb it was out of the question. We also
+saw that it finished, at the lower as well as at the
+upper end, at a house none of whose windows
+overlooked the enclosure which the wall contained.</p>
+
+<p>During the next hour, no one else came along.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+We vainly cast about for a stratagem; and Lupin,
+whose fertile brain had exhausted every possible
+expedient, was about to go in search of a ladder,
+when, suddenly, the little door opened and one
+of the workman's children came out.</p>
+
+<p>The boy ran up the lane to the Rue Raynouard.
+A few minutes later he returned, carrying two
+bottles of water, which he set down on the pavement
+to take the big key from his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>By that time Lupin had left me and was strolling
+slowly along the wall. When the child, after
+entering the enclosure, pushed back the door
+Lupin sprang forward and stuck the point of his
+knife into the staple of the lock. The bolt failed
+to catch; and it became an easy matter to push
+the door ajar.</p>
+
+<p>"That's done the trick!" said Lupin.</p>
+
+<p>He cautiously put his hand through the doorway
+and then, to my great surprise, entered boldly.
+But, on following his example, I saw that, ten
+yards behind the wall, a clump of laurels formed a
+sort of curtain which allowed us to come up unobserved.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin took his stand right in the middle of the
+clump. I joined him and, like him, pushed aside
+the branches of one of the shrubs. And the
+sight which presented itself to my eyes was so
+unexpected that I was unable to suppress an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+exclamation, while Lupin, on his side, muttered,
+between his teeth:</p>
+
+<p>"By Jupiter! This is a funny job!"</p>
+
+<p>We saw before us, within the confined space
+that lay between the two windowless houses, the
+identical scene represented in the old picture which
+I had bought at a second-hand dealer's!</p>
+
+<p>The identical scene! At the back, against the
+opposite wall, the same Greek rotunda displayed
+its slender columns. In the middle, the same
+stone benches topped a circle of four steps that
+ran down to a fish-pond with moss-grown flags.
+On the left, the same well raised its wrought-iron
+roof; and, close at hand, the same sun-dial showed
+its slanting gnomon and its marble face.</p>
+
+<p>The identical scene! And what added to the
+strangeness of the sight was the memory, obsessing
+Lupin and myself, of that date of the 15th of
+April, inscribed in a corner of the picture, and the
+thought that this very day was the 15th of April
+and that sixteen or seventeen people, so different
+in age, condition and manners, had chosen the
+15th of April to come together in this forgotten
+corner of Paris!</p>
+
+<p>All of them, at the moment when we caught
+sight of them, were sitting in separate groups on
+the benches and steps; and all were eating. Not
+very far from my neighbour and her daughter, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+workman's family and the beggar couple were
+sharing their provisions; while the footman, the
+gentleman in the soiled suit, the infantry corporal
+and the two lean sisters were making a common
+stock of their sliced ham, their tins of sardines
+and their gruyère cheese.</p>
+
+<p>The lady with the little dog alone, who had
+brought no food with her, sat apart from the
+others, who made a show of turning their backs
+upon her. But Louise d'Ernemont offered her
+a sandwich, whereupon her example was followed
+by the two sisters; and the corporal at once began
+to make himself as agreeable to the young person
+as he could.</p>
+
+<p>It was now half-past one. The beggar-man took
+out his pipe, as did the fat gentleman; and, when
+they found that one had no tobacco and the other
+no matches, their needs soon brought them together.
+The men went and smoked by the rotunda
+and the women joined them. For that matter, all
+these people seemed to know one another quite
+well.</p>
+
+<p>They were at some distance from where we were
+standing, so that we could not hear what they
+said. However, we gradually perceived that the
+conversation was becoming animated. The young
+person with the dog, in particular, who by this
+time appeared to be in great request, indulged in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+much voluble talk, accompanying her words with
+many gestures, which set the little dog barking
+furiously.</p>
+
+<p>But, suddenly, there was an outcry, promptly
+followed by shouts of rage; and one and all,
+men and women alike, rushed in disorder toward
+the well. One of the workman's brats was at that
+moment coming out of it, fastened by his belt to
+the hook at the end of the rope; and the three
+other urchins were drawing him up by turning
+the handle. More active than the rest, the corporal
+flung himself upon him; and forthwith the footman
+and the fat gentleman seized hold of him also, while
+the beggars and the lean sisters came to blows
+with the workman and his family.</p>
+
+<p>In a few seconds the little boy had not a stitch
+left on him beyond his shirt. The footman, who
+had taken possession of the rest of the clothes,
+ran away, pursued by the corporal, who snatched
+away the boy's breeches, which were next torn
+from the corporal by one of the lean sisters.</p>
+
+<p>"They are mad!" I muttered, feeling absolutely
+at sea.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all, not at all," said Lupin.</p>
+
+<p>"What! Do you mean to say that you can
+make head or tail of what is going on?"</p>
+
+<p>He did not reply. The young lady with the
+little dog, tucking her pet under her arm, had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+started running after the child in the shirt, who
+uttered loud yells. The two of them raced round
+the laurel-clump in which we stood hidden; and
+the brat flung himself into his mother's arms.</p>
+
+<p>At long last, Louise d'Ernemont, who had
+played a conciliatory part from the beginning,
+succeeded in allaying the tumult. Everybody sat
+down again; but there was a reaction in all those
+exasperated people and they remained motionless
+and silent, as though worn out with their exertions.</p>
+
+<p>And time went by. Losing patience and beginning
+to feel the pangs of hunger, I went to the
+Rue Raynouard to fetch something to eat, which
+we divided while watching the actors in the incomprehensible
+comedy that was being performed
+before our eyes. They hardly stirred. Each
+minute that passed seemed to load them with
+increasing melancholy; and they sank into attitudes
+of discouragement, bent their backs more
+and more and sat absorbed in their meditations.</p>
+
+<p>The afternoon wore on in this way, under a grey
+sky that shed a dreary light over the enclosure.</p>
+
+<p>"Are they going to spend the night here?" I
+asked, in a bored voice.</p>
+
+<p>But, at five o'clock or so, the fat gentleman
+in the soiled jacket-suit took out his watch. The
+others did the same and all, watch in hand, seemed
+to be anxiously awaiting an event of no little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+importance to themselves. The event did not take
+place, for, in fifteen or twenty minutes, the fat gentleman
+gave a gesture of despair, stood up and put
+on his hat.</p>
+
+<p>Then lamentations broke forth. The two lean
+sisters and the workman's wife fell upon their
+knees and made the sign of the cross. The lady
+with the little dog and the beggar-woman kissed
+each other and sobbed; and we saw Louise d'Ernemont
+pressing her daughter sadly to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's go," said Lupin.</p>
+
+<p>"You think it's over?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and we have only just time to make
+ourselves scarce."</p>
+
+<p>We went out unmolested. At the top of the
+lane, Lupin turned to the left and, leaving me
+outside, entered the first house in the Rue Raynouard,
+the one that backed on to the enclosure.</p>
+
+<p>After talking for a few seconds to the porter,
+he joined me and we stopped a passing taxi-cab:</p>
+
+<p>"No. 34 Rue de Turin," he said to the driver.</p>
+
+<p>The ground-floor of No. 34 was occupied by a
+notary's office; and we were shown in, almost
+without waiting, to Maître Valandier, a smiling,
+pleasant-spoken man of a certain age.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin introduced himself by the name of Captain
+Jeanniot, retired from the army. He said that
+he wanted to build a house to his own liking and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+that some one had suggested to him a plot of
+ground situated near the Rue Raynouard.</p>
+
+<p>"But that plot is not for sale," said Maître
+Valandier.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I was told...."</p>
+
+<p>"You have been misinformed, I fear."</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer rose, went to a cupboard and returned
+with a picture which he showed us. I was petrified.
+It was the same picture which I had bought, the
+same picture that hung in Louise d'Ernemont's
+room.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a painting," he said, "of the plot of
+ground to which you refer. It is known as the
+Clos d'Ernemont."</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, this close," continued the notary, "once
+formed part of a large garden belonging to d'Ernemont,
+the farmer-general, who was executed during
+the Terror. All that could be sold has been sold,
+piecemeal, by the heirs. But this last plot has
+remained and will remain in their joint possession
+... unless...."</p>
+
+<p>The notary began to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Unless what?" asked Lupin.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's quite a romance, a rather curious
+romance, in fact. I often amuse myself by looking
+through the voluminous documents of the case."</p>
+
+<p>"Would it be indiscreet, if I asked ...?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Not at all, not at all," declared Maître Valandier,
+who seemed delighted, on the contrary, to have
+found a listener for his story. And, without
+waiting to be pressed, he began: "At the outbreak
+of the Revolution, Louis Agrippa d'Ernemont, on
+the pretence of joining his wife, who was staying
+at Geneva with their daughter Pauline, shut up
+his mansion in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, dismissed
+his servants and, with his son Charles, came
+and took up his abode in his pleasure-house at
+Passy, where he was known to nobody except an
+old and devoted serving-woman. He remained there
+in hiding for three years and he had every reason
+to hope that his retreat would not be discovered,
+when, one day, after luncheon, as he was having
+a nap, the old servant burst into his room. She
+had seen, at the end of the street, a patrol of armed
+men who seemed to be making for the house. Louis
+d'Ernemont got ready quickly and, at the moment
+when the men were knocking at the front door,
+disappeared through the door that led to the garden,
+shouting to his son, in a scared voice, to keep
+them talking, if only for five minutes. He may
+have intended to escape and found the outlets
+through the garden watched. In any case, he
+returned in six or seven minutes, replied very
+calmly to the questions put to him and raised no
+difficulty about accompanying the men. His son<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+Charles, although only eighteen years of age, was
+arrested also."</p>
+
+<p>"When did this happen?" asked Lupin.</p>
+
+<p>"It happened on the 26th day of Germinal,
+Year II, that is to say, on the...."</p>
+
+<p>Maître Valandier stopped, with his eyes fixed
+on a calendar that hung on the wall, and exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it was on this very day! This is the
+15th of April, the anniversary of the farmer-general's
+arrest."</p>
+
+<p>"What an odd coincidence!" said Lupin. "And
+considering the period at which it took place, the
+arrest, no doubt, had serious consequences?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, most serious!" said the notary, laughing.
+"Three months later, at the beginning of Thermidor,
+the farmer-general mounted the scaffold. His son
+Charles was forgotten in prison and their property
+was confiscated."</p>
+
+<p>"The property was immense, I suppose?" said
+Lupin.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there you are! That's just where the
+thing becomes complicated. The property, which
+was, in fact, immense, could never be traced. It
+was discovered that the Faubourg Saint-Germain
+mansion had been sold, before the Revolution, to an
+Englishman, together with all the country-seats and
+estates and all the jewels, securities and collections
+belonging to the farmer-general. The Convention<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+instituted minute inquiries, as did the Directory
+afterward. But the inquiries led to no result."</p>
+
+<p>"There remained, at any rate, the Passy house,"
+said Lupin.</p>
+
+<p>"The house at Passy was bought, for a mere
+song, by a delegate of the Commune, the very
+man who had arrested d'Ernemont, one Citizen
+Broquet. Citizen Broquet shut himself up in the
+house, barricaded the doors, fortified the walls
+and, when Charles d'Ernemont was at last set
+free and appeared outside, received him by firing
+a musket at him. Charles instituted one law-suit
+after another, lost them all and then proceeded to
+offer large sums of money. But Citizen Broquet
+proved intractable. He had bought the house
+and he stuck to the house; and he would have
+stuck to it until his death, if Charles had not obtained
+the support of Bonaparte. Citizen Broquet
+cleared out on the 12th of February, 1803; but
+Charles d'Ernemont's joy was so great and his
+brain, no doubt, had been so violently unhinged
+by all that he had gone through, that, on reaching
+the threshold of the house of which he had at last
+recovered the ownership, even before opening the
+door he began to dance and sing in the street. He
+had gone clean off his head."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove!" said Lupin. "And what became
+of him?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"His mother and his sister Pauline, who had
+ended by marrying a cousin of the same name at
+Geneva, were both dead. The old servant-woman
+took care of him and they lived together in the
+Passy house. Years passed without any notable
+event; but, suddenly, in 1812, an unexpected
+incident happened. The old servant made a
+series of strange revelations on her death-bed, in
+the presence of two witnesses whom she sent for.
+She declared that the farmer-general had carried
+to his house at Passy a number of bags filled with
+gold and silver and that those bags had disappeared
+a few days before the arrest. According to earlier
+confidences made by Charles d'Ernemont, who
+had them from his father, the treasures were hidden
+in the garden, between the rotunda, the sun-dial
+and the well. In proof of her statement, she
+produced three pictures, or rather, for they were
+not yet framed, three canvases, which the farmer-general
+had painted during his captivity and which
+he had succeeded in conveying to her, with instructions
+to hand them to his wife, his son and
+his daughter. Tempted by the lure of wealth,
+Charles and the old servant had kept silence. Then
+came the law-suits, the recovery of the house,
+Charles's madness, the servant's own useless searches;
+and the treasures were still there."</p>
+
+<p>"And they are there now," chuckled Lupin.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And they will be there always," exclaimed
+Maître Valandier. "Unless ... unless Citizen
+Broquet, who no doubt smelt a rat, succeeded
+in ferreting them out. But this is an unlikely
+supposition, for Citizen Broquet died in extreme
+poverty."</p>
+
+<p>"So then ...?"</p>
+
+<p>"So then everybody began to hunt. The
+children of Pauline, the sister, hastened from
+Geneva. It was discovered that Charles had been
+secretly married and that he had sons. All these
+heirs set to work."</p>
+
+<p>"But Charles himself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Charles lived in the most absolute retirement.
+He did not leave his room."</p>
+
+<p>"Never?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is the most extraordinary, the most
+astounding part of the story. Once a year, Charles
+d'Ernemont, impelled by a sort of subconscious
+will-power, came downstairs, took the exact road
+which his father had taken, walked across the
+garden and sat down either on the steps of the
+rotunda, which you see here, in the picture, or
+on the kerb of the well. At twenty-seven minutes
+past five, he rose and went indoors again; and
+until his death, which occurred in 1820, he never
+once failed to perform this incomprehensible pilgrimage.
+Well, the day on which this happened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+was invariably the 15th of April, the anniversary
+of the arrest."</p>
+
+<p>Maître Valandier was no longer smiling and
+himself seemed impressed by the amazing story
+which he was telling us.</p>
+
+<p>"And, since Charles's death?" asked Lupin,
+after a moment's reflection.</p>
+
+<p>"Since that time," replied the lawyer, with a
+certain solemnity of manner, "for nearly a hundred
+years, the heirs of Charles and Pauline d'Ernemont
+have kept up the pilgrimage of the 15th of April.
+During the first few years they made the most
+thorough excavations. Every inch of the garden
+was searched, every clod of ground dug up. All
+this is now over. They take hardly any pains.
+All they do is, from time to time, for no particular
+reason, to turn over a stone or explore the
+well. For the most part, they are content to sit
+down on the steps of the rotunda, like the poor
+madman; and, like him, they wait. And that,
+you see, is the sad part of their destiny. In those
+hundred years, all these people who have succeeded
+one another, from father to son, have lost&mdash;what
+shall I say?&mdash;the energy of life. They have no
+courage left, no initiative. They wait. They wait
+for the 15th of April; and, when the 15th of April
+comes, they wait for a miracle to take place.
+Poverty has ended by overtaking every one of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+them. My predecessors and I have sold first the
+house, in order to build another which yields a
+better rent, followed by bits of the garden and
+further bits. But, as to that corner over there,"
+pointing to the picture, "they would rather die
+than sell it. On this they are all agreed: Louise
+d'Ernemont, who is the direct heiress of Pauline,
+as well as the beggars, the workman, the footman,
+the circus-rider and so on, who represent the
+unfortunate Charles."</p>
+
+<p>There was a fresh pause; and Lupin asked:</p>
+
+<p>"What is your own opinion, Maître Valandier?"</p>
+
+<p>"My private opinion is that there's nothing in
+it. What credit can we give to the statements of
+an old servant enfeebled by age? What importance
+can we attach to the crotchets of a madman?
+Besides, if the farmer-general had realized his
+fortune, don't you think that that fortune would
+have been found? One could manage to hide a
+paper, a document, in a confined space like that,
+but not treasures."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, the pictures?..."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course. But, after all, are they a
+sufficient proof?"</p>
+
+<p>Lupin bent over the copy which the solicitor had
+taken from the cupboard and, after examining it
+at length, said:</p>
+
+<p>"You spoke of three pictures."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the one which you see was handed to my
+predecessor by the heirs of Charles. Louise d'Ernemont
+possesses another. As for the third, no one
+knows what became of it."</p>
+
+<p>Lupin looked at me and continued:</p>
+
+<p>"And do they all bear the same date?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the date inscribed by Charles d'Ernemont
+when he had them framed, not long before his
+death.... The same date, that is to say the
+15th of April, Year II, according to the revolutionary
+calendar, as the arrest took place in April, 1794."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, of course," said Lupin. "The figure
+2 means...."</p>
+
+<p>He thought for a few moments and resumed:</p>
+
+<p>"One more question, if I may. Did no one ever
+come forward to solve the problem?"</p>
+
+<p>Maître Valandier threw up his arms:</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness gracious me!" he cried. "Why,
+it was the plague of the office! One of my predecessors,
+Maître Turbon, was summoned to Passy no
+fewer than eighteen times, between 1820 and 1843,
+by the groups of heirs, whom fortune-tellers,
+clairvoyants, visionaries, impostors of all sorts had
+promised that they would discover the farmer-general's
+treasures. At last, we laid down a rule:
+any outsider applying to institute a search was to
+begin by depositing a certain sum."</p>
+
+<p>"What sum?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"A thousand francs."</p>
+
+<p>"And did this have the effect of frightening them
+off?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Four years ago, an Hungarian hypnotist
+tried the experiment and made me waste a whole
+day. After that, we fixed the deposit at five thousand
+francs. In case of success, a third of the treasure
+goes to the finder. In case of failure, the deposit
+is forfeited to the heirs. Since then, I have been
+left in peace."</p>
+
+<p>"Here are your five thousand francs."</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer gave a start:</p>
+
+<p>"Eh? What do you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"I say," repeated Lupin, taking five bank-notes
+from his pocket and calmly spreading them on
+the table, "I say that here is the deposit of five
+thousand francs. Please give me a receipt and
+invite all the d'Ernemont heirs to meet me at Passy
+on the 15th of April next year."</p>
+
+<p>The notary could not believe his senses. I myself,
+although Lupin had accustomed me to these surprises,
+was utterly taken back.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you serious?" asked Maître Valandier.</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly serious."</p>
+
+<p>"But, you know, I told you my opinion. All
+these improbable stories rest upon no evidence of
+any kind."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't agree with you," said Lupin.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The notary gave him the look which we give
+to a person who is not quite right in his head. Then,
+accepting the situation, he took his pen and drew
+up a contract on stamped paper, acknowledging
+the payment of the deposit by Captain Jeanniot and
+promising him a third of such moneys as he should
+discover:</p>
+
+<p>"If you change your mind," he added, "you might
+let me know a week before the time comes. I
+shall not inform the d'Ernemont family until the
+last moment, so as not to give those poor people
+too long a spell of hope."</p>
+
+<p>"You can inform them this very day, Maître
+Valandier. It will make them spend a happier year."</p>
+
+<p>We said good-bye. Outside, in the street, I cried:</p>
+
+<p>"So you have hit upon something?"</p>
+
+<p>"I?" replied Lupin. "Not a bit of it! And
+that's just what amuses me."</p>
+
+<p>"But they have been searching for a hundred
+years!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not so much a matter of searching as of
+thinking. Now I have three hundred and sixty-five
+days to think in. It is a great deal more than
+I want; and I am afraid that I shall forget all about
+the business, interesting though it may be. Oblige
+me by reminding me, will you?"</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>I reminded him of it several times during the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+following months, though he never seemed to attach
+much importance to the matter. Then came a
+long period during which I had no opportunity
+of seeing him. It was the period, as I afterward
+learnt, of his visit to Armenia and of the terrible
+struggle on which he embarked against Abdul the
+Damned, a struggle which ended in the tyrant's
+downfall.</p>
+
+<p>I used to write to him, however, at the address
+which he gave me and I was thus able to send him
+certain particulars which I had succeeded in gathering,
+here and there, about my neighbour Louise
+d'Ernemont, such as the love which she had conceived,
+a few years earlier, for a very rich young
+man, who still loved her, but who had been compelled
+by his family to throw her over; the young
+widow's despair, and the plucky life which she led
+with her little daughter.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin replied to none of my letters. I did not
+know whether they reached him; and, meantime,
+the date was drawing near and I could not help
+wondering whether his numerous undertakings would
+not prevent him from keeping the appointment
+which he himself had fixed.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, the morning of the 15th of
+April arrived and Lupin was not with me by the
+time I had finished lunch. It was a quarter-past
+twelve. I left my flat and took a cab to Passy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I had no sooner entered the lane than I saw the
+workman's four brats standing outside the door in
+the wall. Maître Valandier, informed by them of
+my arrival, hastened in my direction:</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" he cried. "Where's Captain Jeanniot?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hasn't he come?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; and I can assure you that everybody is
+very impatient to see him."</p>
+
+<p>The different groups began to crowd round the
+lawyer; and I noticed that all those faces which
+I recognized had thrown off the gloomy and despondent
+expression which they wore a year ago.</p>
+
+<p>"They are full of hope," said Maître Valandier,
+"and it is my fault. But what could I do? Your
+friend made such an impression upon me that I
+spoke to these good people with a confidence ...
+which I cannot say I feel. However, he seems a
+queer sort of fellow, this Captain Jeanniot of
+yours...."</p>
+
+<p>He asked me many questions and I gave him a
+number of more or less fanciful details about the
+captain, to which the heirs listened, nodding their
+heads in appreciation of my remarks.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, the truth was bound to be discovered
+sooner or later," said the fat gentleman, in a tone
+of conviction.</p>
+
+<p>The infantry corporal, dazzled by the captain's
+rank, did not entertain a doubt in his mind.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The lady with the little dog wanted to know if
+Captain Jeanniot was young.</p>
+
+<p>But Louise d'Ernemont said:</p>
+
+<p>"And suppose he does not come?"</p>
+
+<p>"We shall still have the five thousand francs
+to divide," said the beggar-man.</p>
+
+<p>For all that, Louise d'Ernemont's words had
+damped their enthusiasm. Their faces began to
+look sullen and I felt an atmosphere as of anguish
+weighing upon us.</p>
+
+<p>At half-past one, the two lean sisters felt faint
+and sat down. Then the fat gentleman in the
+soiled suit suddenly rounded on the notary:</p>
+
+<p>"It's you, Maître Valandier, who are to blame....
+You ought to have brought the captain here
+by main force.... He's a humbug, that's quite
+clear."</p>
+
+<p>He gave me a savage look, and the footman, in
+his turn, flung muttered curses at me.</p>
+
+<p>I confess that their reproaches seemed to me
+well-founded and that Lupin's absence annoyed me
+greatly:</p>
+
+<p>"He won't come now," I whispered to the lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>And I was thinking of beating a retreat, when the
+eldest of the brats appeared at the door, yelling:</p>
+
+<p>"There's some one coming!... A motor-cycle!..."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A motor was throbbing on the other side of the
+wall. A man on a motor-bicycle came tearing
+down the lane at the risk of breaking his neck.
+Suddenly, he put on his brakes, outside the door,
+and sprang from his machine.</p>
+
+<p>Under the layer of dust which covered him from
+head to foot, we could see that his navy-blue reefer-suit,
+his carefully creased trousers, his black felt
+hat and patent-leather boots were not the clothes
+in which a man usually goes cycling.</p>
+
+<p>"But that's not Captain Jeanniot!" shouted the
+notary, who failed to recognize him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is," said Lupin, shaking hands with
+us. "I'm Captain Jeanniot right enough ...
+only I've shaved off my moustache.... Besides,
+Maître Valandier, here's your receipt."</p>
+
+<p>He caught one of the workman's children by the
+arm and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Run to the cab-rank and fetch a taxi to the
+corner of the Rue Raynouard. Look sharp! I
+have an urgent appointment to keep at two o'clock,
+or a quarter-past at the latest."</p>
+
+<p>There was a murmur of protest. Captain Jeanniot
+took out his watch:</p>
+
+<p>"Well! It's only twelve minutes to two! I have
+a good quarter of an hour before me. But, by
+Jingo, how tired I feel! And how hungry into
+the bargain!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The corporal thrust his ammunition-bread into
+Lupin's hand; and he munched away at it as he
+sat down and said:</p>
+
+<p>"You must forgive me. I was in the Marseilles
+express, which left the rails between Dijon and
+Laroche. There were twelve people killed and any
+number injured, whom I had to help. Then I
+found this motor-cycle in the luggage-van....
+Maître Valandier, you must be good enough to restore
+it to the owner. You will find the label fastened
+to the handle-bar. Ah, you're back, my boy! Is
+the taxi there? At the corner of the Rue Raynouard?
+Capital!"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at his watch again:</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo! No time to lose!"</p>
+
+<p>I stared at him with eager curiosity. But how
+great must the excitement of the d'Ernemont heirs
+have been! True, they had not the same faith
+in Captain Jeanniot that I had in Lupin. Nevertheless,
+their faces were pale and drawn. Captain
+Jeanniot turned slowly to the left and walked up
+to the sun-dial. The pedestal represented the figure
+of a man with a powerful torso, who bore on his
+shoulders a marble slab the surface of which had
+been so much worn by time that we could hardly
+distinguish the engraved lines that marked the
+hours. Above the slab, a Cupid, with outspread
+wings, held an arrow that served as a gnomon.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The captain stood leaning forward for a minute,
+with attentive eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Then he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody lend me a knife, please."</p>
+
+<p>A clock in the neighbourhood struck two. At
+that exact moment, the shadow of the arrow was
+thrown upon the sunlit dial along the line of a crack
+in the marble which divided the slab very nearly
+in half.</p>
+
+<p>The captain took the knife handed to him. And
+with the point, very gently, he began to scratch
+the mixture of earth and moss that filled the narrow
+cleft.</p>
+
+<p>Almost immediately, at a couple of inches from
+the edge, he stopped, as though his knife had encountered
+an obstacle, inserted his thumb and forefinger
+and withdrew a small object which he rubbed
+between the palms of his hands and gave to the
+lawyer:</p>
+
+<p>"Here, Maître Valandier. Something to go on
+with."</p>
+
+<p>It was an enormous diamond, the size of a hazelnut
+and beautifully cut.</p>
+
+<p>The captain resumed his work. The next moment,
+a fresh stop. A second diamond, magnificent and
+brilliant as the first, appeared in sight.</p>
+
+<p>And then came a third and a fourth.</p>
+
+<p>In a minute's time, following the crack from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+one edge to the other and certainly without digging
+deeper than half an inch, the captain had taken
+out eighteen diamonds of the same size.</p>
+
+<p>During this minute, there was not a cry, not a
+movement around the sun-dial. The heirs seemed
+paralyzed with a sort of stupor. Then the fat
+gentleman muttered:</p>
+
+<p>"Geminy!"</p>
+
+<p>And the corporal moaned:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, captain!... Oh, captain!..."</p>
+
+<p>The two sisters fell in a dead faint. The lady
+with the little dog dropped on her knees and prayed,
+while the footman, staggering like a drunken man,
+held his head in his two hands, and Louise d'Ernemont
+wept.</p>
+
+<p>When calm was restored and all became eager to
+thank Captain Jeanniot, they saw that he was gone.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>Some years passed before I had an opportunity
+of talking to Lupin about this business. He was
+in a confidential vein and answered:</p>
+
+<p>"The business of the eighteen diamonds? By
+Jove, when I think that three or four generations
+of my fellow-men had been hunting for the solution!
+And the eighteen diamonds were there all the time,
+under a little mud and dust!"</p>
+
+<p>"But how did you guess?..."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not guess. I reflected. I doubt if I need<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+even have reflected. I was struck, from the beginning,
+by the fact that the whole circumstance
+was governed by one primary question: the question
+of time. When Charles d'Ernemont was still
+in possession of his wits, he wrote a date upon the
+three pictures. Later, in the gloom in which he
+was struggling, a faint glimmer of intelligence led
+him every year to the centre of the old garden;
+and the same faint glimmer led him away from it
+every year at the same moment, that is to say, at
+twenty-seven minutes past five. Something must
+have acted on the disordered machinery of his brain
+in this way. What was the superior force that
+controlled the poor madman's movements? Obviously,
+the instinctive notion of time represented
+by the sun-dial in the farmer-general's pictures.
+It was the annual revolution of the earth around
+the sun that brought Charles d'Ernemont back
+to the garden at a fixed date. And it was the earth's
+daily revolution upon its own axis that took him from
+it at a fixed hour, that is to say, at the hour, most
+likely, when the sun, concealed by objects different
+from those of to-day, ceased to light the Passy
+garden. Now of all this the sun-dial was the symbol.
+And that is why I at once knew where to
+look."</p>
+
+<p>"But how did you settle the hour at which to
+begin looking?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Simply by the pictures. A man living at that
+time, such as Charles d'Ernemont, would have
+written either 26 Germinal, Year II, or else 15 April,
+1794, but not 15 April, Year II. I was astounded
+that no one had thought of that."</p>
+
+<p>"Then the figure 2 stood for two o'clock?"</p>
+
+<p>"Evidently. And what must have happened was
+this: the farmer-general began by turning his
+fortune into solid gold and silver money. Then,
+by way of additional precaution, with this gold
+and silver he bought eighteen wonderful diamonds.
+When he was surprised by the arrival of the patrol,
+he fled into his garden. Which was the best place
+to hide the diamonds? Chance caused his eyes to
+light upon the sun-dial. It was two o'clock. The
+shadow of the arrow was then falling along the crack
+in the marble. He obeyed this sign of the shadow,
+rammed his eighteen diamonds into the dust and
+calmly went back and surrendered to the soldiers."</p>
+
+<p>"But the shadow of the arrow coincides with
+the crack in the marble every day of the year and
+not only on the 15th of April."</p>
+
+<p>"You forget, my dear chap, that we are dealing
+with a lunatic and that he remembered only this
+date of the 15th of April."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; but you, once you had solved the
+riddle, could easily have made your way into the
+enclosure and taken the diamonds."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Quite true; and I should not have hesitated,
+if I had had to do with people of another description.
+But I really felt sorry for those poor wretches.
+And then you know the sort of idiot that Lupin is.
+The idea of appearing suddenly as a benevolent
+genius and amazing his kind would be enough to
+make him commit any sort of folly."</p>
+
+<p>"Tah!" I cried. "The folly was not so great
+as all that. Six magnificent diamonds! How delighted
+the d'Ernemont heirs must have been to
+fulfil their part of the contract!"</p>
+
+<p>Lupin looked at me and burst into uncontrollable
+laughter:</p>
+
+<p>"So you haven't heard? Oh, what a joke! The
+delight of the d'Ernemont heirs!.... Why, my
+dear fellow, on the next day, that worthy Captain
+Jeanniot had so many mortal enemies! On the very
+next day, the two lean sisters and the fat gentleman
+organized an opposition. A contract? Not worth
+the paper it was written on, because, as could easily
+be proved, there was no such person as Captain
+Jeanniot. Where did that adventurer spring from?
+Just let him sue them and they'd soon show him
+what was what!"</p>
+
+<p>"Louise d'Ernemont too?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Louise d'Ernemont protested against that
+piece of rascality. But what could she do against
+so many? Besides, now that she was rich, she got<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+back her young man. I haven't heard of her
+since."</p>
+
+<p>"So ...?"</p>
+
+<p>"So, my dear fellow, I was caught in a trap, with
+not a leg to stand on, and I had to compromise
+and accept one modest diamond as my share, the
+smallest and the least handsome of the lot. That
+comes of doing one's best to help people!"</p>
+
+<p>And Lupin grumbled between his teeth:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, gratitude!... All humbug!... Where
+should we honest men be if we had not our conscience
+and the satisfaction of duty performed to
+reward us?"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">THE INFERNAL TRAP</h3>
+
+
+<p>When the race was over, a crowd of people, streaming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+toward the exit from the grand stand, pushed
+against Nicolas Dugrival. He brought his hand
+smartly to the inside pocket of his jacket.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" asked his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"I still feel nervous ... with that money
+on me! I'm afraid of some nasty accident."</p>
+
+<p>She muttered:</p>
+
+<p>"And I can't understand you. How can you
+think of carrying such a sum about with you?
+Every farthing we possess! Lord knows, it cost
+us trouble enough to earn!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh!" he said. "No one would guess that
+it is here, in my pocket-book."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," she grumbled. "That young man-servant
+whom we discharged last week knew all
+about it, didn't he, Gabriel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, aunt," said a youth standing beside her.</p>
+
+<p>Nicolas Dugrival, his wife and his nephew Gabriel
+were well-known figures at the race-meetings, where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+the regular frequenters saw them almost every day:
+Dugrival, a big, fat, red-faced man, who looked as if
+he knew how to enjoy life; his wife, also built on
+heavy lines, with a coarse, vulgar face, and always
+dressed in a plum-coloured silk much the worse for
+wear; the nephew, quite young, slender, with
+pale features, dark eyes and fair and rather curly
+hair.</p>
+
+<p>As a rule, the couple remained seated throughout
+the afternoon. It was Gabriel who betted for his
+uncle, watching the horses in the paddock, picking
+up tips to right and left among the jockeys and
+stable-lads, running backward and forward between
+the stands and the <i>pari-mutuel</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Luck had favoured them that day, for, three
+times, Dugrival's neighbours saw the young man
+come back and hand him money.</p>
+
+<p>The fifth race was just finishing. Dugrival lit
+a cigar. At that moment, a gentleman in a tight-fitting
+brown suit, with a face ending in a peaked
+grey beard, came up to him and asked, in a confidential
+whisper:</p>
+
+<p>"Does this happen to belong to you, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>And he displayed a gold watch and chain.</p>
+
+<p>Dugrival gave a start:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes ... it's mine.... Look,
+here are my initials, N. G.: Nicolas Dugrival!"</p>
+
+<p>And he at once, with a movement of terror, clapped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
+his hand to his jacket-pocket. The note-case was
+still there.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," he said, greatly relieved, "that's a piece
+of luck!... But, all the same, how on earth
+was it done?... Do you know the scoundrel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we've got him locked up. Pray come
+with me and we'll soon look into the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"Whom have I the honour ...?"</p>
+
+<p>"M. Delangle, detective-inspector. I have sent
+to let M. Marquenne, the magistrate, know."</p>
+
+<p>Nicolas Dugrival went out with the inspector;
+and the two of them started for the commissary's
+office, some distance behind the grand stand. They
+were within fifty yards of it, when the inspector
+was accosted by a man who said to him, hurriedly:</p>
+
+<p>"The fellow with the watch has blabbed; we
+are on the tracks of a whole gang. M. Marquenne
+wants you to wait for him at the <i>pari-mutuel</i> and
+to keep a look-out near the fourth booth."</p>
+
+<p>There was a crowd outside the betting-booths
+and Inspector Delangle muttered:</p>
+
+<p>"It's an absurd arrangement.... Whom
+am I to look out for?... That's just like
+M. Marquenne!..."</p>
+
+<p>He pushed aside a group of people who were
+crowding too close upon him:</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove, one has to use one's elbows here and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+keep a tight hold on one's purse. That's the way
+you got your watch pinched, M. Dugrival!"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't understand...."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if you knew how those gentry go to work!
+One never guesses what they're up to next. One
+of them treads on your foot, another gives you a
+poke in the eye with his stick and the third picks
+your pocket before you know where you are.... I've
+been had that way myself." He stopped and
+then continued, angrily. "But, bother it, what's the
+use of hanging about here! What a mob! It's unbearable!...
+Ah, there's M. Marquenne
+making signs to us!... One moment, please
+... and be sure and wait for me here."</p>
+
+<p>He shouldered his way through the crowd.
+Nicolas Dugrival followed him for a moment
+with his eyes. Once the inspector was out of
+sight, he stood a little to one side, to avoid being
+hustled.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes passed. The sixth race was
+about to start, when Dugrival saw his wife and
+nephew looking for him. He explained to them
+that Inspector Delangle was arranging matters
+with the magistrate.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you your money still?" asked his wife.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course I have!" he replied. "The
+inspector and I took good care, I assure you, not
+to let the crowd jostle us."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He felt his jacket, gave a stifled cry, thrust
+his hand into his pocket and began to stammer
+inarticulate syllables, while Mme. Dugrival gasped,
+in dismay:</p>
+
+<p>"What is it? What's the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stolen!" he moaned. "The pocket-book ... the
+fifty notes!..."</p>
+
+<p>"It's not true!" she screamed. "It's not
+true!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the inspector ... a common sharper ... he's
+the man...."</p>
+
+<p>She uttered absolute yells:</p>
+
+<p>"Thief! Thief! Stop thief!... My husband's
+been robbed!... Fifty thousand francs!... We
+are ruined!... Thief! Thief ..."</p>
+
+<p>In a moment they were surrounded by policemen
+and taken to the commissary's office. Dugrival
+went like a lamb, absolutely bewildered. His wife
+continued to shriek at the top of her voice, piling
+up explanations, railing against the inspector:</p>
+
+<p>"Have him looked for!... Have him found!... A
+brown suit.... A pointed beard.... Oh,
+the villain, to think what he's robbed us
+of!... Fifty thousand francs!... Why ... why,
+Dugrival, what are you doing?"</p>
+
+<p>With one bound, she flung herself upon her
+husband. Too late! He had pressed the barrel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+of a revolver against his temple. A shot rang
+out. Dugrival fell. He was dead.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>The reader cannot have forgotten the commotion
+made by the newspapers in connection with this
+case, nor how they jumped at the opportunity
+once more to accuse the police of carelessness and
+blundering. Was it conceivable that a pick-pocket
+could play the part of an inspector like that,
+in broad daylight and in a public place, and rob a
+respectable man with impunity?</p>
+
+<p>Nicolas Dugrival's widow kept the controversy
+alive, thanks to her jeremiads and to the interviews
+which she granted on every hand. A reporter
+had secured a snapshot of her in front of her husband's
+body, holding up her hand and swearing to
+revenge his death. Her nephew Gabriel was
+standing beside her, with hatred pictured in his
+face. He, too, it appeared, in a few words uttered
+in a whisper, but in a tone of fierce determination,
+had taken an oath to pursue and catch the murderer.</p>
+
+<p>The accounts described the humble apartment
+which they occupied at the Batignolles; and, as
+they had been robbed of all their means, a sporting-paper
+opened a subscription on their behalf.</p>
+
+<p>As for the mysterious Delangle, he remained
+undiscovered. Two men were arrested, but had
+to be released forthwith. The police took up a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+number of clues, which were at once abandoned;
+more than one name was mentioned; and, lastly,
+they accused Arsène Lupin, an action which provoked
+the famous burglar's celebrated cable, dispatched
+from New York six days after the incident:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"Protest indignantly against calumny invented
+by baffled police. Send my condolences to unhappy
+victims. Instructing my bankers to remit
+them fifty thousand francs.</p>
+
+<p style="font-variant: small-caps; margin-left: 60em;">"Lupin."</p></div>
+
+<p>True enough, on the day after the publication
+of the cable, a stranger rang at Mme. Dugrival's
+door and handed her an envelope. The envelope
+contained fifty thousand-franc notes.</p>
+
+<p>This theatrical stroke was not at all calculated
+to allay the universal comment. But an event
+soon occurred which provided any amount of
+additional excitement. Two days later, the people
+living in the same house as Mme. Dugrival and
+her nephew were awakened, at four o'clock in the
+morning, by horrible cries and shrill calls for help.
+They rushed to the flat. The porter succeeded
+in opening the door. By the light of a lantern
+carried by one of the neighbours, he found Gabriel
+stretched at full-length in his bedroom, with his
+wrists and ankles bound and a gag forced into his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+mouth, while, in the next room, Mme. Dugrival
+lay with her life's blood ebbing away through a
+great gash in her breast.</p>
+
+<p>She whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"The money.... I've been robbed.... All
+the notes gone...."</p>
+
+<p>And she fainted away.</p>
+
+<p>What had happened? Gabriel said&mdash;and, as
+soon as she was able to speak, Mme. Dugrival completed
+her nephew's story&mdash;that he was startled
+from his sleep by finding himself attacked by two
+men, one of whom gagged him, while the other
+fastened him down. He was unable to see the men
+in the dark, but he heard the noise of the struggle
+between them and his aunt. It was a terrible
+struggle, Mme. Dugrival declared. The ruffians,
+who obviously knew their way about, guided by
+some intuition, made straight for the little cupboard
+containing the money and, in spite of her resistance
+and outcries, laid hands upon the bundle of bank-notes.
+As they left, one of them, whom she had
+bitten in the arm, stabbed her with a knife, whereupon
+the men had both fled.</p>
+
+<p>"Which way?" she was asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Through the door of my bedroom and afterward,
+I suppose, through the hall-door."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible! The porter would have noticed
+them."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>For the whole mystery lay in this: how had the
+ruffians entered the house and how did they manage
+to leave it? There was no outlet open to them.
+Was it one of the tenants? A careful inquiry
+proved the absurdity of such a supposition.</p>
+
+<p>What then?</p>
+
+<p>Chief-inspector Ganimard, who was placed in
+special charge of the case, confessed that he had
+never known anything more bewildering:</p>
+
+<p>"It's very like Lupin," he said, "and yet it's not
+Lupin.... No, there's more in it than meets the
+eye, something very doubtful and suspicious....
+Besides, if it were Lupin, why should he take back
+the fifty thousand francs which he sent? There's
+another question that puzzles me: what is the
+connection between the second robbery and the first,
+the one on the race-course? The whole thing is
+incomprehensible and I have a sort of feeling&mdash;which
+is very rare with me&mdash;that it is no use hunting.
+For my part, I give it up."</p>
+
+<p>The examining-magistrate threw himself into the
+case with heart and soul. The reporters united
+their efforts with those of the police. A famous
+English sleuth-hound crossed the Channel. A
+wealthy American, whose head had been turned
+by detective-stories, offered a big reward to whosoever
+should supply the first information leading
+to the discovery of the truth. Six weeks later,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+no one was any the wiser. The public adopted
+Ganimard's view; and the examining-magistrate
+himself grew tired of struggling in a darkness which
+only became denser as time went on.</p>
+
+<p>And life continued as usual with Dugrival's
+widow. Nursed by her nephew, she soon recovered
+from her wound. In the mornings, Gabriel settled
+her in an easy-chair at the dining-room window, did
+the rooms and then went out marketing. He cooked
+their lunch without even accepting the proffered
+assistance of the porter's wife.</p>
+
+<p>Worried by the police investigations and especially
+by the requests for interviews, the aunt and nephew
+refused to see anybody. Not even the portress,
+whose chatter disturbed and wearied Mme. Dugrival,
+was admitted. She fell back upon Gabriel, whom
+she accosted each time that he passed her room:</p>
+
+<p>"Take care, M. Gabriel, you're both of you being
+spied upon. There are men watching you. Why,
+only last night, my husband caught a fellow staring
+up at your windows."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" said Gabriel. "It's all right. That's
+the police, protecting us."</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon, at about four o'clock, there was
+a violent altercation between two costermongers
+at the bottom of the street. The porter's wife at
+once left her room to listen to the invectives which
+the adversaries were hurling at each other's heads.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+Her back was no sooner turned than a man, young,
+of medium height and dressed in a grey suit of irreproachable
+cut, slipped into the house and ran up
+the staircase.</p>
+
+<p>When he came to the third floor, he rang the bell.
+Receiving no answer, he rang again. At the third
+summons, the door opened.</p>
+
+<p>"Mme. Dugrival?" he asked, taking off his hat.</p>
+
+<p>"Mme. Dugrival is still an invalid and unable to
+see any one," said Gabriel, who stood in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"It's most important that I should speak to
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"I am her nephew and perhaps I could take her
+a message...."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said the man. "Please tell Mme.
+Dugrival that an accident has supplied me with
+valuable information concerning the robbery from
+which she has suffered and that I should like to go
+over the flat and ascertain certain particulars for
+myself. I am accustomed to this sort of inquiry;
+and my call is sure to be of use to her."</p>
+
+<p>Gabriel examined the visitor for a moment,
+reflected and said:</p>
+
+<p>"In that case, I suppose my aunt will consent ... Pray
+come in."</p>
+
+<p>He opened the door of the dining-room and stepped
+back to allow the other to pass. The stranger walked
+to the threshold, but, at the moment when he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+crossing it, Gabriel raised his arm and, with a swift
+movement, struck him with a dagger over the right
+shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>A burst of laughter rang through the room:</p>
+
+<p>"Got him!" cried Mme. Dugrival, darting up
+from her chair. "Well done, Gabriel! But, I
+say, you haven't killed the scoundrel, have you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so, aunt. It's a small blade and
+I didn't strike him too hard."</p>
+
+<p>The man was staggering, with his hands stretched
+in front of him and his face deathly pale.</p>
+
+<p>"You fool!" sneered the widow. "So you've
+fallen into the trap ... and a good job too!
+We've been looking out for you a long time. Come,
+my fine fellow, down with you! You don't care
+about it, do you? But you can't help yourself,
+you see. That's right: one knee on the ground,
+before the missus ... now the other knee....
+How well we've been brought up!... Crash,
+there we go on the floor! Lord, if my poor Dugrival
+could only see him like that!... And now, Gabriel,
+to work!"</p>
+
+<p>She went to her bedroom and opened one of the
+doors of a hanging wardrobe filled with dresses.
+Pulling these aside, she pushed open another door
+which formed the back of the wardrobe and led to
+a room in the next house:</p>
+
+<p>"Help me carry him, Gabriel. And you'll nurse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+him as well as you can, won't you? For the present,
+he's worth his weight in gold to us, the artist!..."</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>The hours succeeded one another. Days passed.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, the wounded man regained a moment's
+consciousness. He raised his eyelids and
+looked around him.</p>
+
+<p>He was lying in a room larger than that in which
+he had been stabbed, a room sparsely furnished,
+with thick curtains hanging before the windows
+from top to bottom. There was light enough, however,
+to enable him to see young Gabriel Dugrival
+seated on a chair beside him and watching him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, it's you, youngster!" he murmured. "I
+congratulate you, my lad. You have a sure and
+pretty touch with the dagger."</p>
+
+<p>And he fell asleep again.</p>
+
+<p>That day and the following days, he woke up
+several times and, each time, he saw the stripling's
+pale face, his thin lips and his dark eyes, with the
+hard look in them:</p>
+
+<p>"You frighten me," he said. "If you have
+sworn to do for me, don't stand on ceremony. But
+cheer up, for goodness' sake. The thought of death
+has always struck me as the most humorous thing
+in the world. Whereas, with you, old chap, it
+simply becomes lugubrious. I prefer to go to sleep.
+Good-night!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Still, Gabriel, in obedience to Mme. Dugrival's
+orders, continued to nurse him with the utmost care
+and attention. The patient was almost free from
+fever and was beginning to take beef-tea and milk.
+He gained a little strength and jested:</p>
+
+<p>"When will the convalescent be allowed his
+first drive? Is the bath-chair there? Why, cheer
+up, stupid! You look like a weeping-willow contemplating
+a crime. Come, just one little smile
+for daddy!"</p>
+
+<p>One day, on waking, he had a very unpleasant
+feeling of constraint. After a few efforts, he perceived
+that, during his sleep, his legs, chest and arms
+had been fastened to the bedstead with thin wire
+strands that cut into his flesh at the least movements.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," he said to his keeper, "this time it's the
+great performance! The chicken's going to be bled.
+Are you operating, Angel Gabriel? If so, see that
+your razor's nice and clean, old chap! The antiseptic
+treatment, <i>if</i> you please!"</p>
+
+<p>But he was interrupted by the sound of a key
+grating in the lock. The door opposite opened and
+Mme. Dugrival appeared.</p>
+
+<p>She approached slowly, took a chair and, producing
+a revolver from her pocket, cocked it and
+laid it on the table by the bedside.</p>
+
+<p>"Brrrrr!" said the prisoner. "We might be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+at the Ambigu!... Fourth act: the Traitor's
+Doom. And the fair sex to do the deed.... The
+hand of the Graces.... What an honour!...
+Mme. Dugrival, I rely on you not to disfigure me."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold your tongue, Lupin."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, so you know?... By Jove, how clever
+we are!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hold your tongue, Lupin."</p>
+
+<p>There was a solemn note in her voice that impressed
+the captive and compelled him to silence.
+He watched his two gaolers in turns. The bloated
+features and red complexion of Mme. Dugrival
+formed a striking contrast with her nephew's refined
+face; but they both wore the same air of implacable
+resolve.</p>
+
+<p>The widow leant forward and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you prepared to answer my questions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then listen to me. How did you know that
+Dugrival carried all his money in his pocket?"</p>
+
+<p>"Servants' gossip...."</p>
+
+<p>"A young man-servant whom we had in our employ:
+was that it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And did you steal Dugrival's watch in order
+to give it back to him and inspire him with confidence?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She suppressed a movement of fury:</p>
+
+<p>"You fool! You fool!... What! You rob
+my man, you drive him to kill himself and, instead
+of making tracks to the uttermost ends of the earth
+and hiding yourself, you go on playing Lupin in
+the heart of Paris!... Did you forget that I
+swore, on my dead husband's head, to find his murderer?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's what staggers me," said Lupin. "How
+did you come to suspect me?"</p>
+
+<p>"How? Why, you gave yourself away!"</p>
+
+<p>"I did?..."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course.... The fifty thousand francs...."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what about it? A present...."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a present which you gave cabled instructions
+to have sent to me, so as to make believe that
+you were in America on the day of the races. A
+present, indeed! What humbug! The fact is,
+you didn't like to think of the poor fellow whom you
+had murdered. So you restored the money to the
+widow, publicly, of course, because you love playing
+to the gallery and ranting and posing, like the
+mountebank that you are. That was all very nicely
+thought out. Only, my fine fellow, you ought not
+to have sent me the selfsame notes that were stolen
+from Dugrival! Yes, you silly fool, the selfsame
+notes and no others! We knew the numbers,
+Dugrival and I did. And you were stupid enough<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+to send the bundle to me. Now do you understand
+your folly?"</p>
+
+<p>Lupin began to laugh:</p>
+
+<p>"It was a pretty blunder, I confess. I'm not
+responsible; I gave different orders. But, all the
+same I can't blame any one except myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, so you admit it! You signed your theft
+and you signed your ruin at the same time. There
+was nothing left to be done but to find you. Find
+you? No, better than that. Sensible people don't
+find Lupin: they make him come to them! That
+was a masterly notion. It belongs to my young
+nephew, who loathes you as much as I do, if possible,
+and who knows you thoroughly, through reading
+all the books that have been written about you.
+He knows your prying nature, your need to be
+always plotting, your mania for hunting in the dark
+and unravelling what others have failed to unravel.
+He also knows that sort of sham kindness of yours,
+the drivelling sentimentality that makes you shed
+crocodile tears over the people you victimize;
+And he planned the whole farce! He invented the
+story of the two burglars, the second theft of fifty
+thousand francs! Oh, I swear to you, before Heaven,
+that the stab which I gave myself with my own
+hands never hurt me! And I swear to you, before
+Heaven, that we spent a glorious time waiting for
+you, the boy and I, peeping out at your confederates<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+who prowled under our windows, taking their bearings!
+And there was no mistake about it: you
+were bound to come! Seeing that you had restored
+the Widow Dugrival's fifty thousand francs,
+it was out of the question that you should allow the
+Widow Dugrival to be robbed of her fifty thousand
+francs! You were bound to come, attracted by the
+scent of the mystery. You were bound to come, for
+swagger, out of vanity! And you come!"</p>
+
+<p>The widow gave a strident laugh:</p>
+
+<p>"Well played, wasn't it? The Lupin of Lupins,
+the master of masters, inaccessible and invisible,
+caught in a trap by a woman and a boy!...
+Here he is in flesh and bone ... here he is with
+hands and feet tied, no more dangerous than a sparrow ... here
+is he ... here he is!..."</p>
+
+<p>She shook with joy and began to pace the room,
+throwing sidelong glances at the bed, like a wild
+beast that does not for a moment take its eyes from
+its victim. And never had Lupin beheld greater
+hatred and savagery in any human being.</p>
+
+<p>"Enough of this prattle," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly restraining herself, she stalked back to
+him and, in a quite different tone, in a hollow voice,
+laying stress on every syllable:</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks to the papers in your pocket, Lupin,
+I have made good use of the last twelve days. I
+know all your affairs, all your schemes, all your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+assumed names, all the organization of your band,
+all the lodgings which you possess in Paris and elsewhere.
+I have even visited one of them, the most
+secret, the one where you hide your papers, your
+ledgers and the whole story of your financial operations.
+The result of my investigations is very
+satisfactory. Here are four cheques, taken from
+four cheque-books and corresponding with four
+accounts which you keep at four different banks
+under four different names. I have filled in each
+of them for ten thousand francs. A larger figure
+would have been too risky. And, now, sign."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove!" said Lupin, sarcastically. "This
+is blackmail, my worthy Mme. Dugrival."</p>
+
+<p>"That takes your breath away, what?"</p>
+
+<p>"It takes my breath away, as you say."</p>
+
+<p>"And you find an adversary who is a match for
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"The adversary is far beyond me. So the trap&mdash;let
+us call it infernal&mdash;the infernal trap into
+which I have fallen was laid not merely by a widow
+thirsting for revenge, but also by a first-rate business
+woman anxious to increase her capital?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just so."</p>
+
+<p>"My congratulations. And, while I think of it,
+used M. Dugrival perhaps to ...?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have hit it, Lupin. After all, why conceal
+the fact? It will relieve your conscience. Yes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+Lupin, Dugrival used to work on the same lines as
+yourself. Oh, not on the same scale!... We were
+modest people: a louis here, a louis there ... a
+purse or two which we trained Gabriel to pick up
+at the races.... And, in this way, we had made our
+little pile ... just enough to buy a small place in
+the country."</p>
+
+<p>"I prefer it that way," said Lupin.</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right! I'm only telling you, so that
+you may know that I am not a beginner and that
+you have nothing to hope for. A rescue? No.
+The room in which we now are communicates with
+my bedroom. It has a private outlet of which
+nobody knows. It was Dugrival's special apartment.
+He used to see his friends here. He kept
+his implements and tools here, his disguises ...
+his telephone even, as you perceive. So there's
+no hope, you see. Your accomplices have given
+up looking for you here. I have sent them off on
+another track. Your goose is cooked. Do you
+begin to realize the position?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then sign the cheques."</p>
+
+<p>"And, when I have signed them, shall I be free?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must cash them first."</p>
+
+<p>"And after that?"</p>
+
+<p>"After that, on my soul, as I hope to be saved,
+you will be free."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I don't trust you."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any choice?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's true. Hand me the cheques."</p>
+
+<p>She unfastened Lupin's right hand, gave him a
+pen and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't forget that the four cheques require four
+different signatures and that the handwriting has
+to be altered in each case."</p>
+
+<p>"Never fear."</p>
+
+<p>He signed the cheques.</p>
+
+<p>"Gabriel," said the widow, "it is ten o'clock.
+If I am not back by twelve, it will mean that this
+scoundrel has played me one of his tricks. At
+twelve o'clock, blow out his brains. I am leaving
+you the revolver with which your uncle shot himself.
+There are five bullets left out of the six. That will
+be ample."</p>
+
+<p>She left the room, humming a tune as she went.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin mumbled:</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't give twopence for my life."</p>
+
+<p>He shut his eyes for an instant and then, suddenly,
+said to Gabriel:</p>
+
+<p>"How much?"</p>
+
+<p>And, when the other did not appear to understand,
+he grew irritated:</p>
+
+<p>"I mean what I say. How much? Answer
+me, can't you? We drive the same trade, you and
+I. I steal, thou stealest, we steal. So we ought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+to come to terms: that's what we are here for.
+Well? Is it a bargain? Shall we clear out together.
+I will give you a post in my gang, an easy,
+well-paid post. How much do you want for yourself?
+Ten thousand? Twenty thousand? Fix your
+own price; don't be shy. There's plenty to be had
+for the asking."</p>
+
+<p>An angry shiver passed through his frame as he
+saw the impassive face of his keeper:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the beggar won't even answer! Why, you
+can't have been so fond of old Dugrival as all that!
+Listen to me: if you consent to release me...."</p>
+
+<p>But he interrupted himself. The young man's
+eyes wore the cruel expression which he knew so
+well. What was the use of trying to move him?</p>
+
+<p>"Hang it all!" he snarled. "I'm not going to
+croak here, like a dog! Oh, if I could only...."</p>
+
+<p>Stiffening all his muscles, he tried to burst his
+bonds, making a violent effort that drew a cry of
+pain from him; and he fell back upon his bed, exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," he muttered, after a moment, "it's
+as the widow said: my goose is cooked. Nothing
+to be done. <i>De profundis</i>, Lupin."</p>
+
+<p>A quarter of an hour passed, half an hour....</p>
+
+<p>Gabriel, moving closer to Lupin, saw that his
+eyes were shut and that his breath came evenly,
+like that of a man sleeping. But Lupin said:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't imagine that I'm asleep, youngster. No,
+people don't sleep at a moment like this. Only
+I am consoling myself. Needs must, eh?...
+And then I am thinking of what is to come after....
+Exactly. I have a little theory of my own about
+that. You wouldn't think it, to look at me, but
+I believe in metempsychosis, in the transmigration
+of souls. It would take too long to explain, however....
+I say, boy ... suppose we shook hands
+before we part? You won't? Then good-bye.
+Good health and a long life to you, Gabriel!..."</p>
+
+<p>He closed his eyelids and did not stir again before
+Mme. Dugrival's return.</p>
+
+<p>The widow entered with a lively step, at a few
+minutes before twelve. She seemed greatly excited:</p>
+
+<p>"I have the money," she said to her nephew.
+"Run away. I'll join you in the motor down below."</p>
+
+<p>"But...."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want your help to finish him off. I
+can do that alone. Still, if you feel like seeing
+the sort of a face a rogue can pull.... Pass me
+the weapon."</p>
+
+<p>Gabriel handed her the revolver and the widow
+continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Have you burnt our papers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then to work. And, as soon as he's done for,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+be off. The shots may bring the neighbours. They
+must find both the flats empty."</p>
+
+<p>She went up to the bed:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you ready, Lupin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ready's not the word: I'm burning with impatience."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any request to make of me?"</p>
+
+<p>"None."</p>
+
+<p>"Then...."</p>
+
+<p>"One word, though."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I meet Dugrival in the next world, what
+message am I to give him from you?"</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged her shoulders and put the barrel
+of the revolver to Lupin's temple.</p>
+
+<p>"That's it," he said, "and be sure your hand
+doesn't shake, my dear lady. It won't hurt you,
+I swear. Are you ready? At the word of command,
+eh? One ... two ... three...."</p>
+
+<p>The widow pulled the trigger. A shot rang out.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this death?" said Lupin. "That's funny!
+I should have thought it was something much more
+different from life!"</p>
+
+<p>There was a second shot. Gabriel snatched the
+weapon from his aunt's hands and examined it:</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," he exclaimed, "the bullets have been
+removed!... There are only the percussion-caps
+left!..."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>His aunt and he stood motionless, for a moment,
+and confused:</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!" she blurted out. "Who could
+have done it?... An inspector?... The examining-magistrate?..."</p>
+
+<p>She stopped and, in a low voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Hark.... I hear a noise...."</p>
+
+<p>They listened and the widow went into the hall.
+She returned, furious, exasperated by her failure
+and by the scare which she had received:</p>
+
+<p>"There's nobody there.... It must have been
+the neighbours going out.... We have plenty
+of time.... Ah, Lupin, you were beginning to
+make merry!... The knife, Gabriel."</p>
+
+<p>"It's in my room."</p>
+
+<p>"Go and fetch it."</p>
+
+<p>Gabriel hurried away. The widow stamped with
+rage:</p>
+
+<p>"I've sworn to do it!... You've got to suffer,
+my fine fellow!... I swore to Dugrival that I
+would do it and I have repeated my oath every morning
+and evening since.... I have taken it on
+my knees, yes, on my knees, before Heaven that
+listens to me! It's my duty and my right to
+revenge my dead husband!... By the way,
+Lupin, you don't look quite as merry as you did!...
+Lord, one would almost think you were
+afraid!... He's afraid! He's afraid! I can see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+it in his eyes!... Come along, Gabriel, my
+boy!... Look at his eyes!... Look at his
+lips!... He's trembling!... Give me the knife,
+so that I may dig it into his heart while he's shivering....
+Oh, you coward!... Quick, quick,
+Gabriel, the knife!..."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't find it anywhere," said the young man,
+running back in dismay. "It has gone from my
+room! I can't make it out!"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind!" cried the Widow Dugrival, half
+demented. "All the better! I will do the business
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>She seized Lupin by the throat, clutched him
+with her ten fingers, digging her nails into his flesh,
+and began to squeeze with all her might. Lupin
+uttered a hoarse rattle and gave himself up for
+lost.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, there was a crash at the window. One
+of the panes was smashed to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that? What is it?" stammered the
+widow, drawing herself erect, in alarm.</p>
+
+<p>Gabriel, who had turned even paler than usual,
+murmured:</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know.... I can't think...."</p>
+
+<p>"Who can have done it?" said the widow.</p>
+
+<p>She dared not move, waiting for what would
+come next. And one thing above all terrified her,
+the fact that there was no missile on the floor around<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
+them, although the pane of glass, as was clearly
+visible, had given way before the crash of a heavy
+and fairly large object, a stone, probably.</p>
+
+<p>After a while, she looked under the bed, under
+the chest of drawers:</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said her nephew, who was also looking.
+And, resuming her seat, she said:</p>
+
+<p>"I feel frightened ... my arms fail me ... you
+finish him off...."</p>
+
+<p>Gabriel confessed:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm frightened also."</p>
+
+<p>"Still ... still," she stammered, "it's got to
+be done.... I swore it...."</p>
+
+<p>Making one last effort, she returned to Lupin
+and gasped his neck with her stiff fingers. But
+Lupin, who was watching her pallid face, received
+a very clear sensation that she would not have
+the courage to kill him. To her he was becoming
+something sacred, invulnerable. A mysterious power
+was protecting him against every attack, a power
+which had already saved him three times by inexplicable
+means and which would find other means
+to protect him against the wiles of death.</p>
+
+<p>She said to him, in a hoarse voice:</p>
+
+<p>"How you must be laughing at me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all, upon my word. I should feel frightened
+myself, in your place."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, you scum of the earth! You
+imagine that you will be rescued ... that your
+friends are waiting outside? It's out of the question,
+my fine fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"I know. It's not they defending me ... nobody's
+defending me...."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then?..."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, all the same, there's something strange
+at the bottom of it, something fantastic and
+miraculous that makes your flesh creep, my fine
+lady."</p>
+
+<p>"You villain!... You'll be laughing on the
+other side of your mouth before long."</p>
+
+<p>"I doubt it."</p>
+
+<p>"You wait and see."</p>
+
+<p>She reflected once more and said to her nephew:</p>
+
+<p>"What would you do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fasten his arm again and let's be off," he
+replied.</p>
+
+<p>A hideous suggestion! It meant condemning
+Lupin to the most horrible of all deaths, death by
+starvation.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the widow. "He might still find a
+means of escape. I know something better than
+that."</p>
+
+<p>She took down the receiver of the telephone,
+waited and asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Number 82248, please."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And, after a second or two:</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo!... Is that the Criminal Investigation
+Department?... Is Chief-inspector Ganimard
+there?... In twenty minutes, you say?... I'm
+sorry!... However!... When he comes, give
+him this message from Mme. Dugrival.... Yes,
+Mme. Nicolas Dugrival.... Ask him to come to
+my flat. Tell him to open the looking-glass door
+of my wardrobe; and, when he has done so, he will
+see that the wardrobe hides an outlet which makes
+my bedroom communicate with two other rooms.
+In one of these, he will find a man bound hand and
+foot. It is the thief, Dugrival's murderer....
+You don't believe me?... Tell M. Ganimard;
+he'll believe me right enough.... Oh, I was
+almost forgetting to give you the man's name:
+Arsène Lupin!"</p>
+
+<p>And, without another word, she replaced the
+receiver.</p>
+
+<p>"There, Lupin, that's done. After all, I would
+just as soon have my revenge this way. How I
+shall hold my sides when I read the reports of the
+Lupin trial!... Are you coming, Gabriel?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, aunt."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, Lupin. You and I sha'n't see each
+other again, I expect, for we are going abroad. But
+I promise to send you some sweets while you're in
+prison."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Chocolates, mother! We'll eat them together!"</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Au revoir.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>The widow went out with her nephew, leaving
+Lupin fastened down to the bed.</p>
+
+<p>He at once moved his free arm and tried to release
+himself; but he realized, at the first attempt,
+that he would never have the strength to break
+the wire strands that bound him. Exhausted
+with fever and pain, what could he do in the twenty
+minutes or so that were left to him before Ganimard's
+arrival?</p>
+
+<p>Nor did he count upon his friends. True, he
+had been thrice saved from death; but this was
+evidently due to an astounding series of accidents
+and not to any interference on the part of his
+allies. Otherwise they would not have contented
+themselves with these extraordinary manifestations,
+but would have rescued him for good and
+all.</p>
+
+<p>No, he must abandon all hope. Ganimard was
+coming. Ganimard would find him there. It was
+inevitable. There was no getting away from the
+fact.</p>
+
+<p>And the prospect of what was coming irritated
+him singularly. He already heard his old enemy's
+gibes ringing in his ears. He foresaw the roars
+of laughter with which the incredible news would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+be greeted on the morrow. To be arrested in action,
+so to speak, on the battlefield, by an imposing
+detachment of adversaries, was one thing: but
+to be arrested, or rather picked up, scraped up,
+gathered up, in such condition, was really too
+silly. And Lupin, who had so often scoffed at
+others, felt all the ridicule that was falling to his
+share in this ending of the Dugrival business, all
+the bathos of allowing himself to be caught in the
+widow's infernal trap and finally of being "served
+up" to the police like a dish of game, roasted to
+a turn and nicely seasoned.</p>
+
+<p>"Blow the widow!" he growled. "I had rather
+she had cut my throat and done with it."</p>
+
+<p>He pricked up his ears. Some one was moving
+in the next room. Ganimard! No. Great as
+his eagerness would be, he could not be there yet.
+Besides, Ganimard would not have acted like that,
+would not have opened the door as gently as that
+other person was doing. What other person?
+Lupin remembered the three miraculous interventions
+to which he owed his life. Was it possible
+that there was really somebody who had protected
+him against the widow, and that that somebody
+was now attempting to rescue him? But, if so,
+who?</p>
+
+<p>Unseen by Lupin, the stranger stooped behind the
+bed. Lupin heard the sound of the pliers attacking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+the wire strands and releasing him little by little.
+First his chest was freed, then his arms, then his
+legs.</p>
+
+<p>And a voice said to him:</p>
+
+<p>"You must get up and dress."</p>
+
+<p>Feeling very weak, he half-raised himself in bed
+at the moment when the stranger rose from her
+stooping posture.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" he whispered. "Who are
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>And a great surprise over came him.</p>
+
+<p>By his side stood a woman, a woman dressed in
+black, with a lace shawl over her head, covering
+part of her face. And the woman, as far as he
+could judge, was young and of a graceful and slender
+stature.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" he repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"You must come now," said the woman. "There's
+no time to lose."</p>
+
+<p>"Can I?" asked Lupin, making a desperate effort.
+"I doubt if I have the strength."</p>
+
+<p>"Drink this."</p>
+
+<p>She poured some milk into a cup; and, as she
+handed it to him, her lace opened, leaving the face
+uncovered.</p>
+
+<p>"You!" he stammered. "It's you!... It's you
+who ... it was you who were...."</p>
+
+<p>He stared in amazement at this woman whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+features presented so striking a resemblance to
+Gabriel's, whose delicate, regular face had the same
+pallor, whose mouth wore the same hard and forbidding
+expression. No sister could have borne
+so great a likeness to her brother. There was not
+a doubt possible: it was the identical person.
+And, without believing for a moment that Gabriel
+had concealed himself in a woman's clothes, Lupin,
+on the contrary, received the distinct impression
+that it was a woman standing beside him and that
+the stripling who had pursued him with his hatred
+and struck him with the dagger was in very deed a
+woman. In order to follow their trade with greater
+ease, the Dugrival pair had accustomed her to disguise
+herself as a boy.</p>
+
+<p>"You ... you ...!" he repeated. "Who would
+have suspected ...?"</p>
+
+<p>She emptied the contents of a phial into the
+cup:</p>
+
+<p>"Drink this cordial," she said.</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated, thinking of poison.</p>
+
+<p>She added:</p>
+
+<p>"It was I who saved you."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, of course," he said. "It was you
+who removed the bullets from the revolver?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And you who hid the knife?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here it is, in my pocket."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And you who smashed the window-pane while
+your aunt was throttling me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it was I, with the paper-weight on the
+table: I threw it into the street."</p>
+
+<p>"But why? Why?" he asked, in utter amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Drink the cordial."</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you want me to die? But then why
+did you stab me to begin with?"</p>
+
+<p>"Drink the cordial."</p>
+
+<p>He emptied the cup at a draught, without quite
+knowing the reason of his sudden confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"Dress yourself ... quickly," she commanded,
+retiring to the window.</p>
+
+<p>He obeyed and she came back to him, for he had
+dropped into a chair, exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>"We must go now, we must, we have only just
+time.... Collect your strength."</p>
+
+<p>She bent forward a little, so that he might lean
+on her shoulder, and turned toward the door and
+the staircase.</p>
+
+<p>And Lupin walked as one walks in a dream, one
+of those queer dreams in which the most inconsequent
+things occur, a dream that was the happy
+sequel of the terrible nightmare in which he had
+lived for the past fortnight.</p>
+
+<p>A thought struck him, however. He began to
+laugh:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Poor Ganimard! Upon my word, the fellow
+has no luck, I would give twopence to see him
+coming to arrest me."</p>
+
+<p>After descending the staircase with the aid of his
+companion, who supported him with incredible
+vigour, he found himself in the street, opposite a
+motor-car into which she helped him to mount.</p>
+
+<p>"Right away," she said to the driver.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin, dazed by the open air and the speed at
+which they were travelling, hardly took stock of the
+drive and of the incidents on the road. He recovered
+all his consciousness when he found himself at home
+in one of the flats which he occupied, looked after
+by his servant, to whom the girl gave a few rapid
+instructions.</p>
+
+<p>"You can go," he said to the man.</p>
+
+<p>But, when the girl turned to go as well, he held
+her back by a fold of her dress.</p>
+
+<p>"No ... no ... you must first explain....
+Why did you save me? Did you return unknown
+to your aunt? But why did you save me? Was
+it from pity?"</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer. With her figure drawn up
+and her head flung back a little, she retained her
+hard and impenetrable air. Nevertheless, he thought
+he noticed that the lines of her mouth showed not
+so much cruelty as bitterness. Her eyes, her beautiful
+dark eyes, revealed melancholy. And Lupin,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+without as yet understanding, received a vague
+intuition of what was passing within her. He
+seized her hand. She pushed him away, with a
+start of revolt in which he felt hatred, almost repulsion.
+And, when he insisted, she cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Let me be, will you?... Let me be!...
+Can't you see that I detest you?"</p>
+
+<p>They looked at each other for a moment, Lupin
+disconcerted, she quivering and full of uneasiness,
+her pale face all flushed with unwonted colour.</p>
+
+<p>He said to her, gently:</p>
+
+<p>"If you detested me, you should have let me
+die.... It was simple enough.... Why
+didn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why?... Why?... How do I know?..."</p>
+
+<p>Her face contracted. With a sudden movement,
+she hid it in her two hands; and he saw tears trickle
+between her fingers.</p>
+
+<p>Greatly touched, he thought of addressing her
+in fond words, such as one would use to a little girl
+whom one wished to console, and of giving her good
+advice and saving her, in his turn, and snatching her
+from the bad life which she was leading, perhaps
+against her better nature.</p>
+
+<p>But such words would have sounded ridiculous,
+coming from his lips, and he did not know what to
+say, now that he understood the whole story and
+was able to picture the young woman sitting beside<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+his sick-bed, nursing the man whom she had wounded,
+admiring his pluck and gaiety, becoming attached
+to him, falling in love with him and thrice over,
+probably in spite of herself, under a sort of instinctive
+impulse, amid fits of spite and rage, saving him
+from death.</p>
+
+<p>And all this was so strange, so unforeseen; Lupin
+was so much unmanned by his astonishment, that,
+this time, he did not try to retain her when she
+made for the door, backward, without taking her
+eyes from him.</p>
+
+<p>She lowered her head, smiled for an instant and
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>He rang the bell, quickly:</p>
+
+<p>"Follow that woman," he said to his man. "Or
+no, stay where you are.... After all, it is better
+so...."</p>
+
+<p>He sat brooding for a while, possessed by the
+girl's image. Then he revolved in his mind all that
+curious, stirring and tragic adventure, in which he
+had been so very near succumbing; and, taking a
+hand-glass from the table, he gazed for a long time
+and with a certain self-complacency at his features,
+which illness and pain had not succeeded in impairing
+to any great extent:</p>
+
+<p>"Good looks count for something, after all!" he
+muttered.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">THE RED SILK SCARF</h3>
+
+
+<p>On leaving his house one morning, at his usual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+early hour for going to the Law Courts, Chief-inspector
+Ganimard noticed the curious behaviour
+of an individual who was walking along the Rue
+Pergolèse in front of him. Shabbily dressed and
+wearing a straw hat, though the day was the first
+of December, the man stooped at every thirty or
+forty yards to fasten his boot-lace, or pick up his
+stick, or for some other reason. And, each time,
+he took a little piece of orange-peel from his pocket
+and laid it stealthily on the kerb of the pavement.
+It was probably a mere display of eccentricity, a
+childish amusement to which no one else would
+have paid attention; but Ganimard was one of those
+shrewd observers who are indifferent to nothing
+that strikes their eyes and who are never satisfied
+until they know the secret cause of things. He
+therefore began to follow the man.</p>
+
+<p>Now, at the moment when the fellow was turning
+to the right, into the Avenue de la Grande-Armée,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+the inspector caught him exchanging signals with
+a boy of twelve or thirteen, who was walking along
+the houses on the left-hand side. Twenty yards
+farther, the man stooped and turned up the bottom
+of his trousers legs. A bit of orange-peel marked
+the place. At the same moment, the boy stopped
+and, with a piece of chalk, drew a white cross,
+surrounded by a circle, on the wall of the house
+next to him.</p>
+
+<p>The two continued on their way. A minute
+later, a fresh halt. The strange individual picked
+up a pin and dropped a piece of orange-peel; and
+the boy at once made a second cross on the wall
+and again drew a white circle round it.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove!" thought the chief-inspector, with
+a grunt of satisfaction. "This is rather promising....
+What on earth can those two merchants be
+plotting?"</p>
+
+<p>The two "merchants" went down the Avenue
+Friedland and the Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré,
+but nothing occurred that was worthy of special
+mention. The double performance was repeated
+at almost regular intervals and, so to speak, mechanically.
+Nevertheless, it was obvious, on the
+one hand, that the man with the orange-peel did
+not do his part of the business until after he had
+picked out with a glance the house that was to be
+marked and, on the other hand, that the boy did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+not mark that particular house until after he had
+observed his companion's signal. It was certain,
+therefore, that there was an agreement between
+the two; and the proceedings presented no small
+interest in the chief-inspector's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>At the Place Beauveau the man hesitated. Then,
+apparently making up his mind, he twice turned
+up and twice turned down the bottom of his trousers
+legs. Hereupon, the boy sat down on the kerb,
+opposite the sentry who was mounting guard outside
+the Ministry of the Interior, and marked the flagstone
+with two little crosses contained within two
+circles. The same ceremony was gone through
+a little further on, when they reached the Elysée.
+Only, on the pavement where the President's sentry
+was marching up and down, there were three signs
+instead of two.</p>
+
+<p>"Hang it all!" muttered Ganimard, pale with
+excitement and thinking, in spite of himself, of
+his inveterate enemy, Lupin, whose name came to
+his mind whenever a mysterious circumstance
+presented itself. "Hang it all, what does it
+mean?"</p>
+
+<p>He was nearly collaring and questioning the
+two "merchants." But he was too clever to
+commit so gross a blunder. The man with the
+orange-peel had now lit a cigarette; and the boy,
+also placing a cigarette-end between his lips, had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+gone up to him, apparently with the object of asking
+for a light.</p>
+
+<p>They exchanged a few words. Quick as thought,
+the boy handed his companion an object which
+looked&mdash;at least, so the inspector believed&mdash;like
+a revolver. They both bent over this object; and
+the man, standing with his face to the wall, put
+his hand six times in his pocket and made a movement
+as though he were loading a weapon.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as this was done, they walked briskly
+to the Rue de Surène; and the inspector, who followed
+them as closely as he was able to do without
+attracting their attention, saw them enter the
+gateway of an old house of which all the shutters
+were closed, with the exception of those on the
+third or top floor.</p>
+
+<p>He hurried in after them. At the end of the
+carriage-entrance he saw a large courtyard, with
+a house-painter's sign at the back and a staircase
+on the left.</p>
+
+<p>He went up the stairs and, as soon as he reached
+the first floor, ran still faster, because he heard,
+right up at the top, a din as of a free-fight.</p>
+
+<p>When he came to the last landing he found the
+door open. He entered, listened for a second,
+caught the sound of a struggle, rushed to the room
+from which the sound appeared to proceed and
+remained standing on the threshold, very much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+out of breath and greatly surprised to see the man
+of the orange-peel and the boy banging the floor
+with chairs.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment a third person walked out of
+an adjoining room. It was a young man of twenty-eight
+or thirty, wearing a pair of short whiskers in
+addition to his moustache, spectacles, and a smoking-jacket
+with an astrakhan collar and looking like a
+foreigner, a Russian.</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Ganimard," he said. And
+turning to the two companions, "Thank you, my
+friends, and all my congratulations on the successful
+result. Here's the reward I promised you."</p>
+
+<p>He gave them a hundred-franc note, pushed
+them outside and shut both doors.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry, old chap," he said to Ganimard.
+"I wanted to talk to you ... wanted to talk to
+you badly."</p>
+
+<p>He offered him his hand and, seeing that the
+inspector remained flabbergasted and that his face
+was still distorted with anger, he exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you don't seem to understand!...
+And yet it's clear enough.... I wanted to see
+you particularly.... So what could I do?"
+And, pretending to reply to an objection, "No, no,
+old chap," he continued. "You're quite wrong. If
+I had written or telephoned, you would not have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>come ... or else you would have come with
+a regiment. Now I wanted to see you all alone;
+and I thought the best thing was to send those
+two decent fellows to meet you, with orders to
+scatter bits of orange-peel and draw crosses and
+circles, in short, to mark out your road to this
+place.... Why, you look quite bewildered!
+What is it? Perhaps you don't recognize me?
+Lupin.... Arsène Lupin.... Ransack your
+memory.... Doesn't the name remind you
+of anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"You dirty scoundrel!" Ganimard snarled between
+his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin seemed greatly distressed and, in an
+affectionate voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you vexed? Yes, I can see it in your eyes....
+The Dugrival business, I suppose? I ought
+to have waited for you to come and take me in
+charge?... There now, the thought never
+occurred to me! I promise you, next time...."</p>
+
+<p>"You scum of the earth!" growled Ganimard.</p>
+
+<p>"And I thinking I was giving you a treat! Upon
+my word, I did. I said to myself, 'That dear
+old Ganimard! We haven't met for an age. He'll
+simply rush at me when he sees me!'"</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard, who had not yet stirred a limb,
+seemed to be waking from his stupor. He looked
+around him, looked at Lupin, visibly asked himself
+whether he would not do well to rush at him in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+reality and then, controlling himself, took hold of
+a chair and settled himself in it, as though he had
+suddenly made up his mind to listen to his
+enemy:</p>
+
+<p>"Speak," he said. "And don't waste my time
+with any nonsense. I'm in a hurry."</p>
+
+<p>"That's it," said Lupin, "let's talk. You
+can't imagine a quieter place than this. It's an
+old manor-house, which once stood in the open
+country, and it belongs to the Duc de Rochelaure.
+The duke, who has never lived in it, lets this
+floor to me and the outhouses to a painter and
+decorator. I always keep up a few establishments
+of this kind: it's a sound, practical plan. Here,
+in spite of my looking like a Russian nobleman,
+I am M. Daubreuil, an ex-cabinet-minister....
+You understand, I had to select a rather
+overstocked profession, so as not to attract
+attention...."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I care a hang about all this?"
+said Ganimard, interrupting him.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right, I'm wasting words and you're in a
+hurry. Forgive me. I sha'n't be long now....
+Five minutes, that's all.... I'll start at once....
+Have a cigar? No? Very well, no more will I."</p>
+
+<p>He sat down also, drummed his fingers on the
+table, while thinking, and began in this fashion:</p>
+
+<p>"On the 17th of October, 1599, on a warm and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+sunny autumn day ... Do you follow me?...
+But, now that I come to think of it, is it really
+necessary to go back to the reign of Henry IV, and
+tell you all about the building of the Pont-Neuf?
+No, I don't suppose you are very well up in French
+history; and I should only end by muddling
+you. Suffice it, then, for you to know that, last
+night, at one o'clock in the morning, a boatman
+passing under the last arch of the Pont-Neuf aforesaid,
+along the left bank of the river, heard something
+drop into the front part of his barge. The
+thing had been flung from the bridge and its evident
+destination was the bottom of the Seine. The
+bargee's dog rushed forward, barking, and, when the
+man reached the end of his craft, he saw the animal
+worrying a piece of newspaper that had served to
+wrap up a number of objects. He took from the
+dog such of the contents as had not fallen into the
+water, went to his cabin and examined them carefully.
+The result struck him as interesting; and,
+as the man is connected with one of my friends, he
+sent to let me know. This morning I was waked
+up and placed in possession of the facts and of the
+objects which the man had collected. Here they
+are."</p>
+
+<p>He pointed to them, spread out on a table. There
+were, first of all, the torn pieces of a newspaper.
+Next came a large cut-glass inkstand, with a long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+piece of string fastened to the lid. There was a bit
+of broken glass and a sort of flexible cardboard,
+reduced to shreds. Lastly, there was a piece of
+bright scarlet silk, ending in a tassel of the same
+material and colour.</p>
+
+<p>"You see our exhibits, friend of my youth,"
+said Lupin. "No doubt, the problem would be
+more easily solved if we had the other objects which
+went overboard owing to the stupidity of the dog.
+But it seems to me, all the same, that we ought
+to be able to manage, with a little reflection and
+intelligence. And those are just your great qualities.
+How does the business strike you?"</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard did not move a muscle. He was
+willing to stand Lupin's chaff, but his dignity
+commanded him not to speak a single word in
+answer nor even to give a nod or shake of the head
+that might have been taken to express approval or
+or criticism.</p>
+
+<p>"I see that we are entirely of one mind," continued
+Lupin, without appearing to remark the
+chief-inspector's silence. "And I can sum up the
+matter briefly, as told us by these exhibits. Yesterday
+evening, between nine and twelve o'clock, a
+showily dressed young woman was wounded with
+a knife and then caught round the throat and choked
+to death by a well-dressed gentleman, wearing a
+single eyeglass and interested in racing, with whom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+the aforesaid showily dressed young lady had been
+eating three meringues and a coffee éclair."</p>
+
+<p>Lupin lit a cigarette and, taking Ganimard by the
+sleeve:</p>
+
+<p>"Aha, that's up against you, chief-inspector!
+You thought that, in the domain of police deductions,
+such feats as those were prohibited to outsiders!
+Wrong, sir! Lupin juggles with inferences
+and deductions for all the world like a detective
+in a novel. My proofs are dazzling and absolutely
+simple."</p>
+
+<p>And, pointing to the objects one by one, as he
+demonstrated his statement, he resumed:</p>
+
+<p>"I said, after nine o'clock yesterday evening.
+This scrap of newspaper bears yesterday's date,
+with the words, 'Evening edition.' Also, you will
+see here, pasted to the paper, a bit of one of those
+yellow wrappers in which the subscribers' copies
+are sent out. These copies are always delivered
+by the nine o'clock post. Therefore, it was after
+nine o'clock. I said, a well-dressed man. Please
+observe that this tiny piece of glass has the round
+hole of a single eyeglass at one of the edges and that
+the single eyeglass is an essentially aristocratic
+article of wear. This well-dressed man walked
+into a pastry-cook's shop. Here is the very thin
+cardboard, shaped like a box, and still showing
+a little of the cream of the meringues and éclairs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+which were packed in it in the usual way. Having
+got his parcel, the gentleman with the eyeglass
+joined a young person whose eccentricity in the
+matter of dress is pretty clearly indicated by this
+bright-red silk scarf. Having joined her, for some
+reason as yet unknown he first stabbed her with a
+knife and then strangled her with the help of this
+same scarf. Take your magnifying glass, chief-inspector,
+and you will see, on the silk, stains of a
+darker red which are, here, the marks of a knife
+wiped on the scarf and, there, the marks of a hand,
+covered with blood, clutching the material. Having
+committed the murder, his next business is to
+leave no trace behind him. So he takes from his
+pocket, first, the newspaper to which he subscribes&mdash;a
+racing-paper, as you will see by glancing at
+the contents of this scrap; and you will have no
+difficulty in discovering the title&mdash;and, secondly,
+a cord, which, on inspection, turns out to be a
+length of whip-cord. These two details prove&mdash;do
+they not?&mdash;that our man is interested in racing
+and that he himself rides. Next, he picks up the
+fragments of his eyeglass, the cord of which has
+been broken in the struggle. He takes a pair of
+scissors&mdash;observe the hacking of the scissors&mdash;and
+cuts off the stained part of the scarf, leaving the
+other end, no doubt, in his victim's clenched hands.
+He makes a ball of the confectioner's cardboard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+box. He also puts in certain things that would have
+betrayed him, such as the knife, which must have
+slipped into the Seine. He wraps everything in
+the newspaper, ties it with the cord and fastens this
+cut-glass inkstand to it, as a make-weight. Then
+he makes himself scarce. A little later, the parcel
+falls into the waterman's barge. And there you
+are. Oof, it's hot work!... What do you say to
+the story?"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at Ganimard to see what impression
+his speech had produced on the inspector. Ganimard
+did not depart from his attitude of silence.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin began to laugh:</p>
+
+<p>"As a matter of fact, you're annoyed and surprised.
+But you're suspicious as well: 'Why
+should that confounded Lupin hand the business
+over to me,' say you, 'instead of keeping it for himself,
+hunting down the murderer and rifling his
+pockets, if there was a robbery?' The question
+is quite logical, of course. But&mdash;there is a 'but'&mdash;I
+have no time, you see. I am full up with work at
+the present moment: a burglary in London, another
+at Lausanne, an exchange of children at Marseilles,
+to say nothing of having to save a young girl who
+is at this moment shadowed by death. That's
+always the way: it never rains but it pours. So
+I said to myself, 'Suppose I handed the business
+over to my dear old Ganimard? Now that it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+half-solved for him, he is quite capable of succeeding.
+And what a service I shall be doing him!
+How magnificently he will be able to distinguish
+himself!' No sooner said than done. At eight
+o'clock in the morning, I sent the joker with the
+orange-peel to meet you. You swallowed the bait;
+and you were here by nine, all on edge and eager
+for the fray."</p>
+
+<p>Lupin rose from his chair. He went over to
+the inspector and, with his eyes in Ganimard's,
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"That's all. You now know the whole story.
+Presently, you will know the victim: some ballet-dancer,
+probably, some singer at a music-hall.
+On the other hand, the chances are that the criminal
+lives near the Pont-Neuf, most likely on the left
+bank. Lastly, here are all the exhibits. I make
+you a present of them. Set to work. I shall only
+keep this end of the scarf. If ever you want to
+piece the scarf together, bring me the other end,
+the one which the police will find round the
+victim's neck. Bring it me in four weeks from now
+to the day, that is to say, on the 29th of December,
+at ten o'clock in the morning. You can be
+sure of finding me here. And don't be afraid:
+this is all perfectly serious, friend of my youth;
+I swear it is. No humbug, honour bright. You
+can go straight ahead. Oh, by the way, when you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+arrest the fellow with the eyeglass, be a bit careful:
+he is left-handed! Good-bye, old dear, and good
+luck to you!"</p>
+
+<p>Lupin spun round on his heel, went to the door,
+opened it and disappeared before Ganimard had
+even thought of taking a decision. The inspector
+rushed after him, but at once found that the handle
+of the door, by some trick of mechanism which
+he did not know, refused to turn. It took him ten
+minutes to unscrew the lock and ten minutes more
+to unscrew the lock of the hall-door. By the time
+that he had scrambled down the three flights of
+stairs, Ganimard had given up all hope of catching
+Arsène Lupin.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, he was not thinking of it. Lupin inspired
+him with a queer, complex feeling, made
+up of fear, hatred, involuntary admiration and also
+the vague instinct that he, Ganimard, in spite of
+all his efforts, in spite of the persistency of his
+endeavours, would never get the better of this
+particular adversary. He pursued him from a sense
+of duty and pride, but with the continual dread
+of being taken in by that formidable hoaxer and
+scouted and fooled in the face of a public that was
+always only too willing to laugh at the chief-inspector's
+mishaps.</p>
+
+<p>This business of the red scarf, in particular,
+struck him as most suspicious. It was interesting,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+certainly, in more ways than one, but so very improbable!
+And Lupin's explanation, apparently so
+logical, would never stand the test of a severe examination!</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Ganimard, "this is all swank: a
+parcel of suppositions and guesswork based upon
+nothing at all. I'm not to be caught with chaff."</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>When he reached the headquarters of police,
+at 36 Quai des Orfèvres, he had quite made up
+his mind to treat the incident as though it had never
+happened.</p>
+
+<p>He went up to the Criminal Investigation Department.
+Here, one of his fellow-inspectors said:</p>
+
+<p>"Seen the chief?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"He was asking for you just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, was he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you had better go after him."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"To the Rue de Berne ... there was a murder
+there last night."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Who's the victim?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know exactly ... a music-hall singer,
+I believe."</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard simply muttered:</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove!"</p>
+
+<p>Twenty minutes later he stepped out of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+underground railway-station and made for the Rue
+de Berne.</p>
+
+<p>The victim, who was known in the theatrical
+world by her stage-name of Jenny Saphir, occupied
+a small flat on the second floor of one of the houses.
+A policeman took the chief-inspector upstairs and
+showed him the way, through two sitting-rooms,
+to a bedroom, where he found the magistrates in
+charge of the inquiry, together with the divisional
+surgeon and M. Dudouis, the head of the detective-service.</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard started at the first glance which he
+gave into the room. He saw, lying on a sofa, the
+corpse of a young woman whose hands clutched a
+strip of red silk! One of the shoulders, which
+appeared above the low-cut bodice, bore the marks
+of two wounds surrounded with clotted blood.
+The distorted and almost blackened features still
+bore an expression of frenzied terror.</p>
+
+<p>The divisional surgeon, who had just finished his
+examination, said:</p>
+
+<p>"My first conclusions are very clear. The victim
+was twice stabbed with a dagger and afterward
+strangled. The immediate cause of death was asphyxia."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove!" thought Ganimard again, remembering
+Lupin's words and the picture which he had
+drawn of the crime.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The examining-magistrate objected:</p>
+
+<p>"But the neck shows no discoloration."</p>
+
+<p>"She may have been strangled with a napkin
+or a handkerchief," said the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"Most probably," said the chief detective, "with
+this silk scarf, which the victim was wearing and a
+piece of which remains, as though she had clung to
+it with her two hands to protect herself."</p>
+
+<p>"But why does only that piece remain?" asked
+the magistrate. "What has become of the
+other?"</p>
+
+<p>"The other may have been stained with blood
+and carried off by the murderer. You can plainly
+distinguish the hurried slashing of the scissors."</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove!" said Ganimard, between his teeth,
+for the third time. "That brute of a Lupin saw
+everything without seeing a thing!"</p>
+
+<p>"And what about the motive of the murder?"
+asked the magistrate. "The locks have been forced,
+the cupboards turned upside down. Have you
+anything to tell me, M. Dudouis?"</p>
+
+<p>The chief of the detective-service replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I can at least suggest a supposition, derived from
+the statements made by the servant. The victim,
+who enjoyed a greater reputation on account of
+her looks than through her talent as a singer, went
+to Russia, two years ago, and brought back with her
+a magnificent sapphire, which she appears to have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+received from some person of importance at the
+court. Since then, she went by the name of Jenny
+Saphir and seems generally to have been very proud
+of that present, although, for prudence sake, she
+never wore it. I daresay that we shall not be far
+out if we presume the theft of the sapphire to have
+been the cause of the crime."</p>
+
+<p>"But did the maid know where the stone was?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, nobody did. And the disorder of the room
+would tend to prove that the murderer did not know
+either."</p>
+
+<p>"We will question the maid," said the examining-magistrate.</p>
+
+<p>M. Dudouis took the chief-inspector aside and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"You're looking very old-fashioned, Ganimard.
+What's the matter? Do you suspect anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at all, chief."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a pity. We could do with a bit of showy
+work in the department. This is one of a number
+of crimes, all of the same class, of which we have
+failed to discover the perpetrator. This time we
+want the criminal ... and quickly!"</p>
+
+<p>"A difficult job, chief."</p>
+
+<p>"It's got to be done. Listen to me, Ganimard.
+According to what the maid says, Jenny Saphir led
+a very regular life. For a month past she was in
+the habit of frequently receiving visits, on her return<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+from the music-hall, that is to say, at about half-past
+ten, from a man who would stay until midnight
+or so. 'He's a society man,' Jenny Saphir
+used to say, 'and he wants to marry me.' This
+society man took every precaution to avoid being
+seen, such as turning up his coat-collar and lowering
+the brim of his hat when he passed the porter's box.
+And Jenny Saphir always made a point of sending
+away her maid, even before he came. This is the
+man whom we have to find."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he left no traces?"</p>
+
+<p>"None at all. It is obvious that we have to deal
+with a very clever scoundrel, who prepared his
+crime beforehand and committed it with every possible
+chance of escaping unpunished. His arrest
+would be a great feather in our cap. I rely on you,
+Ganimard."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you rely on me, chief?" replied the inspector.
+"Well, we shall see ... we shall see....
+I don't say no.... Only...."</p>
+
+<p>He seemed in a very nervous condition, and his
+agitation struck M. Dudouis.</p>
+
+<p>"Only," continued Ganimard, "only I swear ...
+do you hear, chief? I swear...."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you swear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing.... We shall see, chief ... we shall
+see...."</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard did not finish his sentence until he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+outside, alone. And he finished it aloud, stamping
+his foot, in a tone of the most violent anger:</p>
+
+<p>"Only, I swear to Heaven that the arrest shall
+be effected by my own means, without my employing
+a single one of the clues with which that villain
+has supplied me. Ah, no! Ah, no!..."</p>
+
+<p>Railing against Lupin, furious at being mixed up
+in this business and resolved, nevertheless, to get
+to the bottom of it, he wandered aimlessly about
+the streets. His brain was seething with irritation;
+and he tried to adjust his ideas a little and to discover,
+among the chaotic facts, some trifling detail,
+unperceived by all, unsuspected by Lupin himself,
+that might lead him to success.</p>
+
+<p>He lunched hurriedly at a bar, resumed his stroll
+and suddenly stopped, petrified, astounded and
+confused. He was walking under the gateway of
+the very house in the Rue de Surène to which Lupin
+had enticed him a few hours earlier! A force
+stronger than his own will was drawing him there
+once more. The solution of the problem lay there.
+There and there alone were all the elements of the
+truth. Do and say what he would, Lupin's assertions
+were so precise, his calculations so accurate,
+that, worried to the innermost recesses of his being
+by so prodigious a display of perspicacity, he could
+not do other than take up the work at the point
+where his enemy had left it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Abandoning all further resistance, he climbed the
+three flights of stairs. The door of the flat was
+open. No one had touched the exhibits. He put
+them in his pocket and walked away.</p>
+
+<p>From that moment, he reasoned and acted, so
+to speak, mechanically, under the influence of the
+master whom he could not choose but obey.</p>
+
+<p>Admitting that the unknown person whom he
+was seeking lived in the neighbourhood of the Pont-Neuf,
+it became necessary to discover, somewhere
+between that bridge and the Rue de Berne, the
+first-class confectioner's shop, open in the evenings,
+at which the cakes were bought. This did not take
+long to find. A pastry-cook near the Gare Saint-Lazare
+showed him some little cardboard boxes,
+identical in material and shape with the one in
+Ganimard's possession. Moreover, one of the shop-girls
+remembered having served, on the previous
+evening, a gentleman whose face was almost concealed
+in the collar of his fur coat, but whose eyeglass
+she had happened to notice.</p>
+
+<p>"That's one clue checked," thought the inspector.
+"Our man wears an eyeglass."</p>
+
+<p>He next collected the pieces of the racing-paper
+and showed them to a newsvendor, who easily
+recognized the <i>Turf Illustré</i>. Ganimard at once
+went to the offices of the <i>Turf</i> and asked to see the
+list of subscribers. Going through the list, he jotted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+down the names and addresses of all those who lived
+anywhere near the Pont-Neuf and principally&mdash;because
+Lupin had said so&mdash;those on the left bank
+of the river.</p>
+
+<p>He then went back to the Criminal Investigation
+Department, took half a dozen men and packed
+them off with the necessary instructions.</p>
+
+<p>At seven o'clock in the evening, the last of these
+men returned and brought good news with him.
+A certain M. Prévailles, a subscriber to the <i>Turf</i>,
+occupied an entresol flat on the Quai des Augustins.
+On the previous evening, he left his place, wearing
+a fur coat, took his letters and his paper, the <i>Turf
+Illustré</i>, from the porter's wife, walked away and
+returned home at midnight. This M. Prévailles
+wore a single eyeglass. He was a regular race-goer
+and himself owned several hacks which he either
+rode himself or jobbed out.</p>
+
+<p>The inquiry had taken so short a time and the
+results obtained were so exactly in accordance with
+Lupin's predictions that Ganimard felt quite overcome
+on hearing the detective's report. Once more
+he was measuring the prodigious extent of the resources
+at Lupin's disposal. Never in the course
+of his life&mdash;and Ganimard was already well-advanced
+in years&mdash;had he come across such perspicacity,
+such a quick and far-seeing mind.</p>
+
+<p>He went in search of M. Dudouis.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Everything's ready, chief. Have you a warrant?"</p>
+
+<p>"Eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"I said, everything is ready for the arrest,
+chief."</p>
+
+<p>"You know the name of Jenny Saphir's murderer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"But how? Explain yourself."</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard had a sort of scruple of conscience,
+blushed a little and nevertheless replied:</p>
+
+<p>"An accident, chief. The murderer threw everything
+that was likely to compromise him into the
+Seine. Part of the parcel was picked up and handed
+to me."</p>
+
+<p>"By whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"A boatman who refused to give his name, for
+fear of getting into trouble. But I had all the clues
+I wanted. It was not so difficult as I expected."</p>
+
+<p>And the inspector described how he had gone to
+work.</p>
+
+<p>"And you call that an accident!" cried M. Dudouis.
+"And you say that it was not difficult!
+Why, it's one of your finest performances! Finish
+it yourself, Ganimard, and be prudent."</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard was eager to get the business done.
+He went to the Quai des Augustins with his men and
+distributed them around the house. He questioned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+the portress, who said that her tenant took his meals
+out of doors, but made a point of looking in after
+dinner.</p>
+
+<p>A little before nine o'clock, in fact, leaning out
+of her window, she warned Ganimard, who at once
+gave a low whistle. A gentleman in a tall hat and
+a fur coat was coming along the pavement beside
+the Seine. He crossed the road and walked up to
+the house.</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard stepped forward:</p>
+
+<p>"M. Prévailles, I believe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have a commission to...."</p>
+
+<p>He had not time to finish his sentence. At the
+sight of the men appearing out of the shadow, Prévailles
+quickly retreated to the wall and faced his
+adversaries, with his back to the door of a shop on
+the ground-floor, the shutters of which were closed.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand back!" he cried. "I don't know you!"</p>
+
+<p>His right hand brandished a heavy stick, while
+his left was slipped behind him and seemed to be
+trying to open the door.</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard had an impression that the man might
+escape through this way and through some secret
+outlet:</p>
+
+<p>"None of this nonsense," he said, moving closer
+to him. "You're caught.... You had better
+come quietly."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But, just as he was laying hold of Prévailles'
+stick, Ganimard remembered the warning which
+Lupin gave him: Prévailles was left-handed; and
+it was his revolver for which he was feeling behind
+his back.</p>
+
+<p>The inspector ducked his head. He had noticed
+the man's sudden movement. Two reports rang
+out. No one was hit.</p>
+
+<p>A second later, Prévailles received a blow under
+the chin from the butt-end of a revolver, which
+brought him down where he stood. He was entered
+at the Dépôt soon after nine o'clock.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>Ganimard enjoyed a great reputation even at
+that time. But this capture, so quickly effected, by
+such very simple means, and at once made public
+by the police, won him a sudden celebrity. Prévailles
+was forthwith saddled with all the murders
+that had remained unpunished; and the newspapers
+vied with one another in extolling Ganimard's
+prowess.</p>
+
+<p>The case was conducted briskly at the start.
+It was first of all ascertained that Prévailles, whose
+real name was Thomas Derocq, had already been
+in trouble. Moreover, the search instituted in his
+rooms, while not supplying any fresh proofs, at
+least led to the discovery of a ball of whip-cord
+similar to the cord used for doing up the parcel and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+also to the discovery of daggers which would have
+produced a wound similar to the wounds on the
+victim.</p>
+
+<p>But, on the eighth day, everything was changed.
+Until then Prévailles had refused to reply to the
+questions put to him; but now, assisted by his
+counsel, he pleaded a circumstantial alibi and maintained
+that he was at the Folies-Bergère on the
+night of the murder.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, the pockets of his dinner-jacket
+contained the counterfoil of a stall-ticket and
+a programme of the performance, both bearing the
+date of that evening.</p>
+
+<p>"An alibi prepared in advance," objected the
+examining-magistrate.</p>
+
+<p>"Prove it," said Prévailles.</p>
+
+<p>The prisoner was confronted with the witnesses
+for the prosecution. The young lady from the
+confectioner's "thought she knew" the gentleman
+with the eyeglass. The hall-porter in the Rue de
+Berne "thought he knew" the gentleman who used
+to come to see Jenny Saphir. But nobody dared
+to make a more definite statement.</p>
+
+<p>The examination, therefore, led to nothing of a
+precise character, provided no solid basis whereon
+to found a serious accusation.</p>
+
+<p>The judge sent for Ganimard and told him of his
+difficulty.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I can't possibly persist, at this rate. There is
+no evidence to support the charge."</p>
+
+<p>"But surely you are convinced in your own mind,
+monsieur le juge d'instruction! Prévailles would
+never have resisted his arrest unless he was
+guilty."</p>
+
+<p>"He says that he thought he was being assaulted.
+He also says that he never set eyes on Jenny
+Saphir; and, as a matter of fact, we can find
+no one to contradict his assertion. Then again,
+admitting that the sapphire has been stolen, we
+have not been able to find it at his flat."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor anywhere else," suggested Ganimard.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite true, but that is no evidence against him.
+I'll tell you what we shall want, M. Ganimard,
+and that very soon: the other end of this red
+scarf."</p>
+
+<p>"The other end?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, for it is obvious that, if the murderer
+took it away with him, the reason was that the
+stuff is stained with the marks of the blood on his
+fingers."</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard made no reply. For several days he
+had felt that the whole business was tending to this
+conclusion. There was no other proof possible. Given
+the silk scarf&mdash;and in no other circumstances&mdash;Prévailles'
+guilt was certain. Now Ganimard's
+position required that Prévailles' guilt should be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+established. He was responsible for the arrest, it
+had cast a glamour around him, he had been praised
+to the skies as the most formidable adversary of
+criminals; and he would look absolutely ridiculous
+if Prévailles were released.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, the one and only indispensable
+proof was in Lupin's pocket. How was he to get
+hold of it?</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard cast about, exhausted himself with
+fresh investigations, went over the inquiry from
+start to finish, spent sleepless nights in turning over
+the mystery of the Rue de Berne, studied the records
+of Prévailles' life, sent ten men hunting after the
+invisible sapphire. Everything was useless.</p>
+
+<p>On the 28th of December, the examining-magistrate
+stopped him in one of the passages of the Law
+Courts:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, M. Ganimard, any news?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, monsieur le juge d'instruction."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall dismiss the case."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait one day longer."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the use? We want the other end of the
+scarf; have you got it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall have it to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but please lend me the piece in your
+possession."</p>
+
+<p>"What if I do?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If you do, I promise to let you have the whole
+scarf complete."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, that's understood."</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard followed the examining-magistrate to
+his room and came out with the piece of silk:</p>
+
+<p>"Hang it all!" he growled. "Yes, I will go
+and fetch the proof and I shall have it too ...
+always presuming that Master Lupin has the courage
+to keep the appointment."</p>
+
+<p>In point of fact, he did not doubt for a moment
+that Master Lupin would have this courage, and
+that was just what exasperated him. Why had
+Lupin insisted on this meeting? What was his
+object, in the circumstances?</p>
+
+<p>Anxious, furious and full of hatred, he resolved
+to take every precaution necessary not only to
+prevent his falling into a trap himself, but to make
+his enemy fall into one, now that the opportunity
+offered. And, on the next day, which was the
+29th of December, the date fixed by Lupin, after
+spending the night in studying the old manor-house
+in the Rue de Surène and convincing himself
+that there was no other outlet than the front door,
+he warned his men that he was going on a dangerous
+expedition and arrived with them on the field of
+battle.</p>
+
+<p>He posted them in a café and gave them formal
+instructions: if he showed himself at one of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+third-floor windows, or if he failed to return within
+an hour, the detectives were to enter the house and
+arrest any one who tried to leave it.</p>
+
+<p>The chief-inspector made sure that his revolver
+was in working order and that he could take it from
+his pocket easily. Then he went upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>He was surprised to find things as he had left
+them, the doors open and the locks broken. After
+ascertaining that the windows of the principal room
+looked out on the street, he visited the three other
+rooms that made up the flat. There was no one
+there.</p>
+
+<p>"Master Lupin was afraid," he muttered, not
+without a certain satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be silly," said a voice behind him.</p>
+
+<p>Turning round, he saw an old workman, wearing
+a house-painter's long smock, standing in the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't bother your head," said the man.
+"It's I, Lupin. I have been working in the painter's
+shop since early morning. This is when we knock
+off for breakfast. So I came upstairs."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at Ganimard with a quizzing smile and
+cried:</p>
+
+<p>"'Pon my word, this is a gorgeous moment
+I owe you, old chap! I wouldn't sell it for ten
+years of your life; and yet you know how I love
+you! What do you think of it, artist? Wasn't<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+it well thought out and well foreseen? Foreseen
+from alpha to omega? Did I understand the
+business? Did I penetrate the mystery of the
+scarf? I'm not saying that there were no holes
+in my argument, no links missing in the chain....
+But what a masterpiece of intelligence! Ganimard,
+what a reconstruction of events! What an intuition
+of everything that had taken place and of everything
+that was going to take place, from the discovery
+of the crime to your arrival here in search of a
+proof! What really marvellous divination! Have
+you the scarf?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, half of it. Have you the other?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here it is. Let's compare."</p>
+
+<p>They spread the two pieces of silk on the table.
+The cuts made by the scissors corresponded exactly.
+Moreover, the colours were identical.</p>
+
+<p>"But I presume," said Lupin, "that this was not
+the only thing you came for. What you are interested
+in seeing is the marks of the blood. Come
+with me, Ganimard: it's rather dark in here."</p>
+
+<p>They moved into the next room, which, though
+it overlooked the courtyard, was lighter; and
+Lupin held his piece of silk against the window-pane:</p>
+
+<p>"Look," he said, making room for Ganimard.</p>
+
+<p>The inspector gave a start of delight. The marks
+of the five fingers and the print of the palm were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+distinctly visible. The evidence was undeniable.
+The murderer had seized the stuff in his bloodstained
+hand, in the same hand that had stabbed
+Jenny Saphir, and tied the scarf round her neck.</p>
+
+<p>"And it is the print of a left hand," observed
+Lupin. "Hence my warning, which had nothing
+miraculous about it, you see. For, though I admit,
+friend of my youth, that you may look upon me
+as a superior intelligence, I won't have you treat
+me as a wizard."</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard had quickly pocketed the piece of silk.
+Lupin nodded his head in approval:</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right, old boy, it's for you. I'm so
+glad you're glad! And, you see, there was no trap
+about all this ... only the wish to oblige ... a
+service between friends, between pals.... And also,
+I confess, a little curiosity.... Yes, I wanted to
+examine this other piece of silk, the one the police
+had.... Don't be afraid: I'll give it back to
+you.... Just a second...."</p>
+
+<p>Lupin, with a careless movement, played with the
+tassel at the end of this half of the scarf, while Ganimard
+listened to him in spite of himself:</p>
+
+<p>"How ingenious these little bits of women's
+work are! Did you notice one detail in the
+maid's evidence? Jenny Saphir was very handy
+with her needle and used to make all her own hats
+and frocks. It is obvious that she made this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>
+scarf herself.... Besides, I noticed that from
+the first. I am naturally curious, as I have already
+told you, and I made a thorough examination of
+the piece of silk which you have just put in your
+pocket. Inside the tassel, I found a little sacred
+medal, which the poor girl had stitched into it to
+bring her luck. Touching, isn't it, Ganimard? A
+little medal of Our Lady of Good Succour."</p>
+
+<p>The inspector felt greatly puzzled and did not
+take his eyes off the other. And Lupin continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Then I said to myself, 'How interesting it
+would be to explore the other half of the scarf, the
+one which the police will find round the victim's
+neck!' For this other half, which I hold in my
+hands at last, is finished off in the same way ...
+so I shall be able to see if it has a hiding-place too
+and what's inside it.... But look, my friend, isn't
+it cleverly made? And so simple! All you have
+to do is to take a skein of red cord and braid it round
+a wooden cup, leaving a little recess, a little empty
+space in the middle, very small, of course, but
+large enough to hold a medal of a saint ... or anything....
+A precious stone, for instance....
+Such as a sapphire...."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment he finished pushing back the
+silk cord and, from the hollow of a cup he took
+between his thumb and forefinger a wonderful blue
+stone, perfect in respect of size and purity.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ha! What did I tell you, friend of my
+youth?"</p>
+
+<p>He raised his head. The inspector had turned
+livid and was staring wild-eyed, as though fascinated
+by the stone that sparkled before him. He at last
+realized the whole plot:</p>
+
+<p>"You dirty scoundrel!" he muttered, repeating
+the insults which he had used at the first interview.
+"You scum of the earth!"</p>
+
+<p>The two men were standing one against the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me back that," said the inspector.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin held out the piece of silk.</p>
+
+<p>"And the sapphire," said Ganimard, in a peremptory
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be silly."</p>
+
+<p>"Give it back, or...."</p>
+
+<p>"Or what, you idiot!" cried Lupin. "Look
+here, do you think I put you on to this soft thing
+for nothing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Give it back!"</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't noticed what I've been about, that's
+plain! What! For four weeks I've kept you
+on the move like a deer; and you want to ...!
+Come, Ganimard, old chap, pull yourself together!...
+Don't you see that you've been playing the
+good dog for four weeks on end?... Fetch it,
+Rover!... There's a nice blue pebble over there,
+which master can't get at. Hunt it, Ganimard,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+fetch it ... bring it to master.... Ah, he's his
+master's own good little dog!... Sit up! Beg!...
+Does'ms want a bit of sugar, then?..."</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard, containing the anger that seethed
+within him, thought only of one thing, summoning
+his detectives. And, as the room in which he now
+was looked out on the courtyard, he tried gradually
+to work his way round to the communicating door.
+He would then run to the window and break one
+of the panes.</p>
+
+<p>"All the same," continued Lupin, "what a pack
+of dunderheads you and the rest must be! You've
+had the silk all this time and not one of you ever
+thought of feeling it, not one of you ever asked
+himself the reason why the poor girl hung on to her
+scarf. Not one of you! You just acted at haphazard,
+without reflecting, without foreseeing anything...."</p>
+
+<p>The inspector had attained his object. Taking
+advantage of a second when Lupin had turned away
+from him, he suddenly wheeled round and grasped
+the door-handle. But an oath escaped him: the
+handle did not budge.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin burst into a fit of laughing:</p>
+
+<p>"Not even that! You did not even foresee
+that! You lay a trap for me and you won't admit
+that I may perhaps smell the thing out beforehand....
+And you allow yourself to be brought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+into this room without asking whether I am not
+bringing you here for a particular reason and without
+remembering that the locks are fitted with a
+special mechanism. Come now, speaking frankly,
+what do you think of it yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do I think of it?" roared Ganimard,
+beside himself with rage.</p>
+
+<p>He had drawn his revolver and was pointing it
+straight at Lupin's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Hands up!" he cried. "That's what I think
+of it!"</p>
+
+<p>Lupin placed himself in front of him and shrugged
+his shoulders:</p>
+
+<p>"Sold again!" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Hands up, I say, once more!"</p>
+
+<p>"And sold again, say I. Your deadly weapon
+won't go off."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Old Catherine, your housekeeper, is in my service.
+She damped the charges this morning while
+you were having your breakfast coffee."</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard made a furious gesture, pocketed the
+revolver and rushed at Lupin.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" said Lupin, stopping him short with a
+well-aimed kick on the shin.</p>
+
+<p>Their clothes were almost touching. They exchanged
+defiant glances, the glances of two adversaries
+who mean to come to blows. Nevertheless,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+there was no fight. The recollection of the earlier
+struggles made any present struggle useless. And
+Ganimard, who remembered all his past failures,
+his vain attacks, Lupin's crushing reprisals, did
+not lift a limb. There was nothing to be done.
+He felt it. Lupin had forces at his command against
+which any individual force simply broke to pieces.
+So what was the good?</p>
+
+<p>"I agree," said Lupin, in a friendly voice, as
+though answering Ganimard's unspoken thought,
+"you would do better to let things be as they are.
+Besides, friend of my youth, think of all that this
+incident has brought you: fame, the certainty of
+quick promotion and, thanks to that, the prospect
+of a happy and comfortable old age! Surely, you
+don't want the discovery of the sapphire and the
+head of poor Arsène Lupin in addition! It wouldn't
+be fair. To say nothing of the fact that poor Arsène
+Lupin saved your life.... Yes, sir! Who warned
+you, at this very spot, that Prévailles was left-handed?...
+And is this the way you thank me?
+It's not pretty of you, Ganimard. Upon my word,
+you make me blush for you!"</p>
+
+<p>While chattering, Lupin had gone through the
+same performance as Ganimard and was now near
+the door. Ganimard saw that his foe was about
+to escape him. Forgetting all prudence, he tried
+to block his way and received a tremendous butt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
+in the stomach, which sent him rolling to the opposite
+wall.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin dexterously touched a spring, turned the
+handle, opened the door and slipped away, roaring
+with laughter as he went.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>Twenty minutes later, when Ganimard at last
+succeeded in joining his men, one of them said to
+him:</p>
+
+<p>"A house-painter left the house, as his mates
+were coming back from breakfast, and put a letter
+in my hand. 'Give that to your governor,' he
+said. 'Which governor?' I asked; but he was
+gone. I suppose it's meant for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's have it."</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard opened the letter. It was hurriedly
+scribbled in pencil and contained these words:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"This is to warn you, friend of my youth, against
+excessive credulity. When a fellow tells you that the
+cartridges in your revolver are damp, however
+great your confidence in that fellow may be, even
+though his name be Arsène Lupin, never allow yourself
+to be taken in. Fire first; and, if the fellow
+hops the twig, you will have acquired the proof
+(1) that the cartridges are not damp; and (2) that
+old Catherine is the most honest and respectable
+of housekeepers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"One of these days, I hope to have the pleasure
+of making her acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>"Meanwhile, friend of my youth, believe me
+always affectionately and sincerely yours,</p>
+
+<p style="font-variant: small-caps; margin-left: 30em;">"Arsène Lupin."</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">SHADOWED BY DEATH</h3>
+
+
+<p>After he had been round the walls of the property,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+Arsène Lupin returned to the spot from which he
+started. It was perfectly clear to him that there
+was no breach in the walls; and the only way of
+entering the extensive grounds of the Château de
+Maupertuis was through a little low door, firmly
+bolted on the inside, or through the principal gate,
+which was overlooked by the lodge.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," he said. "We must employ heroic
+methods."</p>
+
+<p>Pushing his way into the copsewood where he
+had hidden his motor-bicycle, he unwound a length
+of twine from under the saddle and went to a place
+which he had noticed in the course of his exploration.
+At this place, which was situated far
+from the road, on the edge of a wood, a number
+of large trees, standing inside the park, overlapped
+the wall.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin fastened a stone to the end of the string,
+threw it up and caught a thick branch, which he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+drew down to him and bestraddled. The branch,
+in recovering its position, raised him from the ground.
+He climbed over the wall, slipped down the tree, and
+sprang lightly on the grass.</p>
+
+<p>It was winter; and, through the leafless boughs,
+across the undulating lawns, he could see the little
+Château de Maupertuis in the distance. Fearing
+lest he should be perceived, he concealed himself
+behind a clump of fir-trees. From there, with the
+aid of a field-glass, he studied the dark and melancholy
+front of the manor-house. All the windows
+were closed and, as it were, barricaded with solid
+shutters. The house might easily have been uninhabited.</p>
+
+<p>"By Jove!" muttered Lupin. "It's not the liveliest
+of residences. I shall certainly not come here
+to end my days!"</p>
+
+<p>But the clock struck three; one of the doors on
+the ground-floor opened; and the figure of a woman
+appeared, a very slender figure wrapped in a brown
+cloak.</p>
+
+<p>The woman walked up and down for a few minutes
+and was at once surrounded by birds, to which she
+scattered crumbs of bread. Then she went down
+the stone steps that led to the middle lawn and
+skirted it, taking the path on the right.</p>
+
+<p>With his field-glass, Lupin could distinctly see
+her coming in his direction. She was tall, fair-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>haired,
+graceful in appearance, and seemed to be
+quite a young girl. She walked with a sprightly
+step, looking at the pale December sun and amusing
+herself by breaking the little dead twigs on the shrubs
+along the road.</p>
+
+<p>She had gone nearly two thirds of the distance
+that separated her from Lupin when there came a
+furious sound of barking and a huge dog, a colossal
+Danish boarhound, sprang from a neighbouring
+kennel and stood erect at the end of the chain by
+which it was fastened.</p>
+
+<p>The girl moved a little to one side, without paying
+further attention to what was doubtless a daily
+incident. The dog grew angrier than ever, standing
+on its legs and dragging at its collar, at the risk
+of strangling itself.</p>
+
+<p>Thirty or forty steps farther, yielding probably
+to an impulse of impatience, the girl turned round
+and made a gesture with her hand. The great
+Dane gave a start of rage, retreated to the back of
+its kennel and rushed out again, this time unfettered.
+The girl uttered a cry of mad terror. The dog was
+covering the space between them, trailing its broken
+chain behind it.</p>
+
+<p>She began to run, to run with all her might, and
+screamed out desperately for help. But the dog
+came up with her in a few bounds.</p>
+
+<p>She fell, at once exhausted, giving herself up for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+lost. The animal was already upon her, almost
+touching her.</p>
+
+<p>At that exact moment a shot rang out. The dog
+turned a complete somersault, recovered its feet, tore
+the ground and then lay down, giving a number of
+hoarse, breathless howls, which ended in a dull moan
+and an indistinct gurgling. And that was all.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead," said Lupin, who had hastened up at
+once, prepared, if necessary, to fire his revolver a
+second time.</p>
+
+<p>The girl had risen and stood pale, still staggering.
+She looked in great surprise at this man whom she
+did not know and who had saved her life; and she
+whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you.... I have had a great fright....
+You were in the nick of time.... I
+thank you, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>Lupin took off his hat:</p>
+
+<p>"Allow me to introduce myself, mademoiselle....
+My name is Paul Daubreuil.... But
+before entering into any explanations, I must ask for
+one moment...."</p>
+
+<p>He stooped over the dog's dead body and examined
+the chain at the part where the brute's effort had
+snapped it:</p>
+
+<p>"That's it," he said, between his teeth. "It's
+just as I suspected. By Jupiter, things are moving
+rapidly!... I ought to have come earlier."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Returning to the girl's side, he said to her, speaking
+very quickly:</p>
+
+<p>"Mademoiselle, we have not a minute to lose.
+My presence in these grounds is quite irregular.
+I do not wish to be surprised here; and this for
+reasons that concern yourself alone. Do you think
+that the report can have been heard at the house?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl seemed already to have recovered from
+her emotion; and she replied, with a calmness that
+revealed all her pluck:</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so."</p>
+
+<p>"Is your father in the house to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"My father is ill and has been in bed for months.
+Besides, his room looks out on the other front."</p>
+
+<p>"And the servants?"</p>
+
+<p>"Their quarters and the kitchen are also on the
+other side. No one ever comes to this part. I walk
+here myself, but nobody else does."</p>
+
+<p>"It is probable, therefore, that I have not been
+seen either, especially as the trees hide us?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is most probable."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I can speak to you freely?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, but I don't understand...."</p>
+
+<p>"You will, presently. Permit me to be brief.
+The point is this: four days ago, Mlle. Jeanne
+Darcieux...."</p>
+
+<p>"That is my name," she said, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Mlle. Jeanne Darcieux," continued Lupin, "wrote<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+a letter to one of her friends, called Marceline, who
+lives at Versailles...."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know all that?" asked the girl, in
+astonishment. "I tore up the letter before I had
+finished it."</p>
+
+<p>"And you flung the pieces on the edge of the road
+that runs from the house to Vendôme."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true.... I had gone out walking...."</p>
+
+<p>"The pieces were picked up and they came into
+my hands next day."</p>
+
+<p>"Then ... you must have read them," said
+Jeanne Darcieux, betraying a certain annoyance by
+her manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I committed that indiscretion; and I do not
+regret it, because I can save you."</p>
+
+<p>"Save me? From what?"</p>
+
+<p>"From death."</p>
+
+<p>Lupin spoke this little sentence in a very distinct
+voice. The girl gave a shudder. Then she said:</p>
+
+<p>"I am not threatened with death."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you are, mademoiselle. At the end of
+October, you were reading on a bench on the terrace
+where you were accustomed to sit at the same hour
+every day, when a block of stone fell from the cornice
+above your head and you were within a few inches
+of being crushed."</p>
+
+<p>"An accident...."</p>
+
+<p>"One fine evening in November, you were walking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+in the kitchen-garden, by moonlight. A shot was
+fired, The bullet whizzed past your ear."</p>
+
+<p>"At least, I thought so."</p>
+
+<p>"Lastly, less than a week ago, the little wooden
+bridge that crosses the river in the park, two yards
+from the waterfall, gave way while you were on it.
+You were just able, by a miracle, to catch hold of the
+root of a tree."</p>
+
+<p>Jeanne Darcieux tried to smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. But, as I wrote to Marceline, these
+are only a series of coincidences, of accidents...."</p>
+
+<p>"No, mademoiselle, no. One accident of this
+sort is allowable.... So are two ... and
+even then!... But we have no right to suppose
+that the chapter of accidents, repeating the same act
+three times in such different and extraordinary circumstances,
+is a mere amusing coincidence. That
+is why I thought that I might presume to come
+to your assistance. And, as my intervention can
+be of no use unless it remains secret, I did not hesitate
+to make my way in here ... without
+walking through the gate. I came in the nick of
+time, as you said. Your enemy was attacking you
+once more."</p>
+
+<p>"What!... Do you think?... No, it
+is impossible.... I refuse to believe...."</p>
+
+<p>Lupin picked up the chain and, showing it to
+her:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Look at the last link. There is no question
+but that it has been filed. Otherwise, so powerful
+a chain as this would never have yielded. Besides,
+you can see the mark of the file here."</p>
+
+<p>Jeanne turned pale and her pretty features were
+distorted with terror:</p>
+
+<p>"But who can bear me such a grudge?" she gasped.
+"It is terrible.... I have never done any one
+harm.... And yet you are certainly right....
+Worse still...."</p>
+
+<p>She finished her sentence in a lower voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Worse still, I am wondering whether the same
+danger does not threaten my father."</p>
+
+<p>"Has he been attacked also?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, for he never stirs from his room. But his
+is such a mysterious illness!... He has no
+strength ... he cannot walk at all.... In
+addition to that, he is subject to fits of suffocation,
+as though his heart stopped beating.... Oh,
+what an awful thing!"</p>
+
+<p>Lupin realized all the authority which he was able
+to assert at such a moment, and he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Have no fear, mademoiselle. If you obey me
+blindly, I shall be sure to succeed."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes ... yes ... I am quite willing
+... but all this is so terrible...."</p>
+
+<p>"Trust me, I beg of you. And please listen to me,
+I shall want a few particulars."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He rapped out a number of questions, which Jeanne
+Darcieux answered hurriedly:</p>
+
+<p>"That animal was never let loose, was he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never."</p>
+
+<p>"Who used to feed him?"</p>
+
+<p>"The lodge-keeper. He brought him his food
+every evening."</p>
+
+<p>"Consequently, he could go near him without being
+bitten?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and he only, for the dog was very
+savage."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't suspect the man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!... Baptiste?... Never!"</p>
+
+<p>"And you can't think of anybody?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Our servants are quite devoted to us. They
+are very fond of me."</p>
+
+<p>"You have no friends staying in the house?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"No brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Then your father is your only protector?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and I have told you the condition he is
+in."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you told him of the different attempts?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and it was wrong of me to do so. Our
+doctor, old Dr. Guéroult, forbade me to cause him
+the least excitement."</p>
+
+<p>"Your mother?..."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I don't remember her. She died sixteen years
+ago ... just sixteen years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"How old were you then?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was not quite five years old."</p>
+
+<p>"And were you living here?"</p>
+
+<p>"We were living in Paris. My father only bought
+this place the year after."</p>
+
+<p>Lupin was silent for a few moments. Then he
+concluded:</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, mademoiselle, I am obliged to you.
+Those particulars are all I need for the present.
+Besides, it would not be wise for us to remain together
+longer."</p>
+
+<p>"But," she said, "the lodge-keeper will find the
+dog soon.... Who will have killed him?"</p>
+
+<p>"You, mademoiselle, to defend yourself against an
+attack."</p>
+
+<p>"I never carry firearms."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid you do," said Lupin, smiling, "because
+you killed the dog and there is no one but
+you who could have killed him. For that matter,
+let them think what they please. The great thing
+is that I shall not be suspected when I come to the
+house."</p>
+
+<p>"To the house? Do you intend to?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I don't yet know how ... But I shall come....
+This very evening.... So, once more, be
+easy in your mind. I will answer for everything."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Jeanne looked at him and, dominated by him, conquered
+by his air of assurance and good faith, she
+said, simply:</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite easy."</p>
+
+<p>"Then all will go well. Till this evening, mademoiselle."</p>
+
+<p>"Till this evening."</p>
+
+<p>She walked away; and Lupin, following her with
+his eyes until the moment when she disappeared round
+the corner of the house, murmured:</p>
+
+<p>"What a pretty creature! It would be a pity if
+any harm were to come to her. Luckily, Arsène
+Lupin is keeping his weather-eye open."</p>
+
+<p>Taking care not to be seen, with eyes and ears
+attentive to the least sight or sound, he inspected
+every nook and corner of the grounds, looked for the
+little low door which he had noticed outside and
+which was the door of the kitchen garden, drew the
+bolt, took the key and then skirted the walls and
+found himself once more near the tree which he had
+climbed. Two minutes later, he was mounting his
+motor-cycle.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>The village of Maupertuis lay quite close to the
+estate. Lupin inquired and learnt that Dr. Guéroult
+lived next door to the church.</p>
+
+<p>He rang, was shown into the consulting-room and
+introduced himself by his name of Paul Daubreuil,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+of the Rue de Surène, Paris, adding that he had
+official relations with the detective-service, a fact
+which he requested might be kept secret. He had
+become acquainted, by means of a torn letter, with
+the incidents that had endangered Mlle. Darcieux's
+life; and he had come to that young lady's assistance.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Guéroult, an old country practitioner, who
+idolized Jeanne, on hearing Lupin's explanations
+at once admitted that those incidents constituted
+undeniable proofs of a plot. He showed great
+concern, offered his visitor hospitality and kept him
+to dinner.</p>
+
+<p>The two men talked at length. In the evening,
+they walked round to the manor-house together.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor went to the sick man's room, which was
+on the first floor, and asked leave to bring up a young
+colleague, to whom he intended soon to make over
+his practice, when he retired.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin, on entering, saw Jeanne Darcieux seated
+by her father's bedside. She suppressed a movement
+of surprise and, at a sign from the doctor, left
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>The consultation thereupon took place in Lupin's
+presence. M. Darcieux's face was worn, with much
+suffering and his eyes were bright with fever. He
+complained particularly, that day, of his heart. After
+the auscultation, he questioned the doctor with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+obvious anxiety; and each reply seemed to give him
+relief. He also spoke of Jeanne and expressed his
+conviction that they were deceiving him and that
+his daughter had escaped yet more accidents. He
+continued perturbed, in spite of the doctor's denials.
+He wanted to have the police informed and inquiries
+set on foot.</p>
+
+<p>But his excitement tired him and he gradually
+dropped off to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin stopped the doctor in the passage:</p>
+
+<p>"Come, doctor, give me your exact opinion. Do
+you think that M. Darcieux's illness can be attributed
+to an outside cause?"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, suppose that the same enemy should be interested
+in removing both father and daughter."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor seemed struck by the suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word, there is something in what you
+say.... The father's illness at times adopts such
+a very unusual character!... For instance, the
+paralysis of the legs, which is almost complete, ought
+to be accompanied by...."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor reflected for a moment and then said
+in a low voice:</p>
+
+<p>"You think it's poison, of course ... but
+what poison?... Besides, I see no toxic symptoms....
+It would have to be.... But
+what are you doing? What's the matter?..."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The two men were talking outside a little sitting-room
+on the first floor, where Jeanne, seizing the
+opportunity while the doctor was with her father,
+had begun her evening meal. Lupin, who was watching
+her through the open door, saw her lift a cup to her
+lips and take a few sups.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, he rushed at her and caught her by the
+arm:</p>
+
+<p>"What are you drinking there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why," she said, taken aback, "only tea!"</p>
+
+<p>"You pulled a face of disgust ... what made
+you do that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know ... I thought...."</p>
+
+<p>"You thought what?"</p>
+
+<p>"That ... that it tasted rather bitter....
+But I expect that comes from the medicine
+I mixed with it."</p>
+
+<p>"What medicine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Some drops which I take at dinner ... the
+drops which you prescribed for me, you know,
+doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Dr. Guéroult, "but that medicine
+has no taste of any kind.... You know it
+hasn't, Jeanne, for you have been taking it for a fortnight
+and this is the first time...."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite right," said the girl, "and this does have a
+taste.... There&mdash;oh!&mdash;my mouth is still burning."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Guéroult now took a sip from the cup;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Faugh!" he exclaimed, spitting it out again.
+"There's no mistake about it...."</p>
+
+<p>Lupin, on his side, was examining the bottle containing
+the medicine; and he asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Where is this bottle kept in the daytime?"</p>
+
+<p>But Jeanne was unable to answer. She had put
+her hand to her heart and, wan-faced, with staring
+eyes, seemed to be suffering great pain:</p>
+
+<p>"It hurts ... it hurts," she stammered.</p>
+
+<p>The two men quickly carried her to her room and
+laid her on the bed:</p>
+
+<p>"She ought to have an emetic," said Lupin.</p>
+
+<p>"Open the cupboard," said the doctor. "You'll
+see a medicine-case.... Have you got it?...
+Take out one of those little tubes.... Yes, that
+one.... And now some hot water.... You'll
+find some on the tea-tray in the other room."</p>
+
+<p>Jeanne's own maid came running up in answer to
+the bell. Lupin told her that Mlle. Darcieux had
+been taken unwell, for some unknown reason.</p>
+
+<p>He next returned to the little dining-room,
+inspected the sideboard and the cupboards, went
+down to the kitchen and pretended that the doctor
+had sent him to ask about M. Darcieux's diet.
+Without appearing to do so, he catechized the cook,
+the butler, and Baptiste, the lodge-keeper, who had
+his meals at the manor-house with the servants.
+Then he went back to the doctor:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's asleep."</p>
+
+<p>"Any danger?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Fortunately, she had only taken two or
+three sips. But this is the second time to-day that
+you have saved her life, as the analysis of this bottle
+will show."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite superfluous to make an analysis, doctor.
+There is no doubt about the fact that there has been
+an attempt at poisoning."</p>
+
+<p>"By whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say. But the demon who is engineering all
+this business clearly knows the ways of the house.
+He comes and goes as he pleases, walks about in the
+park, files the dog's chain, mixes poison with the
+food and, in short, moves and acts precisely as though
+he were living the very life of her&mdash;or rather of those&mdash;whom
+he wants to put away."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! You really believe that M. Darcieux is
+threatened with the same danger?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not a doubt of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it must be one of the servants? But
+that is most unlikely! Do you think ...?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think nothing, doctor. I know nothing. All
+I can say is that the situation is most tragic and that
+we must be prepared for the worst. Death is here,
+doctor, shadowing the people in this house; and it will
+soon strike at those whom it is pursuing."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What's to be done?"</p>
+
+<p>"Watch, doctor. Let us pretend that we are
+alarmed about M. Darcieux's health and spend the
+night in here. The bedrooms of both the father and
+daughter are close by. If anything happens, we are
+sure to hear."</p>
+
+<p>There was an easy-chair in the room. They
+arranged to sleep in it turn and turn about.</p>
+
+<p>In reality, Lupin slept for only two or three hours.
+In the middle of the night he left the room, without
+disturbing his companion, carefully looked round
+the whole of the house and walked out through the
+principal gate.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>He reached Paris on his motor-cycle at nine o'clock
+in the morning. Two of his friends, to whom he
+telephoned on the road, met him there. They all
+three spent the day in making searches which Lupin
+had planned out beforehand.</p>
+
+<p>He set out again hurriedly at six o'clock; and never,
+perhaps, as he told me subsequently, did he risk
+his life with greater temerity than in his breakneck
+ride, at a mad rate of speed, on a foggy December
+evening, with the light of his lamp hardly able to
+pierce through the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>He sprang from his bicycle outside the gate, which
+was still open, ran to the house and reached the first
+floor in a few bounds.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was no one in the little dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>Without hesitating, without knocking, he walked
+into Jeanne's bedroom:</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, here you are!" he said, with a sigh of relief,
+seeing Jeanne and the doctor sitting side by side,
+talking.</p>
+
+<p>"What? Any news?" asked the doctor, alarmed
+at seeing such a state of agitation in a man whose
+coolness he had had occasion to observe.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Lupin. "No news. And here?"</p>
+
+<p>"None here, either. We have just left M. Darcieux.
+He has had an excellent day and he ate his
+dinner with a good appetite. As for Jeanne, you
+can see for yourself, she has all her pretty colour back
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she must go."</p>
+
+<p>"Go? But it's out of the question!" protested
+the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"You must go, you must!" cried Lupin, with real
+violence, stamping his foot on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>He at once mastered himself, spoke a few words
+of apology and then, for three or four minutes, preserved
+a complete silence, which the doctor and
+Jeanne were careful not to disturb.</p>
+
+<p>At last, he said to the young girl:</p>
+
+<p>"You shall go to-morrow morning, mademoiselle.
+It will be only for one or two weeks. I will take
+you to your friend at Versailles, the one to whom you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+were writing. I entreat you to get everything ready
+to-night ... without concealment of any kind.
+Let the servants know that you are going....
+On the other hand, the doctor will be good enough to
+tell M. Darcieux and give him to understand, with
+every possible precaution, that this journey is
+essential to your safety. Besides, he can join you
+as soon as his strength permits.... That's settled,
+is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, absolutely dominated by Lupin's
+gentle and imperious voice.</p>
+
+<p>"In that case," he said, "be as quick as you can ...
+and do not stir from your room...."</p>
+
+<p>"But," said the girl, with a shudder, "am I to stay
+alone to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fear nothing. Should there be the least danger,
+the doctor and I will come back. Do not open your
+door unless you hear three very light taps."</p>
+
+<p>Jeanne at once rang for her maid. The doctor
+went to M. Darcieux, while Lupin had some supper
+brought to him in the little dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>"That's done," said the doctor, returning to him
+in twenty minutes' time. "M. Darcieux did not
+raise any great difficulty. As a matter of fact, he
+himself thinks it just as well that we should send
+Jeanne away."</p>
+
+<p>They then went downstairs together and left the
+house.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On reaching the lodge, Lupin called the keeper.</p>
+
+<p>"You can shut the gate, my man. If M. Darcieux
+should want us, send for us at once."</p>
+
+<p>The clock of Maupertuis church struck ten. The
+sky was overcast with black clouds, through which
+the moon broke at moments.</p>
+
+<p>The two men walked on for sixty or seventy
+yards.</p>
+
+<p>They were nearing the village, when Lupin gripped
+his companion by the arm:</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!"</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth's the matter?" exclaimed the
+doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"The matter is this," Lupin jerked out, "that,
+if my calculations turn out right, if I have not misjudged
+the business from start to finish, Mlle. Darcieux
+will be murdered before the night is out."</p>
+
+<p>"Eh? What's that?" gasped the doctor, in dismay.
+"But then why did we go?"</p>
+
+<p>"With the precise object that the miscreant, who
+is watching all our movements in the dark, may not
+postpone his crime and may perpetrate it, not at
+the hour chosen by himself, but at the hour which I
+have decided upon."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we are returning to the manor-house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course we are, but separately."</p>
+
+<p>"In that case, let us go at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Listen to me, doctor," said Lupin, in a steady<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+voice, "and let us waste no time in useless words.
+Above all, we must defeat any attempt to watch us.
+You will therefore go straight home and not come
+out again until you are quite certain that you have
+not been followed. You will then make for the
+walls of the property, keeping to the left, till you
+come to the little door of the kitchen-garden. Here
+is the key. When the church clock strikes eleven,
+open the door very gently and walk right up to the
+terrace at the back of the house. The fifth window
+is badly fastened. You have only to climb over the
+balcony. As soon as you are inside Mlle. Darcieux's
+room, bolt the door and don't budge. You quite
+understand, don't budge, either of you, whatever
+happens. I have noticed that Mlle. Darcieux leaves
+her dressing-room window ajar, isn't that so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it's a habit which I taught her."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the way they'll come."</p>
+
+<p>"And you?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's the way I shall come also."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you know who the villain is?"</p>
+
+<p>Lupin hesitated and then replied:</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't know.... And that is just how we
+shall find out. But, I implore you, keep cool. Not a
+word, not a movement, <i>whatever happens</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"I promise you."</p>
+
+<p>"I want more than that, doctor. You must give
+me your word of honour."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I give you my word of honour."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor went away. Lupin at once climbed
+a neighbouring mound from which he could see the
+windows of the first and second floor. Several of
+them were lighted.</p>
+
+<p>He waited for some little time. The lights went
+out one by one. Then, taking a direction opposite
+to that in which the doctor had gone, he branched
+off to the right and skirted the wall until he came to
+the clump of trees near which he had hidden his
+motor-cycle on the day before.</p>
+
+<p>Eleven o'clock struck. He calculated the time
+which it would take the doctor to cross the kitchen-garden
+and make his way into the house.</p>
+
+<p>"That's one point scored!" he muttered.
+"Everything's all right on that side. And now,
+Lupin to the rescue? The enemy won't be long
+before he plays his last trump ... and, by all
+the gods, I must be there!..."</p>
+
+<p>He went through the same performance as on
+the first occasion, pulled down the branch and
+hoisted himself to the top of the wall, from
+which he was able to reach the bigger boughs of the
+tree.</p>
+
+<p>Just then he pricked up his ears. He seemed to
+hear a rustling of dead leaves. And he actually
+perceived a dark form moving on the level thirty
+yards away:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Hang it all!" he said to himself. "I'm done: the
+scoundrel has smelt a rat."</p>
+
+<p>A moonbeam pierced through the clouds. Lupin
+distinctly saw the man take aim. He tried to jump
+to the ground and turned his head. But he felt
+something hit him in the chest, heard the sound of a
+report, uttered an angry oath and came crashing down
+from branch to branch, like a corpse.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Doctor Guéroult, following Arsène Lupin's
+instructions, had climbed the ledge of the fifth
+window and groped his way to the first floor. On
+reaching Jeanne's room, he tapped lightly, three
+times, at the door and, immediately on entering,
+pushed the bolt:</p>
+
+<p>"Lie down at once," he whispered to the girl,
+who had not taken off her things. "You must
+appear to have gone to bed. Brrrr, it's cold in here!
+Is the window open in your dressing-room?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes ... would you like me to ...?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, leave it as it is. They are coming."</p>
+
+<p>"They are coming!" spluttered Jeanne, in affright.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, beyond a doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"But who? Do you suspect any one?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know who.... I expect that there is
+some one hidden in the house ... or in the park."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I feel so frightened!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't be frightened. The sportsman who's
+looking after you seems jolly clever and makes a
+point of playing a safe game. I expect he's on the
+look-out in the court."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor put out the night-light, went to the
+window and raised the blind. A narrow cornice, running
+along the first story, prevented him from seeing
+more than a distant part of the courtyard; and he
+came back and sat down by the bed.</p>
+
+<p>Some very painful minutes passed, minutes that
+appeared to them interminably long. The clock
+in the village struck; but, taken up as they were
+with all the little noises of the night, they hardly noticed
+the sound. They listened, listened, with all
+their nerves on edge:</p>
+
+<p>"Did you hear?" whispered the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes ... yes," said Jeanne, sitting up in bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Lie down ... lie down," he said, presently.
+"There's some one coming."</p>
+
+<p>There was a little tapping sound outside, against
+the cornice. Next came a series of indistinct noises,
+the nature of which they could not make out for
+certain. But they had a feeling that the window in
+the dressing-room was being opened wider, for they
+were buffeted by gusts of cold air.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, it became quite clear: there was some
+one next door.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor, whose hand was trembling a little,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+seized his revolver. Nevertheless, he did not move,
+remembering the formal orders which he had received
+and fearing to act against them.</p>
+
+<p>The room was in absolute darkness; and they
+were unable to see where the adversary was. But
+they felt his presence.</p>
+
+<p>They followed his invisible movements, the sound
+of his footsteps deadened by the carpet; and they
+did not doubt but that he had already crossed the
+threshold of the room.</p>
+
+<p>And the adversary stopped. Of that they were
+certain. He was standing six steps away from the
+bed, motionless, undecided perhaps, seeking to pierce
+the darkness with his keen eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Jeanne's hand, icy-cold and clammy, trembled in
+the doctor's grasp.</p>
+
+<p>With his other hand, the doctor clutched his
+revolver, with his finger on the trigger. In spite of
+his pledged word, he did not hesitate. If the adversary
+touched the end of the bed, the shot would be
+fired at a venture.</p>
+
+<p>The adversary took another step and then stopped
+again. And there was something awful about that
+silence, that impassive silence, that darkness in
+which those human beings were peering at one
+another, wildly.</p>
+
+<p>Who was it looming in the murky darkness?
+Who was the man? What horrible enmity was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+it that turned his hand against the girl and what
+abominable aim was he pursuing?</p>
+
+<p>Terrified though they were, Jeanne and the doctor
+thought only of that one thing: to see, to learn the
+truth, to gaze upon the adversary's face.</p>
+
+<p>He took one more step and did not move again.
+It seemed to them that his figure stood out, darker,
+against the dark space and that his arm rose slowly,
+slowly....</p>
+
+<p>A minute passed and then another minute....</p>
+
+<p>And, suddenly, beyond the man, on the right a
+sharp click.... A bright light flashed, was flung
+upon the man, lit him full in the face, remorselessly.</p>
+
+<p>Jeanne gave a cry of affright. She had seen&mdash;standing
+over her, with a dagger in his hand&mdash;she
+had seen ... her father!</p>
+
+<p>Almost at the same time, though the light was
+already turned off, there came a report: the doctor
+had fired.</p>
+
+<p>"Dash it all, don't shoot!" roared Lupin.</p>
+
+<p>He threw his arms round the doctor, who choked
+out:</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't you see?... Didn't you see?...
+Listen!... He's escaping!..."</p>
+
+<p>"Let him escape: it's the best thing that could
+happen."</p>
+
+<p>He pressed the spring of his electric lantern again,
+ran to the dressing-room, made certain that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+man had disappeared and, returning quietly to the
+table, lit the lamp.</p>
+
+<p>Jeanne lay on her bed, pallid, in a dead faint.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor, huddled in his chair, emitted inarticulate
+sounds.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said Lupin, laughing, "pull yourself
+together. There is nothing to excite ourselves about:
+it's all over."</p>
+
+<p>"Her father!... Her father!" moaned the
+old doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"If you please, doctor, Mlle. Darcieux is ill. Look
+after her."</p>
+
+<p>Without more words, Lupin went back to the
+dressing-room and stepped out on the window-ledge.
+A ladder stood against the ledge. He ran down it.
+Skirting the wall of the house, twenty steps farther,
+he tripped over the rungs of a rope-ladder, which he
+climbed and found himself in M. Darcieux's bedroom.
+The room was empty.</p>
+
+<p>"Just so," he said. "My gentleman did not
+like the position and has cleared out. Here's
+wishing him a good journey.... And, of course,
+the door is bolted?... Exactly!... That
+is how our sick man, tricking his worthy medical
+attendant, used to get up at night in full security,
+fasten his rope-ladder to the balcony and prepare his
+little games. He's no fool, is friend Darcieux!"</p>
+
+<p>He drew the bolts and returned to Jeanne's room.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>
+The doctor, who was just coming out of the doorway,
+drew him to the little dining-room:</p>
+
+<p>"She's asleep, don't let us disturb her. She has
+had a bad shock and will take some time to recover."</p>
+
+<p>Lupin poured himself out a glass of water and drank
+it down. Then he took a chair and, calmly:</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh! She'll be all right by to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"I say that she'll be all right by to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the first place, because it did not strike me
+that Mlle. Darcieux felt any very great affection for
+her father."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind! Think of it: a father who tries
+to kill his daughter! A father who, for months on
+end, repeats his monstrous attempt four, five, six
+times over again!... Well, isn't that enough to
+blight a less sensitive soul than Jeanne's for good and
+all? What a hateful memory!"</p>
+
+<p>"She will forget."</p>
+
+<p>"One does not forget such a thing as that."</p>
+
+<p>"She will forget, doctor, and for a very simple
+reason...."</p>
+
+<p>"Explain yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>"She is not M. Darcieux's daughter!"</p>
+
+<p>"Eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"I repeat, she is not that villain's daughter."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean? M. Darcieux...."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"M. Darcieux is only her step-father. She had
+just been born when her father, her real father, died.
+Jeanne's mother then married a cousin of her husband's,
+a man bearing the same name, and she died
+within a year of her second wedding. She left Jeanne
+in M. Darcieux's charge. He first took her abroad
+and then bought this country-house; and, as nobody
+knew him in the neighbourhood, he represented the
+child as being his daughter. She herself did not know
+the truth about her birth."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor sat confounded. He asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure of your facts?"</p>
+
+<p>"I spent my day in the town-halls of the Paris
+municipalities. I searched the registers, I interviewed
+two solicitors, I have seen all the documents.
+There is no doubt possible."</p>
+
+<p>"But that does not explain the crime, or rather the
+series of crimes."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it does," declared Lupin. "And, from
+the start, from the first hour when I meddled in this
+business, some words which Mlle. Darcieux used
+made me suspect that direction which my investigations
+must take. 'I was not quite five years old
+when my mother died,' she said. 'That was sixteen
+years ago.' Mlle. Darcieux, therefore, was nearly
+twenty-one, that is to say, she was on the verge of
+attaining her majority. I at once saw that this
+was an important detail. The day on which you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+reach your majority is the day on which your accounts
+are rendered. What was the financial position
+of Mlle. Darcieux, who was her mother's natural
+heiress? Of course, I did not think of the father
+for a second. To begin with, one can't imagine
+a thing like that; and then the farce which
+M. Darcieux was playing ... helpless, bedridden,
+ill...."</p>
+
+<p>"Really ill," interrupted the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"All this diverted suspicion from him ... the
+more so as I believe that he himself was exposed
+to criminal attacks. But was there not in the family
+some person who would be interested in their removal?
+My journey to Paris revealed the truth
+to me: Mlle. Darcieux inherits a large fortune from
+her mother, of which her step-father draws the
+income. The solicitor was to have called a meeting
+of the family in Paris next month. The truth would
+have been out. It meant ruin to M. Darcieux."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he had put no money by?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but he had lost a great deal as the result of
+unfortunate speculations."</p>
+
+<p>"But, after all, Jeanne would not have taken the
+management of her fortune out of his hands!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is one detail which you do not know,
+doctor, and which I learnt from reading the torn
+letter. Mlle. Darcieux is in love with the brother
+of Marceline, her Versailles friend; M. Darcieux<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+was opposed to the marriage; and&mdash;you now see the
+reason&mdash;she was waiting until she came of age to
+be married."</p>
+
+<p>"You're right," said the doctor, "you're right....
+It meant his ruin."</p>
+
+<p>"His absolute ruin. One chance of saving himself
+remained, the death of his step-daughter, of whom he
+is the next heir."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, but on condition that no one suspected
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course; and that is why he contrived the series
+of accidents, so that the death might appear to be
+due to misadventure. And that is why I, on my
+side, wishing to bring things to a head, asked you
+to tell him of Mlle. Darcieux's impending departure.
+From that moment, it was no longer enough
+for the would-be sick man to wander about the
+grounds and the passages, in the dark, and execute
+some leisurely thought-out plan. No, he had to
+act, to act at once, without preparation, violently,
+dagger in hand. I had no doubt that he would
+decide to do it. And he did."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he had no suspicions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of me, yes. He felt that I would return to-night,
+and he kept a watch at the place where I had already
+climbed the wall."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Lupin, laughing, "I received a bullet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+full in the chest ... or rather my pocket-book
+received a bullet.... Here, you can see the hole....
+So I tumbled from the tree, like a dead man.
+Thinking that he was rid of his only adversary, he
+went back to the house. I saw him prowl about for
+two hours. Then, making up his mind, he went to
+the coach-house, took a ladder and set it against the
+window. I had only to follow him."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor reflected and said:</p>
+
+<p>"You could have collared him earlier. Why did
+you let him come up? It was a sore trial for Jeanne ...
+and unnecessary."</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, it was indispensable! Mlle.
+Darcieux would never have accepted the truth.
+It was essential that she should see the murderer's
+very face. You must tell her all the circumstances
+when she wakes. She will soon be well again."</p>
+
+<p>"But ... M. Darcieux?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can explain his disappearance as you think
+best ... a sudden journey ... a fit of
+madness.... There will be a few inquiries....
+And you may be sure that he will never be
+heard of again."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor nodded his head:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes ... that is so ... that is so ...
+you are right. You have managed all this
+business with extraordinary skill; and Jeanne owes you
+her life. She will thank you in person.... But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+now, can I be of use to you in any way? You
+told me that you were connected with the detective-service....
+Will you allow me to write and
+praise your conduct, your courage?"</p>
+
+<p>Lupin began to laugh:</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly! A letter of that kind will do me a
+world of good. You might write to my immediate
+superior, Chief-inspector Ganimard. He will be
+glad to hear that his favourite officer, Paul Daubreuil,
+of the Rue de Surène, has once again distinguished
+himself by a brilliant action. As it happens, I have
+an appointment to meet him about a case of which
+you may have heard: the case of the red scarf....
+How pleased my dear M. Ganimard will be!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">A TRAGEDY IN THE FOREST OF
+MORGUES</h3>
+
+
+<p>The village was terror-stricken.</p>
+
+<p>It was on a Sunday morning. The peasants of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+Saint-Nicolas and the neighbourhood were coming
+out of church and spreading across the square, when,
+suddenly, the women who were walking ahead and
+who had already turned into the high-road fell back
+with loud cries of dismay.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment, an enormous motor-car,
+looking like some appalling monster, came tearing
+into sight at a headlong rate of speed. Amid the
+shouts of the madly scattering people, it made
+straight for the church, swerved, just as it seemed
+about to dash itself to pieces against the steps,
+grazed the wall of the presbytery, regained the
+continuation of the national road, dashed along,
+turned the corner and disappeared, without, by
+some incomprehensible miracle, having so much as
+brushed against any of the persons crowding the
+square.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But they had seen! They had seen a man in the
+driver's seat, wrapped in a goat-skin coat, with a
+fur cap on his head and his face disguised in a pair
+of large goggles, and, with him, on the front of
+that seat, flung back, bent in two, a woman whose
+head, all covered with blood, hung down over the
+bonnet....</p>
+
+<p>And they had heard! They had heard the
+woman's screams, screams of horror, screams of
+agony....</p>
+
+<p>And it was all such a vision of hell and carnage
+that the people stood, for some seconds, motionless,
+stupefied.</p>
+
+<p>"Blood!" roared somebody.</p>
+
+<p>There was blood everywhere, on the cobblestones
+of the square, on the ground hardened by
+the first frosts of autumn; and, when a number
+of men and boys rushed off in pursuit of the motor,
+they had but to take those sinister marks for their
+guide.</p>
+
+<p>The marks, on their part, followed the high-road,
+but in a very strange manner, going from one side
+to the other and leaving a zigzag track, in the wake
+of the tires, that made those who saw it shudder.
+How was it that the car had not bumped against
+that tree? How had it been righted, instead of
+smashing into that bank? What novice, what
+madman, what drunkard, what frightened criminal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+was driving that motor-car with such astounding
+bounds and swerves?</p>
+
+<p>One of the peasants declared:</p>
+
+<p>"They will never do the turn in the forest."</p>
+
+<p>And another said:</p>
+
+<p>"Of course they won't! She's bound to upset!"</p>
+
+<p>The Forest of Morgues began at half a mile beyond
+Saint-Nicolas; and the road, which was
+straight up to that point, except for a slight
+bend where it left the village, started climbing,
+immediately after entering the forest, and made
+an abrupt turn among the rocks and trees. No
+motor-car was able to take this turn without first
+slackening speed. There were posts to give notice
+of the danger.</p>
+
+<p>The breathless peasants reached the quincunx of
+beeches that formed the edge of the forest. And one
+of them at once cried:</p>
+
+<p>"There you are!"</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Upset!"</p>
+
+<p>The car, a limousine, had turned turtle and lay
+smashed, twisted and shapeless. Beside it, the
+woman's dead body. But the most horrible, sordid,
+stupefying thing was the woman's head, crushed,
+flattened, invisible under a block of stone, a huge
+block of stone lodged there by some unknown and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+prodigious agency. As for the man in the goat-skin
+coat he was nowhere to be found.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>He was not found on the scene of the accident.
+He was not found either in the neighbourhood.
+Moreover, some workmen coming down the Côte
+de Morgues declared that they had not seen anybody.</p>
+
+<p>The man, therefore, had taken refuge in the
+woods.</p>
+
+<p>The gendarmes, who were at once sent for, made a
+minute search, assisted by the peasants, but discovered
+nothing. In the same way, the examining-magistrates,
+after a close inquiry lasting for several
+days, found no clue capable of throwing the least
+light upon this inscrutable tragedy. On the contrary,
+the investigations only led to further mysteries
+and further improbabilities.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it was ascertained that the block of stone
+came from where there had been a landslip, at least
+forty yards away. And the murderer, in a few
+minutes, had carried it all that distance and flung it
+on his victim's head.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, the murderer, who was most
+certainly not hiding in the forest&mdash;for, if so, he must
+inevitably have been discovered, the forest being
+of limited extent&mdash;had the audacity, eight days
+after the crime, to come back to the turn on the
+hill and leave his goat-skin coat there. Why?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+With what object? There was nothing in the pockets
+of the coat, except a corkscrew and a napkin. What
+did it all mean?</p>
+
+<p>Inquiries were made of the builder of the motor-car,
+who recognized the limousine as one which he
+had sold, three years ago, to a Russian. The said
+Russian, declared the manufacturer, had sold it
+again at once. To whom? No one knew. The car
+bore no number.</p>
+
+<p>Then again, it was impossible to identify the dead
+woman's body. Her clothes and underclothing
+were not marked in any way. And the face was quite
+unknown.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, detectives were going along the national
+road in the direction opposite to that taken by
+the actors in this mysterious tragedy. But who was
+to prove that the car had followed that particular
+road on the previous night?</p>
+
+<p>They examined every yard of the ground, they
+questioned everybody. At last, they succeeded in
+learning that, on the Saturday evening, a limousine
+had stopped outside a grocer's shop in a small town
+situated about two hundred miles from Saint-Nicolas,
+on a highway branching out of the national road.
+The driver had first filled his tank, bought some
+spare cans of petrol and lastly taken away a small
+stock of provisions: a ham, fruit, biscuits, wine and a
+half-bottle of Three Star brandy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was a lady on the driver's seat. She did
+not get down. The blinds of the limousine were
+drawn. One of these blinds was seen to move several
+times. The shopman was positive that there was
+somebody inside.</p>
+
+<p>Presuming the shopman's evidence to be correct,
+then the problem became even more complicated,
+for, so far, no clue had revealed the presence of a
+third person.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, as the travellers had supplied themselves
+with provisions, it remained to be discovered
+what they had done with them and what had become
+of the remains.</p>
+
+<p>The detectives retraced their steps. It was not
+until they came to the fork of the two roads, at a
+spot eleven or twelve miles from Saint-Nicolas, that
+they met a shepherd who, in answer to their questions,
+directed them to a neighbouring field, hidden
+from view behind the screen of bushes, where he
+had seen an empty bottle and other things.</p>
+
+<p>The detectives were convinced at the first examination.
+The motor-car had stopped there; and
+the unknown travellers, probably after a night's
+rest in their car, had breakfasted and resumed their
+journey in the course of the morning.</p>
+
+<p>One unmistakable proof was the half-bottle of
+Three Star brandy sold by the grocer. This bottle
+had its neck broken clean off with a stone. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+stone employed for the purpose was picked up, as
+was the neck of the bottle, with its cork, covered
+with a tin-foil seal. The seal showed marks of
+attempts that had been made to uncork the bottle
+in the ordinary manner.</p>
+
+<p>The detectives continued their search and followed
+a ditch that ran along the field at right angles to the
+road. It ended in a little spring, hidden under
+brambles, which seemed to emit an offensive smell.
+On lifting the brambles, they perceived a corpse,
+the corpse of a man whose head had been smashed
+in, so that it formed little more than a sort of pulp,
+swarming with vermin. The body was dressed in
+jacket and trousers of dark-brown leather. The
+pockets were empty: no papers, no pocket-book,
+no watch.</p>
+
+<p>The grocer and his shopman were summoned and,
+two days later, formally identified, by his dress and
+figure, the traveller who had bought the petrol and
+provisions on the Saturday evening.</p>
+
+<p>The whole case, therefore, had to be reopened on
+a fresh basis. The authorities were confronted with
+a tragedy no longer enacted by two persons, a man
+and a woman, of whom one had killed the other, but
+by three persons, including two victims, of whom one
+was the very man who was accused of killing his
+companion.</p>
+
+<p>As to the murderer, there was no doubt: he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+the person who travelled inside the motor-car and
+who took the precaution to remain concealed behind
+the curtains. He had first got rid of the driver and
+rifled his pockets and then, after wounding the
+woman, carried her off in a mad dash for death.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>Given a fresh case, unexpected discoveries,
+unforeseen evidence, one might have hoped that
+the mystery would be cleared up, or, at least, that
+the inquiry would point a few steps along the road
+to the truth. But not at all. The corpse was
+simply placed beside the first corpse. New problems
+were added to the old. The accusation of
+murder was shifted from the one to the other. And
+there it ended. Outside those tangible, obvious
+facts there was nothing but darkness. The name
+of the woman, the name of the man, the name of
+the murderer were so many riddles. And then
+what had become of the murderer? If he had
+disappeared from one moment to the other,
+that in itself would have been a tolerably curious
+phenomenon. But the phenomenon was actually
+something very like a miracle, inasmuch as the
+murderer had not absolutely disappeared. He was
+there! He made a practice of returning to the
+scene of the catastrophe! In addition to the goat-skin
+coat, a fur cap was picked up one day; and,
+by way of an unparalleled prodigy, one morning,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+after a whole night spent on guard in the rock, beside
+the famous turning, the detectives found, on the
+grass of the turning itself, a pair of motor-goggles,
+broken, rusty, dirty, done for. How had the murderer
+managed to bring back those goggles unseen
+by the detectives? And, above all, why had he
+brought them back?</p>
+
+<p>Men's brains reeled in the presence of such abnormalities.
+They were almost afraid to pursue
+the ambiguous adventure. They received the impression
+of a heavy, stifling, breathless atmosphere,
+which dimmed the eyes and baffled the most clear-sighted.</p>
+
+<p>The magistrate in charge of the case fell ill. Four
+days later, his successor confessed that the matter
+was beyond him.</p>
+
+<p>Two tramps were arrested and at once released.
+Another was pursued, but not caught; moreover,
+there was no evidence of any sort or kind against
+him. In short, it was nothing but one helpless
+muddle of mist and contradiction.</p>
+
+<p>An accident, the merest accident led to the
+solution, or rather produced a series of circumstances
+that ended by leading to the solution. A
+reporter on the staff of an important Paris paper,
+who had been sent to make investigations on
+the spot, concluded his article with the following
+words:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I repeat, therefore, that we must wait for fresh
+events, fresh facts; we must wait for some lucky
+accident. As things stand, we are simply wasting
+our time. The elements of truth are not even sufficient
+to suggest a plausible theory. We are in
+the midst of the most absolute, painful, impenetrable
+darkness. There is nothing to be done. All
+the Sherlock Holmeses in the world would not know
+what to make of the mystery, and Arsène Lupin
+himself, if he will allow me to say so, would have to
+pay forfeit here."</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>On the day after the appearance of that article,
+the newspaper in question printed this telegram:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"Have sometimes paid forfeit, but never over such
+a silly thing as this. The Saint-Nicolas tragedy is a
+mystery for babies.</p>
+
+<p style="font-variant: small-caps; margin-left: 40em;">"Arsène Lupin."</p></div>
+
+<p>And the editor added:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"We insert this telegram as a matter of curiosity,
+for it is obviously the work of a wag. Arsène Lupin,
+past-master though he be in the art of practical
+joking, would be the last man to display such childish
+flippancy."</p></div>
+
+<p>Two days elapsed; and then the paper published
+the famous letter, so precise and categorical in its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+conclusions, in which Arsène Lupin furnished the
+solution of the problem. I quote it in full:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>
+"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>:
+</p>
+
+<p>"You have taken me on my weak side by defying
+me. You challenge me, and I accept the
+challenge. And I will begin by declaring once more
+that the Saint-Nicolas tragedy is a mystery for
+babies. I know nothing so simple, so natural; and
+the proof of the simplicity shall lie in the succinctness
+of my demonstration. It is contained in these
+few words: when a crime seems to go beyond the
+ordinary scope of things, when it seems unusual and
+stupid, then there are many chances that its explanation
+is to be found in superordinary, supernatural,
+superhuman motives.</p>
+
+<p>"I say that there are many chances, for we must
+always allow for the part played by absurdity in the
+most logical and commonplace events. But, of
+course, it is impossible to see things as they are and
+not to take account of the absurd and the disproportionate.</p>
+
+<p>"I was struck from the very beginning by that
+very evident character of unusualness. We have,
+first of all, the awkward, zigzag course of the motor-car,
+which would give one the impression that the
+car was driven by a novice. People have spoken
+of a drunkard or a madman, a justifiable supposition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+in itself. But neither madness nor drunkenness
+would account for the incredible strength required
+to transport, especially in so short a space of
+time, the stone with which the unfortunate woman's
+head was crushed. That proceeding called for a
+muscular power so great that I do not hesitate to
+look upon it as a second sign of the unusualness
+that marks the whole tragedy. And why move
+that enormous stone, to finish off the victim,
+when a mere pebble would have done the work?
+Why again was the murderer not killed, or at least
+reduced to a temporary state of helplessness,
+in the terrible somersault turned by the car? How
+did he disappear? And why, having disappeared,
+did he return to the scene of the accident?
+Why did he throw his fur coat there; then, on another
+day, his cap; then, on another day, his goggles?</p>
+
+<p>"Unusual, useless, stupid acts.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, besides, convey that wounded, dying
+woman on the driver's seat of the car, where everybody
+could see her? Why do that, instead of
+putting her inside, or flinging her into some corner,
+dead, just as the man was flung under the brambles
+in the ditch?</p>
+
+<p>"Unusualness, stupidity.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything in the whole story is absurd.
+Everything points to hesitation, incoherency, awk<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>wardness,
+the silliness of a child or rather of a mad,
+blundering savage, of a brute.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at the bottle of brandy. There was a
+corkscrew: it was found in the pocket of the great
+coat. Did the murderer use it? Yes, the marks
+of the corkscrew can be seen on the seal. But
+the operation was too complicated for him.
+He broke the neck with a stone. Always stones:
+observe that detail. They are the only weapon,
+the only implement which the creature employs.
+It is his customary weapon, his familiar implement.
+He kills the man with a stone, he kills
+the woman with a stone and he opens bottles with a
+stone!</p>
+
+<p>"A brute, I repeat, a savage; disordered, unhinged,
+suddenly driven mad. By what? Why,
+of course, by that same brandy, which he swallowed
+at a draught while the driver and his companion
+were having breakfast in the field. He got out of
+the limousine, in which he was travelling, in his
+goat-skin coat and his fur cap, took the bottle, broke
+off the neck and drank. There is the whole story.
+Having drunk, he went raving mad and hit out at
+random, without reason. Then, seized with instinctive
+fear, dreading the inevitable punishment,
+he hid the body of the man. Then, like an idiot,
+he took up the wounded woman and ran away.
+He ran away in that motor-car which he did not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+know how to work, but which to him represented
+safety, escape from capture.</p>
+
+<p>"But the money, you will ask, the stolen pocket-book?
+Why, who says that he was the thief? Who
+says that it was not some passing tramp, some labourer,
+guided by the stench of the corpse?</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, you object, but the brute would have
+been found, as he is hiding somewhere near the turn,
+and as, after all, he must eat and drink.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, I see that you have not yet understood.
+The simplest way, I suppose, to have done
+and to answer your objections is to make straight
+for the mark. Then let the gentlemen of the police
+and the gendarmerie themselves make straight for
+the mark. Let them take firearms. Let them explore
+the forest within a radius of two or three
+hundred yards from the turn, no more. But,
+instead of exploring with their heads down and
+their eyes fixed on the ground, let them look
+up into the air, yes, into the air, among the
+leaves and branches of the tallest oaks and the
+most unlikely beeches. And, believe me, they
+will see him. For he is there. He is there,
+bewildered, piteously at a loss, seeking for the man
+and woman whom he has killed, looking for them
+and waiting for them and not daring to go away and
+quite unable to understand.</p>
+
+<p>"I myself am exceedingly sorry that I am kept<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+in town by urgent private affairs and by some
+complicated matters of business which I have to set
+going, for I should much have liked to see the end
+of this rather curious adventure.</p>
+
+<p>"Pray, therefore excuse me to my kind friends in
+the police and permit me to be, sir,</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 33em; margin-top: 1em;">"Your obedient servant,</p>
+
+<p style="font-variant: small-caps; margin-left: 38em; margin-top: .5em;">"Arsène Lupin."</p></div>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>The upshot will be remembered. The "gentlemen
+of the police and the gendarmerie" shrugged
+their shoulders and paid no attention to this lucubration.
+But four of the local country gentry
+took their rifles and went shooting, with their eyes
+fixed skyward, as though they meant to pot a few
+rooks. In half an hour they had caught sight of the
+murderer. Two shots, and he came tumbling from
+bough to bough. He was only wounded, and they
+took him alive.</p>
+
+<p>That evening, a Paris paper, which did not yet
+know of the capture, printed the following paragraphs:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"Enquiries are being made after a M. and Mme.
+Bragoff, who landed at Marseilles six weeks ago and
+there hired a motor-car. They had been living in
+Australia for many years, during which time they
+had not visited Europe; and they wrote to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+director of the Jardin d'Acclimatation, with whom
+they were in the habit of corresponding, that they
+were bringing with them a curious creature, of an
+entirely unknown species, of which it was difficult to
+say whether it was a man or a monkey.</p>
+
+<p>"According to M. Bragoff, who is an eminent
+archæologist, the specimen in question is the anthropoid
+ape, or rather the ape-man, the existence
+of which had not hitherto been definitely proved.
+The structure is said to be exactly similar to that of
+<i>Pithecanthropus erectus</i>, discovered by Dr. Dubois
+in Java in 1891.</p>
+
+<p>"This curious, intelligent and observant animal
+acted as its owner's servant on their property in
+Australia and used to clean their motor-car and even
+attempt to drive it.</p>
+
+<p>"The question that is being asked is where are
+M. and Mme. Bragoff? Where is the strange primate
+that landed with them at Marseilles?"</p></div>
+
+<p>The answer to this question was now made easy.
+Thanks to the hints supplied by Arsène Lupin, all
+the elements of the tragedy were known. Thanks
+to him, the culprit was in the hands of the law.</p>
+
+<p>You can see him at the Jardin d'Acclimatation,
+where he is locked up under the name of "Three
+Stars." He is, in point of fact, a monkey; but he
+is also a man. He has the gentleness and the wisdom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
+of the domestic animals and the sadness which they
+feel when their master dies. But he has many other
+qualities that bring him much closer to humanity:
+he is treacherous, cruel, idle, greedy and quarrelsome;
+and, above all, he is immoderately fond of
+brandy.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from that, he is a monkey. Unless indeed ...!</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>A few days after Three Stars' arrest, I saw Arsène
+Lupin standing in front of his cage. Lupin was
+manifestly trying to solve this interesting problem
+for himself. I at once said, for I had set my heart
+upon having the matter out with him:</p>
+
+<p>"You know, Lupin, that intervention of yours,
+your argument, your letter, in short, did not surprise
+me so much as you might think!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, really?" he said, calmly. "And why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Because the incident has occurred
+before, seventy or eighty years ago. Edgar Allan
+Poe made it the subject of one of his finest tales.
+In those circumstances, the key to the riddle was
+easy enough to find."</p>
+
+<p>Arsène Lupin took my arm, and walking away
+with me, said:</p>
+
+<p>"When did you guess it, yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"On reading your letter," I confessed.</p>
+
+<p>"And at what part of my letter?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"At the end."</p>
+
+<p>"At the end, eh? After I had dotted all the
+i's. So here is a crime which accident causes to be
+repeated, under quite different conditions, it is
+true, but still with the same sort of hero; and your
+eyes had to be opened, as well as other people's. It
+needed the assistance of my letter, the letter in
+which I amused myself&mdash;apart from the exigencies
+of the facts&mdash;by employing the argument and sometimes
+the identical words used by the American
+poet in a story which everybody has read. So you
+see that my letter was not absolutely useless and that
+one may safely venture to repeat to people things
+which they have learnt only to forget them."</p>
+
+<p>Wherewith Lupin turned on his heel and burst
+out laughing in the face of an old monkey, who sat
+with the air of a philosopher, gravely meditating.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">LUPIN'S MARRIAGE</h3>
+
+
+<div class="blockquote" style="margin-top: -.5em;"><p>"Monsieur Arsène Lupin has the honour to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
+inform you of his approaching marriage with Mademoiselle
+Angélique de Sarzeau-Vendôme, Princesse
+de Bourbon-Condé, and to request the pleasure of
+your company at the wedding, which will take place
+at the church of Sainte-Clotilde...."</p>
+
+<p style="margin-top: 1.5em;">"The Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme has the honour
+to inform you of the approaching marriage of his
+daughter Angélique, Princesse de Bourbon-Condé,
+with Monsieur Arsène Lupin, and to request...."</p></div>
+
+<p>Jean Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme could not finish
+reading the invitations which he held in his trembling
+hand. Pale with anger, his long, lean body
+shaking with tremors:</p>
+
+<p>"There!" he gasped, handing the two communications
+to his daughter. "This is what our friends
+have received! This has been the talk of Paris
+since yesterday! What do you say to that dastardly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
+insult, Angélique? What would your poor mother
+say to it, if she were alive?"</p>
+
+<p>Angélique was tall and thin like her father, skinny
+and angular like him. She was thirty-three years
+of age, always dressed in black stuff, shy and retiring
+in manner, with a head too small in proportion
+to her height and narrowed on either side
+until the nose seemed to jut forth in protest
+against such parsimony. And yet it would be
+impossible to say that she was ugly, for her eyes
+were extremely beautiful, soft and grave, proud and
+a little sad: pathetic eyes which to see once was
+to remember.</p>
+
+<p>She flushed with shame at hearing her father's
+words, which told her the scandal of which she
+was the victim. But, as she loved him, notwithstanding
+his harshness to her, his injustice and
+despotism, she said:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I think it must be meant for a joke, father,
+to which we need pay no attention!"</p>
+
+<p>"A joke? Why, every one is gossiping about it!
+A dozen papers have printed the confounded notice
+this morning, with satirical comments. They quote
+our pedigree, our ancestors, our illustrious dead.
+They pretend to take the thing seriously...."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, no one could believe...."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. But that doesn't prevent us
+from being the by-word of Paris."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It will all be forgotten by to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow, my girl, people will remember that
+the name of Angélique de Sarzeau-Vendôme has
+been bandied about as it should not be. Oh, if
+I could find out the name of the scoundrel who has
+dared...."</p>
+
+<p>At that moment, Hyacinthe, the duke's valet,
+came in and said that monsieur le duc was wanted
+on the telephone. Still fuming, he took down the
+receiver and growled:</p>
+
+<p>"Well? Who is it? Yes, it's the Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme
+speaking."</p>
+
+<p>A voice replied:</p>
+
+<p>"I want to apologize to you, monsieur le duc,
+and to Mlle. Angélique. It's my secretary's fault."</p>
+
+<p>"Your secretary?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the invitations were only a rough draft
+which I meant to submit to you. Unfortunately
+my secretary thought...."</p>
+
+<p>"But, tell me, monsieur, who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"What, monsieur le duc, don't you know my
+voice? The voice of your future son-in-law?"</p>
+
+<p>"What!"</p>
+
+<p>"Arsène Lupin."</p>
+
+<p>The duke dropped into a chair. His face was
+livid.</p>
+
+<p>"Arsène Lupin ... it's he ... Arsène
+Lupin...."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Angélique gave a smile:</p>
+
+<p>"You see, father, it's only a joke, a hoax."</p>
+
+<p>But the duke's rage broke out afresh and he
+began to walk up and down, moving his arms:</p>
+
+<p>"I shall go to the police!... The fellow can't
+be allowed to make a fool of me in this way!...
+If there's any law left in the land, it must be
+stopped!"</p>
+
+<p>Hyacinthe entered the room again. He brought
+two visiting-cards.</p>
+
+<p>"Chotois? Lepetit? Don't know them."</p>
+
+<p>"They are both journalists, monsieur le duc."</p>
+
+<p>"What do they want?"</p>
+
+<p>"They would like to speak to monsieur le duc
+with regard to ... the marriage...."</p>
+
+<p>"Turn them out!" exclaimed the duke. "Kick
+them out! And tell the porter not to admit scum
+of that sort to my house in future."</p>
+
+<p>"Please, father ..." Angélique ventured to say.</p>
+
+<p>"As for you, shut up! If you had consented to
+marry one of your cousins when I wanted you to
+this wouldn't have happened."</p>
+
+<p>The same evening, one of the two reporters printed,
+on the front page of his paper, a somewhat fanciful
+story of his expedition to the family mansion
+of the Sarzeau-Vendômes, in the Rue de Varennes,
+and expatiated pleasantly upon the old nobleman's
+wrathful protests.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The next morning, another newspaper published
+an interview with Arsène Lupin which was supposed
+to have taken place in a lobby at the Opera. Arsène
+Lupin retorted in a letter to the editor:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"I share my prospective father-in-law's indignation
+to the full. The sending out of the invitations
+was a gross breach of etiquette for which I am not
+responsible, but for which I wish to make a public
+apology. Why, sir, the date of the marriage is not
+yet fixed. My bride's father suggests early in May.
+She and I think that six weeks is really too long
+to wait!..."</p></div>
+
+<p>That which gave a special piquancy to the affair
+and added immensely to the enjoyment of the friends
+of the family was the duke's well-known character:
+his pride and the uncompromising nature of his
+ideas and principles. Duc Jean was the last descendant
+of the Barons de Sarzeau, the most ancient
+family in Brittany; he was the lineal descendant of
+that Sarzeau who, upon marrying a Vendôme, refused
+to bear the new title which Louis XV forced
+upon him until after he had been imprisoned for ten
+years in the Bastille; and he had abandoned none
+of the prejudices of the old régime. In his youth,
+he followed the Comte de Chambord into exile.
+In his old age, he refused a seat in the Chamber on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+the pretext that a Sarzeau could only sit with his
+peers.</p>
+
+<p>The incident stung him to the quick. Nothing
+could pacify him. He cursed Lupin in good round
+terms, threatened him with every sort of punishment
+and rounded on his daughter:</p>
+
+<p>"There, if you had only married!... After all
+you had plenty of chances. Your three cousins,
+Mussy, d'Emboise and Caorches, are noblemen of
+good descent, allied to the best families, fairly well-off;
+and they are still anxious to marry you. Why
+do you refuse them? Ah, because miss is a dreamer,
+a sentimentalist; and because her cousins are too
+fat, or too thin, or too coarse for her...."</p>
+
+<p>She was, in fact, a dreamer. Left to her own
+devices from childhood, she had read all the books
+of chivalry, all the colourless romances of olden-time
+that littered the ancestral presses; and she
+looked upon life as a fairy-tale in which the beauteous
+maidens are always happy, while the others
+wait till death for the bridegroom who does not come.
+Why should she marry one of her cousins when they
+were only after her money, the millions which she
+had inherited from her mother? She might as well
+remain an old maid and go on dreaming....</p>
+
+<p>She answered, gently:</p>
+
+<p>"You will end by making yourself ill, father.
+Forget this silly business."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But how could he forget it? Every morning,
+some pin-prick renewed his wound. Three days
+running, Angélique received a wonderful sheaf of
+flowers, with Arsène Lupin's card peeping from it.
+The duke could not go to his club but a friend
+accosted him:</p>
+
+<p>"That was a good one to-day!"</p>
+
+<p>"What was?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, your son-in-law's latest! Haven't you
+seen it? Here, read it for yourself: 'M. Arsène
+Lupin is petitioning the Council of State for permission
+to add his wife's name to his own and to be
+known henceforth as Lupin de Sarzeau-Vendôme.'"</p>
+
+<p>And, the next day, he read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"As the young bride, by virtue of an unrepealed
+decree of Charles X, bears the title and arms of
+the Bourbon-Condés, of whom she is the heiress-of-line,
+the eldest son of the Lupins de Sarzeau-Vendôme
+will be styled Prince de Bourbon-Condé."</p></div>
+
+<p>And, the day after, an advertisement.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"Exhibition of Mlle. de Sarzeau-Vendôme's trousseau
+at Messrs. &mdash;&mdash;'s Great Linen Warehouse.
+Each article marked with initials L. S. V."</p></div>
+
+<p>Then an illustrated paper published a photographic
+scene: the duke, his daughter and his son-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>in-law
+sitting at a table playing three-handed
+auction-bridge.</p>
+
+<p>And the date also was announced with a great
+flourish of trumpets: the 4th of May.</p>
+
+<p>And particulars were given of the marriage-settlement.
+Lupin showed himself wonderfully disinterested.
+He was prepared to sign, the newspapers
+said, with his eyes closed, without knowing
+the figure of the dowry.</p>
+
+<p>All these things drove the old duke crazy. His
+hatred of Lupin assumed morbid proportions. Much
+as it went against the grain, he called on the prefect
+of police, who advised him to be on his
+guard:</p>
+
+<p>"We know the gentleman's ways; he is employing
+one of his favourite dodges. Forgive the expression,
+monsieur le duc, but he is 'nursing' you. Don't
+fall into the trap."</p>
+
+<p>"What dodge? What trap?" asked the duke,
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"He is trying to make you lose your head and to
+lead you, by intimidation, to do something which
+you would refuse to do in cold blood."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, M. Arsène Lupin can hardly hope that I
+will offer him my daughter's hand!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but he hopes that you will commit, to put
+it mildly, a blunder."</p>
+
+<p>"What blunder?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Exactly that blunder which he wants you to
+commit."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you think, monsieur le préfet ...?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think the best thing you can do, monsieur le
+duc, is to go home, or, if all this excitement worries
+you, to run down to the country and stay there
+quietly, without upsetting yourself."</p>
+
+<p>This conversation only increased the old duke's
+fears. Lupin appeared to him in the light of a
+terrible person, who employed diabolical methods
+and kept accomplices in every sphere of society.
+Prudence was the watchword.</p>
+
+<p>And life, from that moment, became intolerable.
+The duke grew more crabbed and silent than ever
+and denied his door to all his old friends and even to
+Angélique's three suitors, her Cousins de Mussy,
+d'Emboise and de Caorches, who were none of them
+on speaking terms with the others, in consequence
+of their rivalry, and who were in the habit of calling,
+turn and turn about, every week.</p>
+
+<p>For no earthly reason, he dismissed his butler and
+his coachman. But he dared not fill their places,
+for fear of engaging creatures of Arsène Lupin's;
+and his own man, Hyacinthe, in whom he had
+every confidence, having had him in his service
+for over forty years, had to take upon himself the
+laborious duties of the stables and the pantry.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, father," said Angélique, trying to make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+him listen to common-sense. "I really can't see
+what you are afraid of. No one can force me into
+this ridiculous marriage."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, of course, that's not what I'm afraid of."</p>
+
+<p>"What then, father?"</p>
+
+<p>"How can I tell? An abduction! A burglary!
+An act of violence! There is no doubt that the
+villain is scheming something; and there is also
+no doubt that we are surrounded by spies."</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon, he received a newspaper in which
+the following paragraph was marked in red pencil:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"The signing of the marriage-contract is fixed
+for this evening, at the Sarzeau-Vendôme town-house.
+It will be quite a private ceremony and
+only a few privileged friends will be present to
+congratulate the happy pair. The witnesses to
+the contract on behalf of Mlle. de Sarzeau-Vendôme,
+the Prince de la Rochefoucauld-Limours and the
+Comte de Chartres, will be introduced by M. Arsène
+Lupin to the two gentlemen who have claimed the
+honour of acting as his groomsmen, namely, the
+prefect of police and the governor of the Santé
+Prison."</p></div>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later, the duke sent his servant
+Hyacinthe to the post with three express messages.
+At four o'clock, in Angélique's presence, he saw the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+three cousins: Mussy, fat, heavy, pasty-faced; d'Emboise,
+slender, fresh-coloured and shy: Caorches,
+short, thin and unhealthy-looking: all three, old
+bachelors by this time, lacking distinction in dress
+or appearance.</p>
+
+<p>The meeting was a short one. The duke had
+worked out his whole plan of campaign, a defensive
+campaign, of which he set forth the first stage in
+explicit terms:</p>
+
+<p>"Angélique and I will leave Paris to-night for
+our place in Brittany. I rely on you, my three
+nephews, to help us get away. You, d'Emboise,
+will come and fetch us in your car, with the hood up.
+You, Mussy, will bring your big motor and kindly
+see to the luggage with Hyacinthe, my man. You,
+Caorches, will go to the Gare d'Orléans and book
+our berths in the sleeping-car for Vannes by the
+10.40 train. Is that settled?"</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the day passed without incident.
+The duke, to avoid any accidental indiscretion,
+waited until after dinner to tell Hyacinthe to pack
+a trunk and a portmanteau. Hyacinthe was to
+accompany them, as well as Angélique's maid.</p>
+
+<p>At nine o'clock, all the other servants went to bed,
+by their master's order. At ten minutes to ten,
+the duke, who was completing his preparations,
+heard the sound of a motor-horn. The porter
+opened the gates of the courtyard. The duke,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+standing at the window, recognized d'Emboise's landaulette:</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him I shall be down presently," he said to
+Hyacinthe, "and let mademoiselle know."</p>
+
+<p>In a few minutes, as Hyacinthe did not return,
+he left his room. But he was attacked on the landing
+by two masked men, who gagged and bound him
+before he could utter a cry. And one of the men
+said to him, in a low voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Take this as a first warning, monsieur le duc.
+If you persist in leaving Paris and refusing your
+consent, it will be a more serious matter."</p>
+
+<p>And the same man said to his companion:</p>
+
+<p>"Keep an eye on him. I will see to the young
+lady."</p>
+
+<p>By that time, two other confederates had secured
+the lady's maid; and Angélique, herself gagged, lay
+fainting on a couch in her boudoir.</p>
+
+<p>She came to almost immediately, under the
+stimulus of a bottle of salts held to her nostrils;
+and, when she opened her eyes, she saw bending
+over her a young man, in evening-clothes, with a
+smiling and friendly face, who said:</p>
+
+<p>"I implore your forgiveness, mademoiselle. All
+these happenings are a trifle sudden and this behaviour
+rather out of the way. But circumstances
+often compel us to deeds of which our conscience
+does not approve. Pray pardon me."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He took her hand very gently and slipped a broad
+gold ring on the girl's finger, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"There, now we are engaged. Never forget
+the man who gave you this ring. He entreats you
+not to run away from him ... and to stay in
+Paris and await the proofs of his devotion. Have
+faith in him."</p>
+
+<p>He said all this in so serious and respectful a
+voice, with so much authority and deference, that
+she had not the strength to resist. Their eyes met.
+He whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"The exquisite purity of your eyes! It would
+be heavenly to live with those eyes upon one. Now
+close them...."</p>
+
+<p>He withdrew. His accomplices followed suit.
+The car drove off, and the house in the Rue de
+Varennes remained still and silent until the moment
+when Angélique, regaining complete consciousness,
+called out for the servants.</p>
+
+<p>They found the duke, Hyacinthe, the lady's maid
+and the porter and his wife all tightly bound. A few
+priceless ornaments had disappeared, as well as
+the duke's pocket-book and all his jewellery; tie
+pins, pearl studs, watch and so on.</p>
+
+<p>The police were advised without delay. In the
+morning it appeared that, on the evening before,
+d'Emboise, when leaving his house in the motor-car,
+was stabbed by his own chauffeur and thrown,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+half-dead, into a deserted street. Mussy and
+Caorches had each received a telephone-message,
+purporting to come from the duke, countermanding
+their attendance.</p>
+
+<p>Next week, without troubling further about the
+police investigation, without obeying the summons
+of the examining-magistrate, without even reading
+Arsène Lupin's letters to the papers on "the Varennes
+Flight," the duke, his daughter and his
+valet stealthily took a slow train for Vannes and
+arrived one evening, at the old feudal castle that
+towers over the headland of Sarzeau. The duke at
+once organized a defence with the aid of the Breton
+peasants, true mediæval vassals to a man. On the
+fourth day, Mussy arrived; on the fifth, Caorches;
+and, on the seventh, d'Emboise, whose wound was
+not as severe as had been feared.</p>
+
+<p>The duke waited two days longer before communicating
+to those about him what, now that
+his escape had succeeded in spite of Lupin, he called
+the second part of his plan. He did so, in the
+presence of the three cousins, by a dictatorial order
+to Angélique, expressed in these peremptory terms:</p>
+
+<p>"All this bother is upsetting me terribly. I have
+entered on a struggle with this man whose daring
+you have seen for yourself; and the struggle is killing
+me. I want to end it at all costs. There is
+only one way of doing so, Angélique, and that is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+for you to release me from all responsibility by
+accepting the hand of one of your cousins. Before
+a month is out, you must be the wife of Mussy,
+Caorches or d'Emboise. You have a free choice.
+Make your decision."</p>
+
+<p>For four whole days Angélique wept and entreated
+her father, but in vain. She felt that he would be
+inflexible and that she must end by submitting to
+his wishes. She accepted:</p>
+
+<p>"Whichever you please, father. I love none of
+them. So I may as well be unhappy with one as
+with the other."</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon a fresh discussion ensued, as the duke
+wanted to compel her to make her own choice.
+She stood firm. Reluctantly and for financial considerations,
+he named d'Emboise.</p>
+
+<p>The banns were published without delay.</p>
+
+<p>From that moment, the watch in and around the
+castle was increased twofold, all the more inasmuch
+as Lupin's silence and the sudden cessation of the
+campaign which he had been conducting in the press
+could not but alarm the Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme.
+It was obvious that the enemy was getting ready to
+strike and would endeavour to oppose the marriage
+by one of his characteristic moves.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, nothing happened: nothing two days
+before the ceremony, nothing on the day before,
+nothing on the morning itself. The marriage took<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+place in the mayor's office, followed by the religious
+celebration in church; and the thing was done.</p>
+
+<p>Then and not till then, the duke breathed freely.
+Notwithstanding his daughter's sadness, notwithstanding
+the embarrassed silence of his son-in-law,
+who found the situation a little trying, he rubbed his
+hands with an air of pleasure, as though he had
+achieved a brilliant victory:</p>
+
+<p>"Tell them to lower the drawbridge," he said
+to Hyacinthe, "and to admit everybody. We have
+nothing more to fear from that scoundrel."</p>
+
+<p>After the wedding-breakfast, he had wine served
+out to the peasants and clinked glasses with them.
+They danced and sang.</p>
+
+<p>At three o'clock, he returned to the ground-floor
+rooms. It was the hour for his afternoon nap.
+He walked to the guard-room at the end of the suite.
+But he had no sooner placed his foot on the threshold
+than he stopped suddenly and exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"What are you doing here, d'Emboise? Is this
+a joke?"</p>
+
+<p>D'Emboise was standing before him, dressed as a
+Breton fisherman, in a dirty jacket and breeches,
+torn, patched and many sizes too large for him.</p>
+
+<p>The duke seemed dumbfounded. He stared with
+eyes of amazement at that face which he knew and
+which, at the same time, roused memories of a very
+distant past within his brain. Then he strode<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+abruptly to one of the windows overlooking the
+castle-terrace and called:</p>
+
+<p>"Angélique!"</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, father?" she asked, coming forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's your husband?"</p>
+
+<p>"Over there, father," said Angélique, pointing
+to d'Emboise, who was smoking a cigarette and
+reading, some way off.</p>
+
+<p>The duke stumbled and fell into a chair, with a
+great shudder of fright:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I shall go mad!"</p>
+
+<p>But the man in the fisherman's garb knelt down
+before him and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Look at me, uncle. You know me, don't you?
+I'm your nephew, the one who used to play here
+in the old days, the one whom you called Jacquot....
+Just think a minute.... Here, look at this
+scar...."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes," stammered the duke, "I recognize
+you. It's Jacques. But the other one...."</p>
+
+<p>He put his hands to his head:</p>
+
+<p>"And yet, no, it can't be ... Explain yourself....
+I don't understand.... I don't want to
+understand...."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause, during which the newcomer
+shut the window and closed the door leading to the
+next room. Then he came up to the old duke,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
+touched him gently on the shoulder, to wake him
+from his torpor, and without further preface,
+as though to cut short any explanation that was
+not absolutely necessary, spoke as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"Four years ago, that is to say, in the eleventh
+year of my voluntary exile, when I settled in the
+extreme south of Algeria, I made the acquaintance,
+in the course of a hunting-expedition arranged by
+a big Arab chief, of a man whose geniality, whose
+charm of manner, whose consummate prowess, whose
+indomitable pluck, whose combined humour and
+depth of mind fascinated me in the highest degree.
+The Comte d'Andrésy spent six weeks as my guest.
+After he left, we kept up a correspondence at regular
+intervals. I also often saw his name in the papers,
+in the society and sporting columns. He was to
+come back and I was preparing to receive him,
+three months ago, when, one evening as I was out
+riding, my two Arab attendants flung themselves
+upon me, bound me, blindfolded me and took me,
+travelling day and night, for a week, along deserted
+roads, to a bay on the coast, where five men awaited
+them. I was at once carried on board a small
+steam-yacht, which weighed anchor without delay.
+There was nothing to tell me who the men were nor
+what their object was in kidnapping me. They
+had locked me into a narrow cabin, secured by a
+massive door and lighted by a port-hole protected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
+by two iron cross-bars. Every morning, a hand was
+inserted through a hatch between the next cabin
+and my own and placed on my bunk two or three
+pounds of bread, a good helping of food and a
+flagon of wine and removed the remains of yesterday's
+meals, which I put there for the purpose.
+From time to time, at night, the yacht stopped and I
+heard the sound of the boat rowing to some harbour
+and then returning, doubtless with provisions. Then
+we set out once more, without hurrying, as though
+on a cruise of people of our class, who travel for
+pleasure and are not pressed for time. Sometimes,
+standing on a chair, I would see the coastline,
+through my port-hole, too indistinctly, however,
+to locate it. And this lasted for weeks. One
+morning, in the ninth week, I perceived that the
+hatch had been left unfastened and I pushed it open.
+The cabin was empty at the time. With an effort,
+I was able to take a nail-file from a dressing-table.
+Two weeks after that, by dint of patient perseverance,
+I had succeeded in filing through the bars of
+my port-hole and I could have escaped that way,
+only, though I am a good swimmer, I soon grow
+tired. I had therefore to choose a moment when the
+yacht was not too far from the land. It was not
+until yesterday that, perched on my chair, I caught
+sight of the coast; and, in the evening, at sunset,
+I recognized, to my astonishment, the outlines of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
+Château de Sarzeau, with its pointed turrets and its
+square keep. I wondered if this was the goal of
+my mysterious voyage. All night long, we cruised
+in the offing. The same all day yesterday. At
+last, this morning, we put in at a distance which
+I considered favourable, all the more so as we were
+steaming through rocks under cover of which I could
+swim unobserved. But, just as I was about to make
+my escape, I noticed that the shutter of the hatch,
+which they thought they had closed, had once more
+opened of itself and was flapping against the partition.
+I again pushed it ajar from curiosity. Within
+arm's length was a little cupboard which I managed
+to open and in which my hand, groping at random,
+laid hold of a bundle of papers. This consisted of
+letters, letters containing instructions addressed
+to the pirates who held me prisoner. An hour later,
+when I wriggled through the port-hole and slipped
+into the sea, I knew all: the reasons for my abduction,
+the means employed, the object in view and
+the infamous scheme plotted during the last three
+months against the Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme and
+his daughter. Unfortunately, it was too late. I
+was obliged, in order not to be seen from the yacht,
+to crouch in the cleft of a rock and did not reach
+land until mid-day. By the time that I had been to
+a fisherman's cabin, exchanged my clothes for his
+and come on here, it was three o'clock. On my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
+arrival. I learnt that Angélique's marriage was celebrated
+this morning."</p>
+
+<p>The old duke had not spoken a word. With his
+eyes riveted on the stranger's, he was listening in
+ever-increasing dismay. At times, the thought of the
+warnings given him by the prefect of police returned
+to his mind:</p>
+
+<p>"They're nursing you, monsieur le duc, they are
+nursing you."</p>
+
+<p>He said, in a hollow voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Speak on ... finish your story.... All this
+is ghastly.... I don't understand it yet ... and
+I feel nervous...."</p>
+
+<p>The stranger resumed:</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to say, the story is easily pieced
+together and is summed up in a few sentences.
+It is like this: the Comte d'Andrésy remembered
+several things from his stay with me and from the
+confidences which I was foolish enough to make
+to him. First of all, I was your nephew and yet
+you had seen comparatively little of me, because
+I left Sarzeau when I was quite a child, and since
+then our intercourse was limited to the few weeks
+which I spent here, fifteen years ago, when I proposed
+for the hand of my Cousin Angélique;
+secondly, having broken with the past, I received
+no letters; lastly, there was a certain physical resemblance
+between d'Andrésy and myself which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+could be accentuated to such an extent as to become
+striking. His scheme was built up on those three
+points. He bribed my Arab servants to give
+him warning in case I left Algeria. Then he went
+back to Paris, bearing my name and made up to
+look exactly like me, came to see you, was invited
+to your house once a fortnight and lived under my
+name, which thus became one of the many aliases
+beneath which he conceals his real identity. Three
+months ago, when 'the apple was ripe,' as he says
+in his letters, he began the attack by a series of
+communications to the press; and, at the same time,
+fearing no doubt that some newspaper would tell
+me in Algeria the part that was being played under
+my name in Paris, he had me assaulted by my
+servants and kidnapped by his confederates. I
+need not explain any more in so far as you are concerned,
+uncle."</p>
+
+<p>The Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme was shaken with
+a fit of nervous trembling. The awful truth to
+which he refused to open his eyes appeared to him
+in its nakedness and assumed the hateful countenance
+of the enemy. He clutched his nephew's
+hands and said to him, fiercely, despairingly:</p>
+
+<p>"It's Lupin, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, uncle."</p>
+
+<p>"And it's to him ... it's to him that I have
+given my daughter!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, uncle, to him, who has stolen my name
+of Jacques d'Emboise from me and stolen your
+daughter from you. Angélique is the wedded
+wife of Arsène Lupin; and that in accordance
+with your orders. This letter in his handwriting
+bears witness to it. He has upset your whole life,
+thrown you off your balance, besieging your hours
+of waking and your nights of dreaming, rifling
+your town-house, until the moment when, seized
+with terror, you took refuge here, where, thinking
+that you would escape his artifices and his rapacity,
+you told your daughter to choose one of her
+three cousins, Mussy, d'Emboise or Caorches, as
+her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"But why did she select that one rather than the
+others?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was you who selected him, uncle."</p>
+
+<p>"At random ... because he had the biggest
+income...."</p>
+
+<p>"No, not at random, but on the insidious, persistent
+and very clever advice of your servant
+Hyacinthe."</p>
+
+<p>The duke gave a start:</p>
+
+<p>"What! Is Hyacinthe an accomplice?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not of Arsène Lupin, but of the man whom
+he believes to be d'Emboise and who promised to
+give him a hundred thousand francs within a week
+after the marriage."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the villain!... He planned everything,
+foresaw everything...."</p>
+
+<p>"Foresaw everything, uncle, down to shamming
+an attempt upon his life so as to avert suspicion,
+down to shamming a wound received in your service."</p>
+
+<p>"But with what object? Why all these dastardly
+tricks?"</p>
+
+<p>"Angélique has a fortune of eleven million francs.
+Your solicitor in Paris was to hand the securities
+next week to the counterfeit d'Emboise, who had
+only to realize them forthwith and disappear. But,
+this very morning, you yourself were to hand
+your son-in-law, as a personal wedding-present,
+five hundred thousand francs' worth of bearer-stock,
+which he has arranged to deliver to one of
+his accomplices at nine o'clock this evening,
+outside the castle, near the Great Oak, so that
+they may be negotiated to-morrow morning in
+Brussels."</p>
+
+<p>The Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme had risen from his
+seat and was stamping furiously up and down the
+room:</p>
+
+<p>"At nine o'clock this evening?" he said. "We'll
+see about that.... We'll see about that.... I'll
+have the gendarmes here before then...."</p>
+
+<p>"Arsène Lupin laughs at gendarmes."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's telegraph to Paris."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but how about the five hundred thousand
+francs?... And, still worse, uncle, the scandal?...
+Think of this: your daughter, Angélique de
+Sarzeau-Vendôme, married to that swindler, that
+thief.... No, no, it would never do...."</p>
+
+<p>"What then?"</p>
+
+<p>"What?..."</p>
+
+<p>The nephew now rose and, stepping to a gun-rack,
+took down a rifle and laid it on the table, in
+front of the duke:</p>
+
+<p>"Away in Algeria, uncle, on the verge of the
+desert, when we find ourselves face to face with a
+wild beast, we do not send for the gendarmes. We
+take our rifle and we shoot the wild beast. Otherwise,
+the beast would tear us to pieces with its
+claws."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that, over there, I acquired the habit
+of dispensing with the gendarmes. It is a rather
+summary way of doing justice, but it is the best
+way, believe me, and to-day, in the present case,
+it is the only way. Once the beast is killed, you
+and I will bury it in some corner, unseen and unknown."</p>
+
+<p>"And Angélique?"</p>
+
+<p>"We will tell her later."</p>
+
+<p>"What will become of her?"</p>
+
+<p>"She will be my wife, the wife of the real<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+d'Emboise. I desert her to-morrow and return
+to Algeria. The divorce will be granted in two
+months' time."</p>
+
+<p>The duke listened, pale and staring, with set
+jaws. He whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure that his accomplices on the yacht
+will not inform him of your escape?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not before to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"So that ...?"</p>
+
+<p>"So that inevitably, at nine o'clock this evening,
+Arsène Lupin, on his way to the Great Oak, will
+take the patrol-path that follows the old ramparts
+and skirts the ruins of the chapel. I shall be there,
+in the ruins."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be there too," said the Duc de Sarzeau-Vendôme,
+quietly, taking down a gun.</p>
+
+<p>It was now five o'clock. The duke talked some
+time longer to his nephew, examined the weapons,
+loaded them with fresh cartridges. Then, when
+night came, he took d'Emboise through the dark
+passages to his bedroom and hid him in an adjoining
+closet.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing further happened until dinner. The duke
+forced himself to keep calm during the meal. From
+time to time, he stole a glance at his son-in-law and
+was surprised at the likeness between him and the
+real d'Emboise. It was the same complexion, the
+same cast of features, the same cut of hair. Never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>theless,
+the look of the eye was different, keener
+in this case and brighter; and gradually the duke
+discovered minor details which had passed unperceived
+till then and which proved the fellow's imposture.</p>
+
+<p>The party broke up after dinner. It was eight
+o'clock. The duke went to his room and released
+his nephew. Ten minutes later, under cover of
+the darkness, they slipped into the ruins, gun in
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Angélique, accompanied by her husband,
+had gone to the suite of rooms which she
+occupied on the ground-floor of a tower that flanked
+the left wing. Her husband stopped at the entrance
+to the rooms and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I am going for a short stroll, Angélique. May
+I come to you here, when I return?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she replied.</p>
+
+<p>He left her and went up to the first floor, which
+had been assigned to him as his quarters. The
+moment he was alone, he locked the door, noiselessly
+opened a window that looked over the
+landscape and leant out. He saw a shadow at
+the foot of the tower, some hundred feet or more
+below him. He whistled and received a faint whistle
+in reply.</p>
+
+<p>He then took from a cupboard a thick leather
+satchel, crammed with papers, wrapped it in a piece<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>
+of black cloth and tied it up. Then he sat down at
+the table and wrote:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"Glad you got my message, for I think it unsafe
+to walk out of the castle with that large bundle of
+securities. Here they are. You will be in Paris,
+on your motor-cycle, in time to catch the morning
+train to Brussels, where you will hand over the bonds
+to Z.; and he will negotiate them at once.</p>
+
+
+<p style="margin-left: 48em;">"A. L.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-top: 1em;">"P. S.&mdash;As you pass by the Great Oak, tell our
+chaps that I'm coming. I have some instructions
+to give them. But everything is going well. No
+one here has the least suspicion."</p></div>
+
+<p>He fastened the letter to the parcel and lowered
+both through the window with a length of string:</p>
+
+<p>"Good," he said. "That's all right. It's a
+weight off my mind."</p>
+
+<p>He waited a few minutes longer, stalking up and
+down the room and smiling at the portraits of two
+gallant gentlemen hanging on the wall:</p>
+
+<p>"Horace de Sarzeau-Vendôme, marshal of France....
+And you, the Great Condé ... I salute you,
+my ancestors both. Lupin de Sarzeau-Vendôme
+will show himself worthy of you."</p>
+
+<p>At last, when the time came, he took his hat and
+went down. But, when he reached the ground-floor,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
+Angélique burst from her rooms and exclaimed, with
+a distraught air:</p>
+
+<p>"I say ... if you don't mind ... I think you
+had better...."</p>
+
+<p>And then, without saying more, she went in
+again, leaving a vision of irresponsible terror in her
+husband's mind.</p>
+
+<p>"She's out of sorts," he said to himself. "Marriage
+doesn't suit her."</p>
+
+<p>He lit a cigarette and went out, without attaching
+importance to an incident that ought to have impressed
+him:</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Angélique! This will all end in a divorce...."</p>
+
+<p>The night outside was dark, with a cloudy sky.</p>
+
+<p>The servants were closing the shutters of the
+castle. There was no light in the windows, it
+being the duke's habit to go to bed soon after
+dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Lupin passed the gate-keeper's lodge and, as he
+put his foot on the drawbridge, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Leave the gate open. I am going for a breath
+of air; I shall be back soon."</p>
+
+<p>The patrol-path was on the right and ran along
+one of the old ramparts, which used to surround the
+castle with a second and much larger enclosure,
+until it ended at an almost demolished postern-gate.
+The park, which skirted a hillock and afterward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+followed the side of a deep valley, was bordered on
+the left by thick coppices.</p>
+
+<p>"What a wonderful place for an ambush!" he
+said. "A regular cut-throat spot!"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped, thinking that he heard a noise. But
+no, it was a rustling of the leaves. And yet a stone
+went rattling down the slopes, bounding against
+the rugged projections of the rock. But, strange
+to say, nothing seemed to disquiet him. The crisp
+sea-breeze came blowing over the plains of the
+headland; and he eagerly filled his lungs with it:</p>
+
+<p>"What a thing it is to be alive!" he thought.
+"Still young, a member of the old nobility, a multi-millionaire:
+what could a man want more?"</p>
+
+<p>At a short distance, he saw against the darkness
+the yet darker outline of the chapel, the ruins of
+which towered above the path. A few drops of
+rain began to fall; and he heard a clock strike nine.
+He quickened his pace. There was a short descent;
+then the path rose again. And suddenly, he stopped
+once more.</p>
+
+<p>A hand had seized his.</p>
+
+<p>He drew back, tried to release himself.</p>
+
+<p>But some one stepped from the clump of trees
+against which he was brushing; and a voice said;
+"Ssh!... Not a word!..."</p>
+
+<p>He recognized his wife, Angélique:</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" he asked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She whispered, so low that he could hardly catch
+the words:</p>
+
+<p>"They are lying in wait for you ... they are in
+there, in the ruins, with their guns...."</p>
+
+<p>"Who?"</p>
+
+<p>"Keep quiet.... Listen...."</p>
+
+<p>They stood for a moment without stirring; then
+she said:</p>
+
+<p>"They are not moving.... Perhaps they never
+heard me.... Let's go back...."</p>
+
+<p>"But...."</p>
+
+<p>"Come with me."</p>
+
+<p>Her accent was so imperious that he obeyed
+without further question. But suddenly she took
+fright:</p>
+
+<p>"Run!... They are coming!... I am sure
+of it!..."</p>
+
+<p>True enough, they heard a sound of footsteps.</p>
+
+<p>Then, swiftly, still holding him by the hand, she
+dragged him, with irresistible energy, along a shortcut,
+following its turns without hesitation in spite
+of the darkness and the brambles. And they very
+soon arrived at the drawbridge.</p>
+
+<p>She put her arm in his. The gate-keeper touched
+his cap. They crossed the courtyard and entered
+the castle; and she led him to the corner tower
+in which both of them had their apartments:</p>
+
+<p>"Come in here," she said.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"To your rooms?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Two maids were sitting up for her. Their mistress
+ordered them to retire to their bedrooms, on
+the third floor.</p>
+
+<p>Almost immediately after, there was a knock at
+the door of the outer room; and a voice called:</p>
+
+<p>"Angélique!"</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, father?" she asked, suppressing
+her agitation.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Is your husband here?"</p>
+
+<p>"We have just come in."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him I want to speak to him. Ask him to
+come to my room. It's important."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, father, I'll send him to you."</p>
+
+<p>She listened for a few seconds, then returned to
+the boudoir where her husband was and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure my father is still there."</p>
+
+<p>He moved as though to go out:</p>
+
+<p>"In that case, if he wants to speak to me...."</p>
+
+<p>"My father is not alone," she said, quickly,
+blocking his way.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"His nephew, Jacques d'Emboise."</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's silence. He looked at her
+with a certain astonishment, failing quite to understand
+his wife's attitude. But, without pausing to
+go into the matter:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah, so that dear old d'Emboise is there?" he
+chuckled. "Then the fat's in the fire? Unless,
+indeed...."</p>
+
+<p>"My father knows everything," she said. "I
+overheard a conversation between them just now.
+His nephew has read certain letters.... I hesitated
+at first about telling you.... Then I thought that
+my duty...."</p>
+
+<p>He studied her afresh. But, at once conquered
+by the queerness of the situation, he burst out laughing:</p>
+
+<p>"What? Don't my friends on board ship burn
+my letters? And they have let their prisoner escape?
+The idiots! Oh, when you don't see to everything
+yourself!... No matter, its distinctly
+humorous.... D'Emboise versus d'Emboise....
+Oh, but suppose I were no longer recognized? Suppose
+d'Emboise himself were to confuse me with
+himself?"</p>
+
+<p>He turned to a wash-hand-stand, took a towel,
+dipped it in the basin and soaped it and, in the
+twinkling of an eye, wiped the make-up from his
+face and altered the set of his hair:</p>
+
+<p>"That's it," he said, showing himself to Angélique
+under the aspect in which she had seen him
+on the night of the burglary in Paris. "I feel more
+comfortable like this for a discussion with my father-in-law."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Where are you going?" she cried, flinging herself
+in front of the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, to join the gentlemen."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall not pass!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose they kill you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Kill me?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's what they mean to do, to kill you ...
+to hide your body somewhere.... Who would
+know of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," he said, "from their point of view,
+they are quite right. But, if I don't go to them,
+they will come here. That door won't stop them....
+Nor you, I'm thinking. Therefore, it's better
+to have done with it."</p>
+
+<p>"Follow me," commanded Angélique.</p>
+
+<p>She took up the lamp that lit the room, went into
+her bedroom, pushed aside the wardrobe, which
+slid easily on hidden castors, pulled back an old
+tapestry-hanging, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Here is a door that has not been used for years.
+My father believes the key to be lost. I have it
+here. Unlock the door with it. A staircase in the
+wall will take you to the bottom of the tower. You
+need only draw the bolts of another door and you
+will be free."</p>
+
+<p>He could hardly believe his ears. Suddenly, he
+grasped the meaning of Angélique's whole behaviour.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>
+In front of that sad, plain, but wonderfully gentle
+face, he stood for a moment discountenanced, almost
+abashed. He no longer thought of laughing. A
+feeling of respect, mingled with remorse and kindness,
+overcame him.</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you saving me?" he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"You are my husband."</p>
+
+<p>He protested:</p>
+
+<p>"No, no ... I have stolen that title. The law
+will never recognize my marriage."</p>
+
+<p>"My father does not want a scandal," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Just so," he replied, sharply, "just so. I foresaw
+that; and that was why I had your cousin d'Emboise
+near at hand. Once I disappear, he becomes
+your husband. He is the man you have married
+in the eyes of men."</p>
+
+<p>"You are the man I have married in the eyes of
+the Church."</p>
+
+<p>"The Church! The Church! There are means
+of arranging matters with the Church.... Your
+marriage can be annulled."</p>
+
+<p>"On what pretext that we can admit?"</p>
+
+<p>He remained silent, thinking over all those points
+which he had not considered, all those points which
+were trivial and absurd for him, but which were
+serious for her, and he repeated several times:</p>
+
+<p>"This is terrible ... this is terrible.... I
+should have anticipated...."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And, suddenly, seized with an idea, he clapped his
+hands and cried:</p>
+
+<p>"There, I have it! I'm hand in glove with one
+of the chief figures at the Vatican. The Pope never
+refuses me anything. I shall obtain an audience
+and I have no doubt that the Holy Father, moved
+by my entreaties...."</p>
+
+<p>His plan was so humorous and his delight so
+artless that Angélique could not help smiling; and
+she said:</p>
+
+<p>"I am your wife in the eyes of God."</p>
+
+<p>She gave him a look that showed neither scorn
+nor animosity, nor even anger; and he realized
+that she omitted to see in him the outlaw and the
+evil-doer and remembered only the man who was
+her husband and to whom the priest had bound her
+until the hour of death.</p>
+
+<p>He took a step toward her and observed her more
+attentively. She did not lower her eyes at first.
+But she blushed. And never had he seen so pathetic
+a face, marked with such modesty and such dignity.
+He said to her, as on that first evening in Paris:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, your eyes ... the calm and sadness of
+your eyes ... the beauty of your eyes!"</p>
+
+<p>She dropped her head and stammered:</p>
+
+<p>"Go away ... go ..."</p>
+
+<p>In the presence of her confusion, he received a
+quick intuition of the deeper feelings that stirred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
+her, unknown to herself. To that spinster soul, of
+which he recognized the romantic power of imagination,
+the unsatisfied yearnings, the poring over old-world
+books, he suddenly represented, in that
+exceptional moment and in consequence of the
+unconventional circumstances of their meetings,
+somebody special, a Byronic hero, a chivalrous
+brigand of romance. One evening, in spite of all
+obstacles, he, the world-famed adventurer, already
+ennobled in song and story and exalted by his own
+audacity, had come to her and slipped the magic
+ring upon her finger: a mystic and passionate betrothal,
+as in the days of the <i>Corsair</i> and <i>Hernani</i>....
+Greatly moved and touched, he was on
+the verge of giving way to an enthusiastic impulse
+and exclaiming:</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go away together!... Let us fly!...
+You are my bride ... my wife.... Share my
+dangers, my sorrows and my joys.... It will be
+a strange and vigorous, a proud and magnificent
+life...."</p>
+
+<p>But Angélique's eyes were raised to his again;
+and they were so pure and so noble that he blushed
+in his turn. This was not the woman to whom such
+words could be addressed.</p>
+
+<p>He whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me.... I am a contemptible wretch....
+I have wrecked your life...."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No," she replied, softly. "On the contrary,
+you have shown me where my real life lies."</p>
+
+<p>He was about to ask her to explain. But she had
+opened the door and was pointing the way to him.
+Nothing more could be spoken between them. He
+went out without a word, bowing very low as he
+passed.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>A month later, Angélique de Sarzeau-Vendôme,
+Princesse de Bourbon-Condé, lawful wife of Arsène
+Lupin, took the veil and, under the name of Sister
+Marie-Auguste, buried herself within the walls of
+the Visitation Convent.</p>
+
+<p>On the day of the ceremony, the mother superior
+of the convent received a heavy sealed envelope
+containing a letter with the following words:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"For Sister Marie-Auguste's poor."</p></div>
+
+<p>Enclosed with the letter were five hundred bank-notes
+of a thousand francs each.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">THE INVISIBLE PRISONER</h3>
+
+
+<p>One day, at about four o'clock, as evening was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
+drawing in, Farmer Goussot, with his four sons,
+returned from a day's shooting. They were stalwart
+men, all five of them, long of limb, broad-chested,
+with faces tanned by sun and wind. And all five
+displayed, planted on an enormous neck and
+shoulders, the same small head with the low forehead,
+thin lips, beaked nose and hard and repellent
+cast of countenance. They were feared and disliked
+by all around them. They were a money-grubbing,
+crafty family; and their word was not to be trusted.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the old barbican-wall that surrounds
+the Héberville property, the farmer opened a narrow,
+massive door, putting the big key back in his pocket
+after his sons had passed in. And he walked
+behind them, along the path that led through the
+orchards. Here and there stood great trees, stripped
+by the autumn winds, and clumps of pines, the last
+survivors of the ancient park now covered by old
+Goussot's farm.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>One of the sons said:</p>
+
+<p>"I hope mother has lit a log or two."</p>
+
+<p>"There's smoke coming from the chimney," said
+the father.</p>
+
+<p>The outhouses and the homestead showed at the
+end of a lawn; and, above them, the village church,
+whose steeple seemed to prick the clouds that trailed
+along the sky.</p>
+
+<p>"All the guns unloaded?" asked old Goussot.</p>
+
+<p>"Mine isn't," said the eldest. "I slipped in a
+bullet to blow a kestrel's head off...."</p>
+
+<p>He was the one who was proudest of his skill. And
+he said to his brothers:</p>
+
+<p>"Look at that bough, at the top of the cherry
+tree. See me snap it off."</p>
+
+<p>On the bough sat a scarecrow, which had been
+there since spring and which protected the leafless
+branches with its idiot arms.</p>
+
+<p>He raised his gun and fired.</p>
+
+<p>The figure came tumbling down with large, comic
+gestures, and was caught on a big, lower branch,
+where it remained lying stiff on its stomach, with
+a great top hat on its head of rags and its hay-stuffed
+legs swaying from right to left above some water
+that flowed past the cherry tree through a wooden
+trough.</p>
+
+<p>They all laughed. The father approved:</p>
+
+<p>"A fine shot, my lad. Besides, the old boy was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>
+beginning to annoy me. I couldn't take my eyes
+from my plate at meals without catching sight of
+that oaf...."</p>
+
+<p>They went a few steps farther. They were not
+more than thirty yards from the house, when the
+father stopped suddenly and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo! What's up?"</p>
+
+<p>The sons also had stopped and stood listening.
+One of them said, under his breath:</p>
+
+<p>"It comes from the house ... from the linen-room...."</p>
+
+<p>And another spluttered:</p>
+
+<p>"Sounds like moans.... And mother's alone!"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, a frightful scream rang out. All five
+rushed forward. Another scream, followed by cries
+of despair.</p>
+
+<p>"We're here! We're coming!" shouted the eldest,
+who was leading.</p>
+
+<p>And, as it was a roundabout way to the door, he
+smashed in a window with his fist and sprang into
+the old people's bedroom. The room next to it was
+the linen-room, in which Mother Goussot spent most
+of her time.</p>
+
+<p>"Damnation!" he said, seeing her lying on the
+floor, with blood all over her face. "Dad! Dad!"</p>
+
+<p>"What? Where is she?" roared old Goussot,
+appearing on the scene. "Good lord, what's this?...
+What have they done to your mother?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She pulled herself together and, with outstretched
+arm, stammered:</p>
+
+<p>"Run after him!... This way!... This way!...
+I'm all right ... only a scratch or two....
+But run, you! He's taken the money."</p>
+
+<p>The father and sons gave a bound:</p>
+
+<p>"He's taken the money!" bellowed old Goussot,
+rushing to the door to which his wife was pointing.
+"He's taken the money! Stop thief!"</p>
+
+<p>But a sound of several voices rose at the end of
+the passage through which the other three sons were
+coming:</p>
+
+<p>"I saw him! I saw him!"</p>
+
+<p>"So did I! He ran up the stairs."</p>
+
+<p>"No, there he is, he's coming down again!"</p>
+
+<p>A mad steeplechase shook every floor in the
+house. Farmer Goussot, on reaching the end of
+the passage, caught sight of a man standing by
+the front door trying to open it. If he succeeded,
+it meant safety, escape through the market square
+and the back lanes of the village.</p>
+
+<p>Interrupted as he was fumbling at the bolts, the
+man turning stupid, lost his head, charged at old
+Goussot and sent him spinning, dodged the eldest
+brother and, pursued by the four sons, doubled back
+down the long passage, ran into the old couple's
+bedroom, flung his legs through the broken window
+and disappeared.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The sons rushed after him across the lawns and
+orchards, now darkened by the falling night.</p>
+
+<p>"The villain's done for," chuckled old Goussot.
+"There's no way out for him. The walls are too
+high. He's done for, the scoundrel!"</p>
+
+<p>The two farm-hands returned, at that moment,
+from the village; and he told them what had happened
+and gave each of them a gun:</p>
+
+<p>"If the swine shows his nose anywhere near the
+house," he said, "let fly at him. Give him no
+mercy!"</p>
+
+<p>He told them where to stand, went to make
+sure that the farm-gates, which were only used
+for the carts, were locked, and, not till then, remembered
+that his wife might perhaps be in need
+of aid:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, mother, how goes it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Where is he? Have you got him?" she asked,
+in a breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we're after him. The lads must have
+collared him by now."</p>
+
+<p>The news quite restored her; and a nip of rum
+gave her the strength to drag herself to the bed, with
+old Goussot's assistance, and to tell her story. For
+that matter, there was not much to tell. She
+had just lit the fire in the living-hall; and she was
+knitting quietly at her bedroom window, waiting
+for the men to return, when she thought that she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>
+heard a slight grating sound in the linen-room next
+door:</p>
+
+<p>"I must have left the cat in there," she thought
+to herself.</p>
+
+<p>She went in, suspecting nothing, and was astonished
+to see the two doors of one of the linen-cupboards,
+the one in which they hid their money,
+wide open. She walked up to it, still without suspicion.
+There was a man there, hiding, with his
+back to the shelves.</p>
+
+<p>"But how did he get in?" asked old Goussot.</p>
+
+<p>"Through the passage, I suppose. We never keep
+the back door shut."</p>
+
+<p>"And then did he go for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I went for him. He tried to get away."</p>
+
+<p>"You should have let him."</p>
+
+<p>"And what about the money?"</p>
+
+<p>"Had he taken it by then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Had he taken it! I saw the bundle of bank-notes
+in his hands, the sweep! I would have let
+him kill me sooner.... Oh, we had a sharp tussle,
+I give you my word!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then he had no weapon?'</p>
+
+<p>"No more than I did. We had our fingers, our
+nails and our teeth. Look here, where he bit me.
+And I yelled and screamed! Only, I'm an old
+woman you see.... I had to let go of him...."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know the man?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'm pretty sure it was old Trainard."</p>
+
+<p>"The tramp? Why, of course it's old Trainard!"
+cried the farmer. "I thought I knew him too....
+Besides, he's been hanging round the house these
+last three days. The old vagabond must have smelt
+the money. Aha, Trainard, my man, we shall see
+some fun! A number-one hiding in the first place;
+and then the police.... I say, mother, you can
+get up now, can't you? Then go and fetch the
+neighbours.... Ask them to run for the gendarmes....
+By the by, the attorney's youngster has
+a bicycle.... How that damned old Trainard
+scooted! He's got good legs for his age, he has.
+He can run like a hare!"</p>
+
+<p>Goussot was holding his sides, revelling in the
+occurrence. He risked nothing by waiting. No
+power on earth could help the tramp escape or keep
+him from the sound thrashing which he had earned
+and from being conveyed, under safe escort, to the
+town gaol.</p>
+
+<p>The farmer took a gun and went out to his two
+labourers:</p>
+
+<p>"Anything fresh?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Farmer Goussot, not yet."</p>
+
+<p>"We sha'n't have long to wait. Unless old Nick
+carries him over the walls...."</p>
+
+<p>From time to time, they heard the four brothers
+hailing one another in the distance. The old bird<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>
+was evidently making a fight for it, was more active
+than they would have thought. Still, with sturdy
+fellows like the Goussot brothers....</p>
+
+<p>However, one of them returned, looking rather
+crestfallen, and made no secret of his opinion:</p>
+
+<p>"It's no use keeping on at it for the present.
+It's pitch dark. The old chap must have crept into
+some hole. We'll hunt him out to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow! Why, lad, you're off your
+chump!" protested the farmer.</p>
+
+<p>The eldest son now appeared, quite out of breath,
+and was of the same opinion as his brother. Why
+not wait till next day, seeing that the ruffian was
+as safe within the demesne as between the walls
+of a prison?</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll go myself," cried old Goussot. "Light
+me a lantern, somebody!"</p>
+
+<p>But, at that moment, three gendarmes arrived;
+and a number of village lads also came up to hear
+the latest.</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant of gendarmes was a man of method.
+He first insisted on hearing the whole story, in full
+detail; then he stopped to think; then he questioned
+the four brothers, separately, and took his time for
+reflection after each deposition. When he had
+learnt from them that the tramp had fled toward
+the back of the estate, that he had been lost sight
+of repeatedly and that he had finally disappeared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>
+near a place known as the Crows' Knoll, he meditated
+once more and announced his conclusion:</p>
+
+<p>"Better wait. Old Trainard might slip through
+our hands, amidst all the confusion of a pursuit
+in the dark, and then good-night, everybody!"</p>
+
+<p>The farmer shrugged his shoulders and, cursing
+under his breath, yielded to the sergeant's arguments.
+That worthy organized a strict watch,
+distributed the brothers Goussot and the lads from
+the village under his men's eyes, made sure that the
+ladders were locked away and established his headquarters
+in the dining-room, where he and Farmer
+Goussot sat and nodded over a decanter of old
+brandy.</p>
+
+<p>The night passed quietly. Every two hours, the
+sergeant went his rounds and inspected the posts.
+There were no alarms. Old Trainard did not budge
+from his hole.</p>
+
+<p>The battle began at break of day.</p>
+
+<p>It lasted four hours.</p>
+
+<p>In those four hours, the thirteen acres of land
+within the walls were searched, explored, gone over
+in every direction by a score of men who beat the
+bushes with sticks, trampled over the tall grass,
+rummaged in the hollows of the trees and scattered
+the heaps of dry leaves. And old Trainard remained
+invisible.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, this is a bit thick!" growled Goussot.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Beats me altogether," retorted the sergeant.</p>
+
+<p>And indeed there was no explaining the phenomenon.
+For, after all, apart from a few old clumps
+of laurels and spindle-trees, which were thoroughly
+beaten, all the trees were bare. There was no
+building, no shed, no stack, nothing, in short, that
+could serve as a hiding-place.</p>
+
+<p>As for the wall, a careful inspection convinced
+even the sergeant that it was physically impossible
+to scale it.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon, the investigations were begun
+all over again in the presence of the examining-magistrate
+and the public-prosecutor's deputy. The
+results were no more successful. Nay, worse, the
+officials looked upon the matter as so suspicious that
+they could not restrain their ill-humour and asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you quite sure, Farmer Goussot, that you
+and your sons haven't been seeing double?"</p>
+
+<p>"And what about my wife?" retorted the farmer,
+red with anger. "Did she see double when the
+scamp had her by the throat? Go and look at the
+marks, if you doubt me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. But then where is the scamp?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here, between those four walls."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. Then ferret him out. We give it
+up. It's quite clear, that if a man were hidden
+within the precincts of this farm, we should have
+found him by now."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I swear I'll lay hands on him, true as I stand
+here!" shouted Farmer Goussot. "It shall not
+be said that I've been robbed of six thousand francs.
+Yes, six thousand! There were three cows I sold;
+and then the wheat-crop; and then the apples.
+Six thousand-franc notes, which I was just going
+to take to the bank. Well, I swear to Heaven that
+the money's as good as in my pocket!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right and I wish you luck," said
+the examining-magistrate, as he went away, followed
+by the deputy and the gendarmes.</p>
+
+<p>The neighbours also walked off in a more or less
+facetious mood. And, by the end of the afternoon,
+none remained but the Goussots and the two farm-labourers.</p>
+
+<p>Old Goussot at once explained his plan. By
+day, they were to search. At night, they were to
+keep an incessant watch. It would last as long as
+it had to. Hang it, old Trainard was a man like
+other men; and men have to eat and drink! Old
+Trainard must needs, therefore, come out of his
+earth to eat and drink.</p>
+
+<p>"At most," said Goussot, "he can have a few
+crusts of bread in his pocket, or even pull up a root
+or two at night. But, as far as drink's concerned,
+no go. There's only the spring. And he'll be a
+clever dog if he gets near that."</p>
+
+<p>He himself, that evening, took up his stand near<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>
+the spring. Three hours later, his eldest son relieved
+him. The other brothers and the farm-hands
+slept in the house, each taking his turn of the watch
+and keeping all the lamps and candles lit, so that
+there might be no surprise.</p>
+
+<p>So it went on for fourteen consecutive nights.
+And for fourteen days, while two of the men and
+Mother Goussot remained on guard, the five others
+explored the Héberville ground.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of that fortnight, not a sign.</p>
+
+<p>The farmer never ceased storming. He sent for a
+retired detective-inspector who lived in the neighbouring
+town. The inspector stayed with him for a
+whole week. He found neither old Trainard nor
+the least clue that could give them any hope of
+finding old Trainard.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a bit thick!" repeated Farmer Goussot.
+"For he's there, the rascal! As far as being anywhere
+goes, he's there. So...."</p>
+
+<p>Planting himself on the threshold, he railed at the
+enemy at the top of his voice:</p>
+
+<p>"You blithering idiot, would you rather croak
+in your hole than fork out the money? Then
+croak, you pig!"</p>
+
+<p>And Mother Goussot, in her turn, yelped, in her
+shrill voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Is it prison you're afraid of? Hand over the
+notes and you can hook it!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But old Trainard did not breathe a word; and
+the husband and wife tired their lungs in vain.</p>
+
+<p>Shocking days passed. Farmer Goussot could
+no longer sleep, lay shivering with fever. The
+sons became morose and quarrelsome and never
+let their guns out of their hands, having no other
+idea but to shoot the tramp.</p>
+
+<p>It was the one topic of conversation in the village;
+and the Goussot story, from being local at first,
+soon went the round of the press. Newspaper-reporters
+came from the assize-town, from Paris
+itself, and were rudely shown the door by Farmer
+Goussot.</p>
+
+<p>"Each man his own house," he said. "You
+mind your business. I mind mine. It's nothing
+to do with any one."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, Farmer Goussot...."</p>
+
+<p>"Go to blazes!"</p>
+
+<p>And he slammed the door in their face.</p>
+
+<p>Old Trainard had now been hidden within the
+walls of Héberville for something like four weeks.
+The Goussots continued their search as doggedly
+and confidently as ever, but with daily decreasing
+hope, as though they were confronted with one of
+those mysterious obstacles which discourage human
+effort. And the idea that they would never see
+their money again began to take root in them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>One fine morning, at about ten o'clock, a motor-car,
+crossing the village square at full speed, broke
+down and came to a dead stop.</p>
+
+<p>The driver, after a careful inspection, declared
+that the repairs would take some little time, whereupon
+the owner of the car resolved to wait at the
+inn and lunch. He was a gentleman on the right
+side of forty, with close-cropped side-whiskers and
+a pleasant expression of face; and he soon made
+himself at home with the people at the inn.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, they told him the story of the Goussots.
+He had not heard it before, as he had been abroad;
+but it seemed to interest him greatly. He made
+them give him all the details, raised objections,
+discussed various theories with a number of people
+who were eating at the same table and ended by
+exclaiming:</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense! It can't be so intricate as all that.
+I have had some experience of this sort of thing.
+And, if I were on the premises...."</p>
+
+<p>"That's easily arranged," said the inn-keeper.
+"I know Farmer Goussot.... He won't object...."</p>
+
+<p>The request was soon made and granted. Old
+Goussot was in one of those frames of mind when
+we are less disposed to protest against outside interference.
+His wife, at any rate, was very firm:</p>
+
+<p>"Let the gentleman come, if he wants to."</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman paid his bill and instructed his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>
+driver to try the car on the high-road as soon as the
+repairs were finished:</p>
+
+<p>"I shall want an hour," he said, "no more. Be
+ready in an hour's time."</p>
+
+<p>Then he went to Farmer Goussot's.</p>
+
+<p>He did not say much at the farm. Old Goussot,
+hoping against hope, was lavish with information,
+took his visitor along the walls down to the little
+door opening on the fields, produced the key and
+gave minute details of all the searches that had been
+made so far.</p>
+
+<p>Oddly enough, the stranger, who hardly spoke,
+seemed not to listen either. He merely looked, with
+a rather vacant gaze. When they had been round
+the estate, old Goussot asked, anxiously:</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think you know?"</p>
+
+<p>The visitor stood for a moment without answering.
+Then he said:</p>
+
+<p>"No, nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course not!" cried the farmer, throwing
+up his arms. "How should you know! It's all
+hanky-panky. Shall I tell you what I think?
+Well, that old Trainard has been so jolly clever that
+he's lying dead in his hole ... and the bank-notes
+are rotting with him. Do you hear? You can
+take my word for it."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The gentleman said, very calmly:</p>
+
+<p>"There's only one thing that interests me. The
+tramp, all said and done, was free at night and able
+to feed on what he could pick up. But how about
+drinking?"</p>
+
+<p>"Out of the question!" shouted the farmer.
+"Quite out of the question! There's no water except
+this; and we have kept watch beside it every night."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a spring. Where does it rise?"</p>
+
+<p>"Here, where we stand."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there enough pressure to bring it into the
+pool of itself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And where does the water go when it runs out
+of the pool?"</p>
+
+<p>"Into this pipe here, which goes under ground
+and carries it to the house, for use in the kitchen.
+So there's no way of drinking, seeing that we were
+there and that the spring is twenty yards from the
+house."</p>
+
+<p>"Hasn't it rained during the last four weeks?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not once: I've told you that already."</p>
+
+<p>The stranger went to the spring and examined
+it. The trough was formed of a few boards of
+wood joined together just above the ground; and
+the water ran through it, slow and clear.</p>
+
+<p>"The water's not more than a foot deep, is it?"
+he asked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In order to measure it, he picked up from the
+grass a straw which he dipped into the pool. But,
+as he was stooping, he suddenly broke off and looked
+around him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how funny!" he said, bursting into a peal
+of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what's the matter?" spluttered old
+Goussot, rushing toward the pool, as though a
+man could have lain hidden between those narrow
+boards.</p>
+
+<p>And Mother Goussot clasped her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it? Have you seen him? Where is
+he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Neither in it nor under it," replied the stranger,
+who was still laughing.</p>
+
+<p>He made for the house, eagerly followed by the
+farmer, the old woman and the four sons. The
+inn-keeper was there also, as were the people from
+the inn who had been watching the stranger's movements.
+And there was a dead silence, while they
+waited for the extraordinary disclosure.</p>
+
+<p>"It's as I thought," he said, with an amused
+expression. "The old chap had to quench his
+thirst somewhere; and, as there was only the
+spring...."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but look here," growled Farmer Goussot,
+"we should have seen him!"</p>
+
+<p>"It was at night."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We should have heard him ... and seen him
+too, as we were close by."</p>
+
+<p>"So was he."</p>
+
+<p>"And he drank the water from the pool?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"How?"</p>
+
+<p>"From a little way off."</p>
+
+<p>"With what?"</p>
+
+<p>"With this."</p>
+
+<p>And the stranger showed the straw which he had
+picked up:</p>
+
+<p>"There, here's the straw for the customer's long
+drink. You will see, there's more of it than usual:
+in fact, it is made of three straws stuck into one
+another. That was the first thing I noticed: those
+three straws fastened together. The proof is conclusive."</p>
+
+<p>"But, hang it all, the proof of what?" cried
+Farmer Goussot, irritably.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger took a shotgun from the rack.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it loaded?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the youngest of the brothers. "I use
+it to kill the sparrows with, for fun. It's small shot."</p>
+
+<p>"Capital! A peppering where it won't hurt him
+will do the trick."</p>
+
+<p>His face suddenly assumed a masterful look.
+He gripped the farmer by the arm and rapped out,
+in an imperious tone:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Listen to me, Farmer Goussot. I'm not here
+to do policeman's work; and I won't have the poor
+beggar locked up at any price. Four weeks of
+starvation and fright is good enough for anybody.
+So you've got to swear to me, you and your sons,
+that you'll let him off without hurting him."</p>
+
+<p>"He must hand over the money!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, of course. Do you swear?"</p>
+
+<p>"I swear."</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman walked back to the door-sill, at
+the entrance to the orchard. He took a quick aim,
+pointing his gun a little in the air, in the direction
+of the cherry tree which overhung the spring. He
+fired. A hoarse cry rang from the tree; and the
+scarecrow which had been straddling the main
+branch for a month past came tumbling to the
+ground, only to jump up at once and make off as
+fast as its legs could carry it.</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's amazement, followed by
+outcries. The sons darted in pursuit and were not
+long in coming up with the runaway, hampered as
+he was by his rags and weakened by privation.
+But the stranger was already protecting him against
+their wrath:</p>
+
+<p>"Hands off there! This man belongs to me.
+I won't have him touched.... I hope I haven't
+stung you up too much, Trainard?"</p>
+
+<p>Standing on his straw legs wrapped round with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>
+strips of tattered cloth, with his arms and his
+whole body clad in the same materials, his head
+swathed in linen, tightly packed like a sausage,
+the old chap still had the stiff appearance of a
+lay-figure. And the whole effect was so ludicrous
+and so unexpected that the onlookers screamed
+with laughter.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger unbound his head; and they saw a
+veiled mask of tangled grey beard encroaching on
+every side upon a skeleton face lit up by two eyes
+burning with fever.</p>
+
+<p>The laughter was louder than ever.</p>
+
+<p>"The money! The six notes!" roared the
+farmer.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger kept him at a distance:</p>
+
+<p>"One moment ... we'll give you that back,
+sha'n't we, Trainard?"</p>
+
+<p>And, taking his knife and cutting away the straw
+and cloth, he jested, cheerily:</p>
+
+<p>"You poor old beggar, what a guy you look!
+But how on earth did you manage to pull off that
+trick? You must be confoundedly clever, or else
+you had the devil's own luck.... So, on the first
+night, you used the breathing-time they left you
+to rig yourself in these togs! Not a bad idea. Who
+could ever suspect a scarecrow?... They were so
+accustomed to seeing it stuck up in its tree! But,
+poor old daddy, how uncomfortable you must have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>
+felt, lying flat up there on your stomach, with your
+arms and legs dangling down! All day long, like
+that! The deuce of an attitude! And how you
+must have been put to it, when you ventured to
+move a limb, eh? And how you must have funked
+going to sleep!... And then you had to eat!
+And drink! And you heard the sentry and felt
+the barrel of his gun within a yard of your nose!
+Brrrr!... But the trickiest of all, you know,
+was your bit of straw!... Upon my word, when
+I think that, without a sound, without a movement
+so to speak, you had to fish out lengths of straw
+from your toggery, fix them end to end, let your apparatus
+down to the water and suck up the heavenly
+moisture drop by drop.... Upon my word, one
+could scream with admiration.... Well done, Trainard...."
+And he added, between his teeth, "Only
+you're in a very unappetizing state, my man.
+Haven't you washed yourself all this month, you
+old pig? After all, you had as much water as
+you wanted!... Here, you people, I hand him
+over to you. I'm going to wash my hands, that's
+what I'm going to do."</p>
+
+<p>Farmer Goussot and his four sons grabbed at
+the prey which he was abandoning to them:</p>
+
+<p>"Now then, come along, fork out the money."</p>
+
+<p>Dazed as he was, the tramp still managed to
+simulate astonishment.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't put on that idiot look," growled the
+farmer. "Come on. Out with the six notes...."</p>
+
+<p>"What?... What do you want of me?" stammered
+old Trainard.</p>
+
+<p>"The money ... on the nail...."</p>
+
+<p>"What money?"</p>
+
+<p>"The bank-notes."</p>
+
+<p>"The bank-notes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm getting sick of you! Here, lads...."</p>
+
+<p>They laid the old fellow flat, tore off the rags
+that composed his clothes, felt and searched him
+all over.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing on him.</p>
+
+<p>"You thief and you robber!" yelled old Goussot.
+"What have you done with it?"</p>
+
+<p>The old beggar seemed more dazed than ever.
+Too cunning to confess, he kept on whining:</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want of me?... Money?
+I haven't three sous to call my own...."</p>
+
+<p>But his eyes, wide with wonder, remained fixed
+upon his clothes; and he himself seemed not to understand.</p>
+
+<p>The Goussots' rage could no longer be restrained.
+They rained blows upon him, which did not improve
+matters. But the farmer was convinced that Trainard
+had hidden the money before turning himself
+into the scarecrow:</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you put it, you scum? Out with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>
+it! In what part of the orchard have you hidden
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"The money?" repeated the tramp with a stupid
+look.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the money! The money which you've
+buried somewhere.... Oh, if we don't find it, your
+goose is cooked!... We have witnesses, haven't
+we?... All of you, friends, eh? And then the
+gentleman...."</p>
+
+<p>He turned, with the intention of addressing the
+stranger, in the direction of the spring, which was
+thirty or forty steps to the left. And he was quite
+surprised not to see him washing his hands there:</p>
+
+<p>"Has he gone?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Some one answered:</p>
+
+<p>"No, he lit a cigarette and went for a stroll in
+the orchard."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's all right!" said the farmer. "He's
+the sort to find the notes for us, just as he found
+the man."</p>
+
+<p>"Unless ..." said a voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Unless what?" echoed the farmer. "What
+do you mean? Have you something in your head?
+Out with it, then! What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>But he interrupted himself suddenly, seized with
+a doubt; and there was a moment's silence. The
+same idea dawned on all the country-folk. The
+stranger's arrival at Héberville, the breakdown of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>
+his motor, his manner of questioning the people at
+the inn and of gaining admission to the farm: were
+not all these part and parcel of a put-up job, the
+trick of a cracksman who had learnt the story from
+the papers and who had come to try his luck on the
+spot?...</p>
+
+<p>"Jolly smart of him!" said the inn-keeper.
+"He must have taken the money from old Trainard's
+pocket, before our eyes, while he was searching
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible!" spluttered Farmer Goussot. "He
+would have been seen going out that way ... by
+the house ... whereas he's strolling in the orchard."</p>
+
+<p>Mother Goussot, all of a heap, suggested:</p>
+
+<p>"The little door at the end, down there?..."</p>
+
+<p>"The key never leaves me."</p>
+
+<p>"But you showed it to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and I took it back again.... Look, here
+it is."</p>
+
+<p>He clapped his hand to his pocket and uttered a
+cry:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dash it all, it's gone!... He's sneaked
+it!..."</p>
+
+<p>He at once rushed away, followed and escorted
+by his sons and a number of the villagers.</p>
+
+<p>When they were halfway down the orchard, they
+heard the throb of a motor-car, obviously the one
+belonging to the stranger, who had given orders<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>
+to his chauffeur to wait for him at that lower
+entrance.</p>
+
+<p style="margin-bottom: 1.5em;">When the Goussots reached the door, they saw
+scrawled with a brick, on the worm-eaten panel, the
+two words:</p>
+
+<div class="center">"ARSÈNE LUPIN."</div>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>Stick to it as the angry Goussots might, they found
+it impossible to prove that old Trainard had stolen
+any money. Twenty persons had to bear witness
+that, when all was said, nothing was discovered
+on his person. He escaped with a few months'
+imprisonment for the assault.</p>
+
+<p>He did not regret them. As soon as he was
+released, he was secretly informed that, every quarter,
+on a given date, at a given hour, under a given
+milestone on a given road, he would find three gold
+louis.</p>
+
+<p>To a man like old Trainard that means wealth.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="chapter"><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2>
+
+<h3 class="chapter2">EDITH SWAN-NECK</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Arsène Lupin, what's your real opinion of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>
+Inspector Ganimard?"</p>
+
+<p>"A very high one, my dear fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"A very high one? Then why do you never
+miss a chance of turning him into ridicule?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's a bad habit; and I'm sorry for it. But
+what can I say? It's the way of the world. Here's
+a decent detective-chap, here's a whole pack of
+decent men, who stand for law and order, who
+protect us against the apaches, who risk their lives
+for honest people like you and me; and we have
+nothing to give them in return but flouts and gibes.
+It's preposterous!"</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo, Lupin! you're talking like a respectable
+ratepayer!"</p>
+
+<p>"What else am I? I may have peculiar views
+about other people's property; but I assure you
+that it's very different when my own's at stake.
+By Jove, it doesn't do to lay hands on what belongs
+to me! Then I'm out for blood! Aha! It's <i>my</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span>
+pocket, <i>my</i> money, <i>my</i> watch ... hands off! I
+have the soul of a conservative, my dear fellow, the
+instincts of a retired tradesman and a due respect
+for every sort of tradition and authority. And
+that is why Ganimard inspires me with no little
+gratitude and esteem."</p>
+
+<p>"But not much admiration?"</p>
+
+<p>"Plenty of admiration too. Over and above the
+dauntless courage which comes natural to all those
+gentry at the Criminal Investigation Department,
+Ganimard possesses very sterling qualities: decision,
+insight and judgment. I have watched him at
+work. He's somebody, when all's said. Do you
+know the Edith Swan-neck story, as it was called?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know as much as everybody knows."</p>
+
+<p>"That means that you don't know it at all.
+Well, that job was, I daresay, the one which I
+thought out most cleverly, with the utmost care
+and the utmost precaution, the one which I shrouded
+in the greatest darkness and mystery, the one which
+it took the biggest generalship to carry through.
+It was a regular game of chess, played according to
+strict scientific and mathematical rules. And yet
+Ganimard ended by unravelling the knot. Thanks
+to him, they know the truth to-day on the Quai
+des Orfèvres. And it is a truth quite out of the
+common, I assure you."</p>
+
+<p>"May I hope to hear it?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Certainly ... one of these days ... when I
+have time.... But the Brunelli is dancing at
+the Opera to-night; and, if she were not to see me
+in my stall ...!"</p>
+
+<p>I do not meet Lupin often. He confesses with
+difficulty, when it suits him. It was only gradually,
+by snatches, by odds and ends of confidences, that
+I was able to obtain the different incidents and to
+piece the story together in all its details.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>The main features are well known and I will
+merely mention the facts.</p>
+
+<p>Three years ago, when the train from Brest
+arrived at Rennes, the door of one of the luggage
+vans was found smashed in. This van had been
+booked by Colonel Sparmiento, a rich Brazilian,
+who was travelling with his wife in the same train.
+It contained a complete set of tapestry-hangings.
+The case in which one of these was packed had been
+broken open and the tapestry had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Sparmiento started proceedings against
+the railway-company, claiming heavy damages, not
+only for the stolen tapestry, but also for the loss
+in value which the whole collection suffered in consequence
+of the theft.</p>
+
+<p>The police instituted inquiries. The company
+offered a large reward. A fortnight later, a letter
+which had come undone in the post was opened by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>
+the authorities and revealed the fact that the theft
+had been carried out under the direction of Arsène
+Lupin and that a package was to leave next day
+for the United States. That same evening, the
+tapestry was discovered in a trunk deposited in the
+cloak-room at the Gare Saint-Lazare.</p>
+
+<p>The scheme, therefore, had miscarried. Lupin felt
+the disappointment so much that he vented his ill-humour
+in a communication to Colonel Sparmiento,
+ending with the following words, which were clear
+enough for anybody:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"It was very considerate of me to take only
+one. Next time, I shall take the twelve. <i>Verbum
+sap.</i></p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 40em;">"A. L."</p></div>
+
+<p>Colonel Sparmiento had been living for some
+months in a house standing at the end of a small
+garden at the corner of the Rue de la Faisanderie and
+the Rue Dufresnoy. He was a rather thick-set,
+broad-shouldered man, with black hair and a swarthy
+skin, always well and quietly dressed. He was
+married to an extremely pretty but delicate Englishwoman,
+who was much upset by the business of the
+tapestries. From the first she implored her husband
+to sell them for what they would fetch. The Colonel
+had much too forcible and dogged a nature to yield
+to what he had every right to describe as a woman's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>
+fancies. He sold nothing, but he redoubled his
+precautions and adopted every measure that was
+likely to make an attempt at burglary impossible.</p>
+
+<p>To begin with, so that he might confine his watch
+to the garden-front, he walled up all the windows
+on the ground-floor and the first floor overlooking
+the Rue Dufresnoy. Next, he enlisted the services
+of a firm which made a speciality of protecting
+private houses against robberies. Every window
+of the gallery in which the tapestries were hung
+was fitted with invisible burglar alarms, the position
+of which was known, to none but himself. These,
+at the least touch, switched on all the electric
+lights and set a whole system of bells and gongs
+ringing.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to this, the insurance companies to
+which he applied refused to grant policies to any
+considerable amount unless he consented to let
+three men, supplied by the companies and paid by
+himself, occupy the ground-floor of his house every
+night. They selected for the purpose three ex-detectives,
+tried and trustworthy men, all of whom
+hated Lupin like poison. As for the servants, the
+colonel had known them for years and was ready to
+vouch for them.</p>
+
+<p>After taking these steps and organizing the
+defence of the house as though it were a fortress,
+the colonel gave a great house-warming, a sort of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>
+private view, to which he invited the members of
+both his clubs, as well as a certain number of ladies,
+journalists, art-patrons and critics.</p>
+
+<p>They felt, as they passed through the garden-gate,
+much as if they were walking into a prison.
+The three private detectives, posted at the foot of
+the stairs, asked for each visitor's invitation card
+and eyed him up and down suspiciously, making him
+feel as though they were going to search his pockets
+or take his finger-prints.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel, who received his guests on the first
+floor, made laughing apologies and seemed delighted
+at the opportunity of explaining the arrangements
+which he had invented to secure the safety of his
+hangings. His wife stood by him, looking charmingly
+young and pretty, fair-haired, pale and sinuous,
+with a sad and gentle expression, the expression
+of resignation often worn by those who are threatened
+by fate.</p>
+
+<p>When all the guests had come, the garden-gates
+and the hall-doors were closed. Then everybody
+filed into the middle gallery, which was reached
+through two steel doors, while its windows, with
+their huge shutters, were protected by iron bars.
+This was where the twelve tapestries were kept.</p>
+
+<p>They were matchless works of art and, taking
+their inspiration from the famous Bayeux Tapestry,
+attributed to Queen Matilda, they represented the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>
+story of the Norman Conquest. They had been
+ordered in the fourteenth century by the descendant
+of a man-at-arms in William the Conqueror's
+train; were executed by Jehan Gosset, a famous
+Arras weaver; and were discovered, five hundred
+years later, in an old Breton manor-house. On
+hearing of this, the colonel had struck a bargain
+for fifty thousand francs. They were worth ten
+times the money.</p>
+
+<p>But the finest of the twelve hangings composing
+the set, the most uncommon because the subject
+had not been treated by Queen Matilda, was the
+one which Arsène Lupin had stolen and which
+had been so fortunately recovered. It portrayed
+Edith Swan-neck on the battlefield of Hastings,
+seeking among the dead for the body of her sweetheart
+Harold, last of the Saxon kings.</p>
+
+<p>The guests were lost in enthusiasm over this
+tapestry, over the unsophisticated beauty of the
+design, over the faded colours, over the life-like
+grouping of the figures and the pitiful sadness of
+the scene. Poor Edith Swan-neck stood drooping
+like an overweighted lily. Her white gown revealed
+the lines of her languid figure. Her long,
+tapering hands were outstretched in a gesture of
+terror and entreaty. And nothing could be more
+mournful than her profile, over which flickered
+the most dejected and despairing of smiles.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"A harrowing smile," remarked one of the
+critics, to whom the others listened with deference.
+"A very charming smile, besides; and it reminds
+me, Colonel, of the smile of Mme. Sparmiento."</p>
+
+<p>And seeing that the observation seemed to meet
+with approval, he enlarged upon his idea:</p>
+
+<p>"There are other points of resemblance that
+struck me at once, such as the very graceful curve
+of the neck and the delicacy of the hands ... and
+also something about the figure, about the general
+attitude...."</p>
+
+<p>"What you say is so true," said the colonel,
+"that I confess that it was this likeness that decided
+me to buy the hangings. And there was
+another reason, which was that, by a really curious
+chance, my wife's name happens to be Edith. I
+have called her Edith Swan-neck ever since."
+And the colonel added, with a laugh, "I hope that
+the coincidence will stop at this and that my dear
+Edith will never have to go in search of her true-love's
+body, like her prototype."</p>
+
+<p>He laughed as he uttered these words, but his
+laugh met with no echo; and we find the same
+impression of awkward silence in all the accounts
+of the evening that appeared during the next few
+days. The people standing near him did not know
+what to say. One of them tried to jest:</p>
+
+<p>"Your name isn't Harold, Colonel?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, thank you," he declared, with continued
+merriment. "No, that's not my name; nor am I
+in the least like the Saxon king."</p>
+
+<p>All have since agreed in stating that, at that
+moment, as the colonel finished speaking, the first
+alarm rang from the windows&mdash;the right or the
+middle window: opinions differ on this point&mdash;rang
+short and shrill on a single note. The peal
+of the alarm-bell was followed by an exclamation
+of terror uttered by Mme. Sparmiento, who caught
+hold of her husband's arm. He cried:</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter? What does this mean?"</p>
+
+<p>The guests stood motionless, with their eyes
+staring at the windows. The colonel repeated:</p>
+
+<p>"What does it mean? I don't understand.
+No one but myself knows where that bell is
+fixed...."</p>
+
+<p>And, at that moment&mdash;here again the evidence
+is unanimous&mdash;at that moment came sudden, absolute
+darkness, followed immediately by the maddening
+din of all the bells and all the gongs, from
+top to bottom of the house, in every room and at
+every window.</p>
+
+<p>For a few seconds, a stupid disorder, an insane
+terror, reigned. The women screamed. The men
+banged with their fists on the closed doors. They
+hustled and fought. People fell to the floor and
+were trampled under foot. It was like a panic-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>stricken
+crowd, scared by threatening flames or by
+a bursting shell. And, above the uproar, rose
+the colonel's voice, shouting:</p>
+
+<p>"Silence!... Don't move!... It's all right!...
+The switch is over there, in the corner....
+Wait a bit.... Here!"</p>
+
+<p>He had pushed his way through his guests and
+reached a corner of the gallery; and, all at once,
+the electric light blazed up again, while the pandemonium
+of bells stopped.</p>
+
+<p>Then, in the sudden light, a strange sight met
+the eyes. Two ladies had fainted. Mme. Sparmiento,
+hanging to her husband's arm, with her
+knees dragging on the floor, and livid in the face,
+appeared half dead. The men, pale, with their
+neckties awry, looked as if they had all been in
+the wars.</p>
+
+<p>"The tapestries are there!" cried some one.</p>
+
+<p>There was a great surprise, as though the disappearance
+of those hangings ought to have been
+the natural result and the only plausible explanation
+of the incident. But nothing had been moved.
+A few valuable pictures, hanging on the walls,
+were there still. And, though the same din had
+reverberated all over the house, though all the
+rooms had been thrown into darkness, the detectives
+had seen no one entering or trying to
+enter.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Besides," said the colonel, "it's only the windows
+of the gallery that have alarms. Nobody
+but myself understands how they work; and I had
+not set them yet."</p>
+
+<p>People laughed loudly at the way in which they
+had been frightened, but they laughed without
+conviction and in a more or less shamefaced fashion,
+for each of them was keenly alive to the absurdity
+of his conduct. And they had but one thought&mdash;to
+get out of that house where, say what you would,
+the atmosphere was one of agonizing anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>Two journalists stayed behind, however; and the
+colonel joined them, after attending to Edith and
+handing her over to her maids. The three of
+them, together with the detectives, made a search
+that did not lead to the discovery of anything of
+the least interest. Then the colonel sent for some
+champagne; and the result was that it was not until
+a late hour&mdash;to be exact, a quarter to three in
+the morning&mdash;that the journalists took their leave,
+the colonel retired to his quarters, and the detectives
+withdrew to the room which had been set
+aside for them on the ground-floor.</p>
+
+<p>They took the watch by turns, a watch consisting,
+in the first place, in keeping awake and,
+next, in looking round the garden and visiting the
+gallery at intervals.</p>
+
+<p>These orders were scrupulously carried out,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>
+except between five and seven in the morning,
+when sleep gained the mastery and the men ceased
+to go their rounds. But it was broad daylight out
+of doors. Besides, if there had been the least sound
+of bells, would they not have woke up?</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, when one of them, at twenty minutes
+past seven, opened the door of the gallery and
+flung back the shutters, he saw that the twelve
+tapestries were gone.</p>
+
+<p>This man and the others were blamed afterward
+for not giving the alarm at once and for starting
+their own investigations before informing the
+colonel and telephoning to the local commissary.
+Yet this very excusable delay can hardly be said
+to have hampered the action of the police. In
+any case, the colonel was not told until half-past
+eight. He was dressed and ready to go out. The
+news did not seem to upset him beyond measure,
+or, at least, he managed to control his emotion.
+But the effort must have been too much for him,
+for he suddenly dropped into a chair and, for some
+moments, gave way to a regular fit of despair and
+anguish, most painful to behold in a man of his
+resolute appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Recovering and mastering himself, he went to
+the gallery, stared at the bare walls and then sat
+down at a table and hastily scribbled a letter, which
+he put into an envelope and sealed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"There," he said. "I'm in a hurry.... I
+have an important engagement.... Here is a
+letter for the commissary of police." And, seeing
+the detectives' eyes upon him, he added, "I am
+giving the commissary my views ... telling him
+of a suspicion that occurs to me.... He must
+follow it up.... I will do what I can...."</p>
+
+<p>He left the house at a run, with excited gestures
+which the detectives were subsequently to remember.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later, the commissary of police
+arrived. He was handed the letter, which contained
+the following words:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"I am at the end of my tether. The theft of
+those tapestries completes the crash which I have
+been trying to conceal for the past year. I bought
+them as a speculation and was hoping to get a million
+francs for them, thanks to the fuss that was
+made about them. As it was, an American offered
+me six hundred thousand. It meant my salvation.
+This means utter destruction.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope that my dear wife will forgive the sorrow
+which I am bringing upon her. Her name
+will be on my lips at the last moment."</p></div>
+
+<p>Mme. Sparmiento was informed. She remained
+aghast with horror, while inquiries were instituted
+and attempts made to trace the colonel's movements.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Late in the afternoon, a telephone-message
+came from Ville d'Avray. A gang of railway-men
+had found a man's body lying at the entrance to
+a tunnel after a train had passed. The body was
+hideously mutilated; the face had lost all resemblance
+to anything human. There were no papers
+in the pockets. But the description answered to
+that of the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>Mme. Sparmiento arrived at Ville d'Avray, by
+motor-car, at seven o'clock in the evening. She
+was taken to a room at the railway-station. When
+the sheet that covered it was removed, Edith, Edith
+Swan-neck, recognized her husband's body.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p>In these circumstances, Lupin did not receive his
+usual good notices in the press:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"Let him look to himself," jeered one leader-writer,
+summing up the general opinion. "It would
+not take many exploits of this kind for him to forfeit
+the popularity which has not been grudged him
+hitherto. We have no use for Lupin, except when
+his rogueries are perpetrated at the expense of
+shady company-promoters, foreign adventurers,
+German barons, banks and financial companies.
+And, above all, no murders! A burglar we can
+put up with; but a murderer, no! If he is not
+directly guilty, he is at least responsible for this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>
+death. There is blood upon his hands; the arms
+on his escutcheon are stained gules...."</p></div>
+
+<p>The public anger and disgust were increased by
+the pity which Edith's pale face aroused. The
+guests of the night before gave their version of
+what had happened, omitting none of the impressive
+details; and a legend formed straightway around
+the fair-haired Englishwoman, a legend that assumed
+a really tragic character, owing to the popular story
+of the swan-necked heroine.</p>
+
+<p>And yet the public could not withhold its admiration
+of the extraordinary skill with which the theft
+had been effected. The police explained it, after
+a fashion. The detectives had noticed from the
+first and subsequently stated that one of the three
+windows of the gallery was wide open. There
+could be no doubt that Lupin and his confederates
+had entered through this window. It seemed a
+very plausible suggestion. Still, in that case, how
+were they able, first, to climb the garden railings,
+in coming and going, without being seen; secondly,
+to cross the garden and put up a ladder on the flower-border,
+without leaving the least trace behind;
+thirdly, to open the shutters and the window, without
+starting the bells and switching on the lights in
+the house?</p>
+
+<p>The police accused the three detectives of com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>plicity.
+The magistrate in charge of the case examined
+them at length, made minute inquiries
+into their private lives and stated formally that they
+were above all suspicion. As for the tapestries,
+there seemed to be no hope that they would be
+recovered.</p>
+
+<p>It was at this moment that Chief-inspector Ganimard
+returned from India, where he had been hunting
+for Lupin on the strength of a number of most
+convincing proofs supplied by former confederates
+of Lupin himself. Feeling that he had once
+more been tricked by his everlasting adversary,
+fully believing that Lupin had dispatched him on
+this wild-goose chase so as to be rid of him during
+the business of the tapestries, he asked for a fortnight's
+leave of absence, called on Mme. Sparmiento
+and promised to avenge her husband.</p>
+
+<p>Edith had reached the point at which not even
+the thought of vengeance relieves the sufferer's
+pain. She had dismissed the three detectives on
+the day of the funeral and engaged just one man
+and an old cook-housekeeper to take the place of
+the large staff of servants the sight of whom reminded
+her too cruelly of the past. Not caring
+what happened, she kept her room and left Ganimard
+free to act as he pleased.</p>
+
+<p>He took up his quarters on the ground-floor and
+at once instituted a series of the most minute in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span>vestigations.
+He started the inquiry afresh, questioned
+the people in the neighbourhood, studied
+the distribution of the rooms and set each of the
+burglar-alarms going thirty and forty times over.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the fortnight, he asked for an extension
+of leave. The chief of the detective-service,
+who was at that time M. Dudouis, came to
+see him and found him perched on the top of a
+ladder, in the gallery. That day, the chief-inspector
+admitted that all his searches had proved
+useless.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later, however, M. Dudouis called
+again and discovered Ganimard in a very thoughtful
+frame of mind. A bundle of newspapers lay
+spread in front of him. At last, in reply to
+his superior's urgent questions, the chief-inspector
+muttered:</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing, chief, absolutely nothing; but
+there's a confounded notion worrying me.... Only
+it seems so absurd.... And then it doesn't explain
+things.... On the contrary, it confuses them
+rather...."</p>
+
+<p>"Then ...?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then I implore you, chief, to have a little
+patience ... to let me go my own way. But if
+I telephone to you, some day or other, suddenly,
+you must jump into a taxi, without losing a minute.
+It will mean that I have discovered the secret."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Forty-eight hours passed. Then, one morning,
+M. Dudouis received a telegram:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"Going to Lille.</p>
+
+<p style="font-variant: small-caps; margin-left: 9em;">"Ganimard."</p></div>
+
+<p>"What the dickens can he want to go to Lille
+for?" wondered the chief-detective.</p>
+
+<p>The day passed without news, followed by another
+day. But M. Dudouis had every confidence in
+Ganimard. He knew his man, knew that the old
+detective was not one of those people who excite
+themselves for nothing. When Ganimard "got a
+move on him," it meant that he had sound reasons
+for doing so.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, on the evening of that second
+day, M. Dudouis was called to the telephone.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that you, chief?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it Ganimard speaking?"</p>
+
+<p>Cautious men both, they began by making
+sure of each other's identity. As soon as his mind
+was eased on this point, Ganimard continued, hurriedly:</p>
+
+<p>"Ten men, chief, at once. And please come
+yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the house, on the ground-floor. But I will
+wait for you just inside the garden-gate."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll come at once. In a taxi, of course?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, chief. Stop the taxi fifty yards from the
+house. I'll let you in when you whistle."</p>
+
+<p>Things took place as Ganimard had arranged.
+Shortly after midnight, when all the lights were out
+on the upper floors, he slipped into the street and
+went to meet M. Dudouis. There was a hurried
+consultation. The officers distributed themselves
+as Ganimard ordered. Then the chief and the
+chief-inspector walked back together, noiselessly
+crossed the garden and closeted themselves with
+every precaution:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what's it all about?" asked M. Dudouis.
+"What does all this mean? Upon my word, we
+look like a pair of conspirators!"</p>
+
+<p>But Ganimard was not laughing. His chief had
+never seen him in such a state of perturbation, nor
+heard him speak in a voice denoting such excitement:</p>
+
+<p>"Any news, Ganimard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, chief, and ... this time ...! But I
+can hardly believe it myself.... And yet I'm not
+mistaken: I know the real truth.... It may be as
+unlikely as you please, but it is the truth, the whole
+truth and nothing but the truth."</p>
+
+<p>He wiped away the drops of perspiration that
+trickled down his forehead and, after a further
+question from M. Dudouis, pulled himself together,
+swallowed a glass of water and began:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Lupin has often got the better of me...."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Ganimard," said M. Dudouis, interrupting
+him. "Why can't you come straight
+to the point? Tell me, in two words, what's happened."</p>
+
+<p>"No, chief," retorted the chief-inspector, "it is
+essential that you should know the different stages
+which I have passed through. Excuse me, but
+I consider it indispensable." And he repeated:
+"I was saying, chief, that Lupin has often got the
+better of me and led me many a dance. But, in this
+contest in which I have always come out worst ...
+so far ... I have at least gained experience of his
+manner of play and learnt to know his tactics.
+Now, in the matter of the tapestries, it occurred to
+me almost from the start to set myself two problems.
+In the first place, Lupin, who never makes a move
+without knowing what he is after, was obviously
+aware that Colonel Sparmiento had come to the end
+of his money and that the loss of the tapestries
+might drive him to suicide. Nevertheless, Lupin,
+who hates the very thought of bloodshed, stole the
+tapestries."</p>
+
+<p>"There was the inducement," said M. Dudouis,
+"of the five or six hundred thousand francs which
+they are worth."</p>
+
+<p>"No, chief, I tell you once more, whatever the
+occasion might be, Lupin would not take life, nor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span>
+be the cause of another person's death, for anything
+in this world, for millions and millions. That's the
+first point. In the second place, what was the
+object of all that disturbance, in the evening, during
+the house-warming party? Obviously, don't you
+think, to surround the business with an atmosphere
+of anxiety and terror, in the shortest possible time,
+and also to divert suspicion from the truth, which,
+otherwise, might easily have been suspected?...
+You seem not to understand, chief?"</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word, I do not!"</p>
+
+<p>"As a matter of fact," said Ganimard, "as a
+matter of fact, it is not particularly plain. And
+I myself, when I put the problem before my mind
+in those same words, did not understand it very
+clearly.... And yet I felt that I was on the right
+track.... Yes, there was no doubt about it that
+Lupin wanted to divert suspicions ... to divert
+them to himself, Lupin, mark you ... so that the
+real person who was working the business might
+remain unknown...."</p>
+
+<p>"A confederate," suggested M. Dudouis. "A
+confederate, moving among the visitors, who set
+the alarms going ... and who managed to hide
+in the house after the party had broken up."</p>
+
+<p>"You're getting warm, chief, you're getting
+warm! It is certain that the tapestries, as they
+cannot have been stolen by any one making his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span>
+way surreptitiously into the house, were stolen
+by somebody who remained in the house; and it
+is equally certain that, by taking the list of the
+people invited and inquiring into the antecedents
+of each of them, one might...."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, chief, there's a 'but,' namely, that the
+three detectives had this list in their hands when
+the guests arrived and that they still had it when
+the guests left. Now sixty-three came in and sixty-three
+went away. So you see...."</p>
+
+<p>"Then do you suppose a servant?..."</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"The detectives?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"But, still ... but, still," said the chief, impatiently,
+"if the robbery was committed from
+the inside...."</p>
+
+<p>"That is beyond dispute," declared the inspector,
+whose excitement seemed to be nearing fever-point.
+"There is no question about it. All my
+investigations led to the same certainty. And
+my conviction gradually became so positive that
+I ended, one day, by drawing up this startling axiom:
+in theory and in fact, the robbery can only
+have been committed with the assistance of an
+accomplice staying in the house. Whereas there
+was no accomplice!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That's absurd," said Dudouis.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite absurd," said Ganimard. "But, at the
+very moment when I uttered that absurd sentence,
+the truth flashed upon me."</p>
+
+<p>"Eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, a very dim, very incomplete, but still
+sufficient truth! With that clue to guide me,
+I was bound to find the way. Do you follow me,
+chief?"</p>
+
+<p>M. Dudouis sat silent. The same phenomenon
+that had taken place in Ganimard was evidently
+taking place in him. He muttered:</p>
+
+<p>"If it's not one of the guests, nor the servants,
+nor the private detectives, then there's no one
+left...."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, chief, there's one left...."</p>
+
+<p>M. Dudouis started as though he had received
+a shock; and, in a voice that betrayed his excitement:</p>
+
+<p>"But, look here, that's preposterous."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, think for yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, chief: say what's in your mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense! What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, chief."</p>
+
+<p>"It's impossible! How can Sparmiento have been
+Lupin's accomplice?"</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard gave a little chuckle.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Exactly, Arsène Lupin's accomplice!... That
+explains everything. During the night, while the
+three detectives were downstairs watching, or
+sleeping rather, for Colonel Sparmiento had given
+them champagne to drink and perhaps doctored
+it beforehand, the said colonel took down the hangings
+and passed them out through the window
+of his bedroom. The room is on the second floor
+and looks out on another street, which was not
+watched, because the lower windows are walled up."</p>
+
+<p>M. Dudouis reflected and then shrugged his
+shoulders:</p>
+
+<p>"It's preposterous!" he repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Because, if the colonel had been Arsène
+Lupin's accomplice, he would not have committed
+suicide after achieving his success."</p>
+
+<p>"Who says that he committed suicide?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, he was found dead on the line!"</p>
+
+<p>"I told you, there is no such thing as death with
+Lupin."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, this was genuine enough. Besides, Mme.
+Sparmiento identified the body."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you would say that, chief. The
+argument worried me too. There was I, all of
+a sudden, with three people in front of me instead
+of one: first, Arsène Lupin, cracksman; secondly,
+Colonel Sparmiento, his accomplice; thirdly, a dead<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span>
+man. Spare us! It was too much of a good
+thing!"</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard took a bundle of newspapers, untied
+it and handed one of them to Mr. Dudouis:</p>
+
+<p>"You remember, chief, last time you were here,
+I was looking through the papers.... I wanted to
+see if something had not happened, at that period,
+that might bear upon the case and confirm my
+supposition. Please read this paragraph."</p>
+
+<p>M. Dudouis took the paper and read aloud:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"Our Lille correspondent informs us that a
+curious incident has occurred in that town. A
+corpse has disappeared from the local morgue,
+the corpse of a man unknown who threw himself
+under the wheels of a steam tram-car on the day
+before. No one is able to suggest a reason for
+this disappearance."</p></div>
+
+<p>M. Dudouis sat thinking and then asked:</p>
+
+<p>"So ... you believe ...?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have just come from Lille," replied Ganimard,
+"and my inquiries leave not a doubt in my mind.
+The corpse was removed on the same night on
+which Colonel Sparmiento gave his house-warming.
+It was taken straight to Ville d'Avray by motor-car;
+and the car remained near the railway-line
+until the evening."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Near the tunnel, therefore," said M. Dudouis.</p>
+
+<p>"Next to it, chief."</p>
+
+<p>"So that the body which was found is merely
+that body, dressed in Colonel Sparmiento's clothes."</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely, chief."</p>
+
+<p>"Then Colonel Sparmiento is not dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"No more dead than you or I, chief."</p>
+
+<p>"But then why all these complications? Why
+the theft of one tapestry, followed by its recovery,
+followed by the theft of the twelve? Why that
+house-warming? Why that disturbance? Why
+everything? Your story won't hold water, Ganimard."</p>
+
+<p>"Only because you, chief, like myself, have
+stopped halfway; because, strange as this story
+already sounds, we must go still farther, very much
+farther, in the direction of the improbable and the
+astounding. And why not, after all? Remember
+that we are dealing with Arsène Lupin. With
+him, is it not always just the improbable and the
+astounding that we must look for? Must we not
+always go straight for the maddest suppositions?
+And, when I say the maddest, I am using the wrong
+word. On the contrary, the whole thing is wonderfully
+logical and so simple that a child could
+understand it. Confederates only betray you. Why
+employ confederates, when it is so easy and so
+natural to act for yourself, by yourself, with your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span>
+own hands and by the means within your own
+reach?"</p>
+
+<p>"What are you saying?... What are you
+saying?... What are you saying?" cried M.
+Dudouis, in a sort of sing-song voice and a tone
+of bewilderment that increased with each separate
+exclamation.</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard gave a fresh chuckle.</p>
+
+<p>"Takes your breath away, chief, doesn't it?
+So it did mine, on the day when you came to see me
+here and when the notion was beginning to grow
+upon me. I was flabbergasted with astonishment.
+And yet I've had experience of my customer. I
+know what he's capable of.... But this, no, this
+was really a bit too stiff!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's impossible! It's impossible!" said M.
+Dudouis, in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, chief, it's quite possible and
+quite logical and quite normal. It's the threefold
+incarnation of one and the same individual. A
+schoolboy would solve the problem in a minute,
+by a simple process of elimination. Take away the
+dead man: there remains Sparmiento and Lupin.
+Take away Sparmiento...."</p>
+
+<p>"There remains Lupin," muttered the chief-detective.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, chief, Lupin simply, Lupin in five letters
+and two syllables, Lupin taken out of his Brazilian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>
+skin, Lupin revived from the dead, Lupin translated,
+for the past six months, into Colonel Sparmiento,
+travelling in Brittany, hearing of the discovery
+of the twelve tapestries, buying them,
+planning the theft of the best of them, so as to draw
+attention to himself, Lupin, and divert it from himself,
+Sparmiento. Next, he brings about, in full
+view of the gaping public, a noisy contest between
+Lupin and Sparmiento or Sparmiento and Lupin,
+plots and gives the house-warming party, terrifies
+his guests and, when everything is ready, arranges
+for Lupin to steal Sparmiento's tapestries and for
+Sparmiento, Lupin's victim, to disappear from sight
+and die unsuspected, unsuspectable, regretted by
+his friends, pitied by the public and leaving behind
+him, to pocket the profits of the swindle...."</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard stopped, looked the chief in the eyes
+and, in a voice that emphasized the importance
+of his words, concluded:</p>
+
+<p>"Leaving behind him a disconsolate widow."</p>
+
+<p>"Mme. Sparmiento! You really believe....?</p>
+
+<p>"Hang it all!" said the chief-inspector. "People
+don't work up a whole business of this sort, without
+seeing something ahead of them ... solid profits."</p>
+
+<p>"But the profits, it seems to me, lie in the sale of
+the tapestries which Lupin will effect in America or
+elsewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"First of all, yes. But Colonel Sparmiento could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span>
+effect that sale just as well. And even better. So
+there's something more."</p>
+
+<p>"Something more?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, chief, you're forgetting that Colonel
+Sparmiento has been the victim of an important
+robbery and that, though he may be dead, at least
+his widow remains. So it's his widow who will get
+the money."</p>
+
+<p>"What money?"</p>
+
+<p>"What money? Why, the money due to her!
+The insurance-money, of course!"</p>
+
+<p>M. Dudouis was staggered. The whole business
+suddenly became clear to him, with its real meaning.
+He muttered:</p>
+
+<p>"That's true!... That's true!... The
+colonel had insured his tapestries...."</p>
+
+<p>"Rather! And for no trifle either."</p>
+
+<p>"For how much?"</p>
+
+<p>"Eight hundred thousand francs."</p>
+
+<p>"Eight hundred thousand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just so. In five different companies."</p>
+
+<p>"And has Mme. Sparmiento had the money?"</p>
+
+<p>"She got a hundred and fifty thousand francs
+yesterday and two hundred thousand to-day, while
+I was away. The remaining payments are to be
+made in the course of this week."</p>
+
+<p>"But this is terrible! You ought to have...."</p>
+
+<p>"What, chief? To begin with, they took ad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span>vantage
+of my absence to settle up accounts with
+the companies. I only heard about it on my return
+when I ran up against an insurance-manager whom
+I happen to know and took the opportunity of
+drawing him out."</p>
+
+<p>The chief-detective was silent for some time,
+not knowing what to say. Then he mumbled:</p>
+
+<p>"What a fellow, though!"</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard nodded his head:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, chief, a blackguard, but, I can't help saying,
+a devil of a clever fellow. For his plan to succeed,
+he must have managed in such a way that, for four
+or five weeks, no one could express or even conceive
+the least suspicion of the part played by Colonel
+Sparmiento. All the indignation and all the inquiries
+had to be concentrated upon Lupin alone.
+In the last resort, people had to find themselves
+faced simply with a mournful, pitiful, penniless
+widow, poor Edith Swan-neck, a beautiful and
+legendary vision, a creature so pathetic that the
+gentlemen of the insurance-companies were almost
+glad to place something in her hands to relieve her
+poverty and her grief. That's what was wanted
+and that's what happened."</p>
+
+<p>The two men were close together and did not
+take their eyes from each other's faces.</p>
+
+<p>The chief asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Who is that woman?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Sonia Kritchnoff."</p>
+
+<p>"Sonia Kritchnoff?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the Russian girl whom I arrested last year
+at the time of the theft of the coronet, and whom
+Lupin helped to escape."<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a></p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure?"</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely. I was put off the scent, like everybody
+else, by Lupin's machinations, and had paid
+no particular attention to her. But, when I knew
+the part which she was playing, I remembered.
+She is certainly Sonia, metamorphosed into an
+Englishwoman; Sonia, the most innocent-looking
+and the trickiest of actresses; Sonia, who would not
+hesitate to face death for love of Lupin."</p>
+
+<p>"A good capture, Ganimard," said M. Dudouis,
+approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>"I've something better still for you, chief!"</p>
+
+<p>"Really? What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lupin's old foster-mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Victoire?"<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a></p>
+
+<p>"She has been here since Mme. Sparmiento began
+playing the widow; she's the cook."</p>
+
+<p>"Oho!" said M. Dudouis. "My congratulations,
+Ganimard!"</p>
+
+<p>"I've something for you, chief, that's even better
+than that!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>M. Dudouis gave a start. The inspector's hand
+clutched his and was shaking with excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, Ganimard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think, chief, that I would have brought
+you here, at this late hour, if I had had nothing more
+attractive to offer you than Sonia and Victoire?
+Pah! They'd have kept!"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean to say ...?" whispered M. Dudouis,
+at last, understanding the chief-inspector's agitation.</p>
+
+<p>"You've guessed it, chief!"</p>
+
+<p>"Is he here?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's here."</p>
+
+<p>"In hiding?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit of it. Simply in disguise. He's the
+man-servant."</p>
+
+<p>This time, M. Dudouis did not utter a word nor
+make a gesture. Lupin's audacity confounded him.</p>
+
+<p>Ganimard chuckled.</p>
+
+<p>"It's no longer a threefold, but a fourfold incarnation.
+Edith Swan-neck might have blundered.
+The master's presence was necessary; and he had
+the cheek to return. For three weeks, he has been
+beside me during my inquiry, calmly following the
+progress made."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you recognize him?"</p>
+
+<p>"One doesn't recognize him. He has a knack<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span>
+of making-up his face and altering the proportions
+of his body so as to prevent any one from knowing
+him. Besides, I was miles from suspecting.... But,
+this evening, as I was watching Sonia in the
+shadow of the stairs, I heard Victoire speak to the
+man-servant and call him, 'Dearie.' A light
+flashed in upon me. 'Dearie!' That was what
+she always used to call him. And I knew where
+I was."</p>
+
+<p>M. Dudouis seemed flustered, in his turn, by the
+presence of the enemy, so often pursued and always
+so intangible:</p>
+
+<p>"We've got him, this time," he said, between his
+teeth. "We've got him; and he can't escape us."</p>
+
+<p>"No, chief, he can't: neither he nor the two
+women."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are they?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sonia and Victoire are on the second floor; Lupin
+is on the third."</p>
+
+<p>M. Dudouis suddenly became anxious:</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it was through the windows of one of
+those floors that the tapestries were passed when
+they disappeared!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's so, chief."</p>
+
+<p>"In that case, Lupin can get away too. The
+windows look out on the Rue Dufresnoy."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course they do, chief; but I have taken my
+precautions. The moment you arrived, I sent four<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>
+of our men to keep watch under the windows in the
+Rue Dufresnoy. They have strict instructions to
+shoot, if any one appears at the windows and looks
+like coming down. Blank cartridges for the first
+shot, ball-cartridges for the next."</p>
+
+<p>"Good, Ganimard! You have thought of everything.
+We'll wait here; and, immediately after
+sunrise...."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, chief? Stand on ceremony with that
+rascal? Bother about rules and regulations, legal
+hours and all that rot? And suppose he's not
+quite so polite to us and gives us the slip meanwhile?
+Suppose he plays us one of his Lupin
+tricks? No, no, we must have no nonsense!
+We've got him: let's collar him; and that without
+delay!"</p>
+
+<p>And Ganimard, all a-quiver with indignant impatience,
+went out, walked across the garden and
+presently returned with half-a-dozen men:</p>
+
+<p>"It's all right, chief. I've told them, in the
+Rue Dufresnoy, to get their revolvers out and aim
+at the windows. Come along."</p>
+
+<p>These alarums and excursions had not been
+effected without a certain amount of noise, which
+was bound to be heard by the inhabitants of the
+house. M. Dudouis felt that his hand was forced.
+He made up his mind to act:</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, then," he said.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The thing did not take long. The eight of them,
+Browning pistols in hand, went up the stairs without
+overmuch precaution, eager to surprise Lupin before
+he had time to organize his defences.</p>
+
+<p>"Open the door!" roared Ganimard, rushing
+at the door of Mme. Sparmiento's bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>A policeman smashed it in with his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>There was no one in the room; and no one in
+Victoire's bedroom either.</p>
+
+<p>"They're all upstairs!" shouted Ganimard.
+"They've gone up to Lupin in his attic. Be careful
+now!"</p>
+
+<p>All the eight ran up the third flight of stairs.
+To his great astonishment, Ganimard found the
+door of the attic open and the attic empty. And
+the other rooms were empty too.</p>
+
+<p>"Blast them!" he cursed. "What's become
+of them?"</p>
+
+<p>But the chief called him. M. Dudouis, who
+had gone down again to the second floor, noticed
+that one of the windows was not latched, but just
+pushed to:</p>
+
+<p>"There," he said, to Ganimard, "that's the
+road they took, the road of the tapestries. I told
+you as much: the Rue Dufresnoy...."</p>
+
+<p>"But our men would have fired on them," protested
+Ganimard, grinding his teeth with rage.
+"The street's guarded."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"They must have gone before the street was
+guarded."</p>
+
+<p>"They were all three of them in their rooms
+when I rang you up, chief!"</p>
+
+<p>"They must have gone while you were waiting
+for me in the garden."</p>
+
+<p>"But why? Why? There was no reason why
+they should go to-day rather than to-morrow, or
+the next day, or next week, for that matter, when
+they had pocketed all the insurance-money!"</p>
+
+<p>Yes, there was a reason; and Ganimard knew
+it when he saw, on the table, a letter addressed to
+himself and opened it and read it. The letter
+was worded in the style of the testimonials which
+we hand to people in our service who have given
+satisfaction:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquote"><p>"I, the undersigned, Arsène Lupin, gentleman-burglar,
+ex-colonel, ex-man-of-all-work, ex-corpse,
+hereby certify that the person of the name of Ganimard
+gave proof of the most remarkable qualities
+during his stay in this house. He was
+exemplary in his behaviour, thoroughly devoted
+and attentive; and, unaided by the least clue, he
+foiled a part of my plans and saved the insurance-companies
+four hundred and fifty thousand francs.
+I congratulate him; and I am quite willing to overlook
+his blunder in not anticipating that the down<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span>stairs
+telephone communicates with the telephone
+in Sonia Kritchnoff's bedroom and that, when
+telephoning to Mr. Chief-detective, he was at
+the same time telephoning to me to clear out as
+fast as I could. It was a pardonable slip, which
+must not be allowed to dim the glamour of his services
+nor to detract from the merits of his victory.</p>
+
+<p>"Having said this, I beg him to accept the
+homage of my admiration and of my sincere
+friendship.</p>
+
+<p style="font-variant: small-caps; margin-left: 35em; margin-top: 1em;">"Arsène Lupin"</p></div>
+
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="border">
+<h2>FOOTNOTES</h2>
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> <i>The Hollow Needle.</i> By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by
+Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (Eveleigh Nash).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> <i>813.</i> By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by Alexander Teixeira
+de Mattos (Mills &amp; Boon).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> <i>The Exploits of Arsène Lupin.</i> By Maurice Leblanc. Translated
+by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (Cassell). IV. <i>The Escape
+of Arsène Lupin.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> <i>The Exploits of Arsène Lupin. IX. Holmlock Shears arrives
+too late.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> <i>Arsène Lupin.</i> The Novel of the Play. By Edgar Jepson and
+Maurice Leblanc (Mills &amp; Boon).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> <i>The Hollow Needle.</i> By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by
+Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (Nash). <i>813</i> By Maurice Leblanc.
+Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (Mills &amp; Boon).</p></div>
+</div>
+<div class="minispace">&nbsp;</div>
+<div class="microspace">&nbsp;</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg's The Confessions of Arsene Lupin, by Maurice Leblanc
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Confessions of Arsene Lupin
+
+Author: Maurice Leblanc
+
+Release Date: February 15, 2009 [EBook #28093]
+[This file last updated on August 30, 2010]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONFESSIONS OF ARSENE LUPIN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Meredith Bach, and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "_Suddenly he rushed at her and caught her by the arm_"]
+
+
+
+
+    THE INTERNATIONAL
+    ADVENTURE LIBRARY
+
+
+    THREE OWLS EDITION
+
+     THE CONFESSIONS
+     OF ARSENE LUPIN
+
+    An Adventure Story
+
+           BY
+     MAURICE LEBLANC
+ Author of "Arsene Lupin"
+
+   W. R. CALDWELL & CO.
+         NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+ _Copyright, 1912, 1913, by_
+ Maurice Leblanc
+
+ _All rights reserved, including that of
+ translation into foreign languages,
+ including the Scandinavian_
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER                                               PAGE
+
+    I. TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND FRANCS REWARD!               1
+
+    II. THE WEDDING-RING                                36
+
+    III. THE SIGN OF THE SHADOW                         66
+
+    IV. THE INFERNAL TRAP                              101
+
+    V. THE RED SILK SCARF                              138
+
+    VI. SHADOWED BY DEATH                              177
+
+    VII. A TRAGEDY IN THE FOREST OF MORGUES            210
+
+    VIII. LUPIN'S MARRIAGE                             228
+
+    IX. THE INVISIBLE PRISONER                         266
+
+    X. EDITH SWAN-NECK                                 291
+
+
+
+
+THE CONFESSIONS OF ARSENE LUPIN
+
+
+
+
+THE CONFESSIONS OF ARSENE LUPIN
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND FRANCS REWARD!...
+
+
+"Lupin," I said, "tell me something about yourself."
+
+"Why, what would you have me tell you? Everybody knows my life!" replied
+Lupin, who lay drowsing on the sofa in my study.
+
+"Nobody knows it!" I protested. "People know from your letters in the
+newspapers that you were mixed up in this case, that you started that
+case. But the part which you played in it all, the plain facts of the
+story, the upshot of the mystery: these are things of which they know
+nothing."
+
+"Pooh! A heap of uninteresting twaddle!"
+
+"What! Your present of fifty thousand francs to Nicolas Dugrival's wife!
+Do you call that uninteresting? And what about the way in which you
+solved the puzzle of the three pictures?"
+
+Lupin laughed:
+
+"Yes, that was a queer puzzle, certainly. I can suggest a title for you
+if you like: what do you say to _The Sign of the Shadow_?"
+
+"And your successes in society and with the fair sex?" I continued. "The
+dashing Arsene's love-affairs!... And the clue to your good actions?
+Those chapters in your life to which you have so often alluded under the
+names of _The Wedding-ring_, _Shadowed by Death_, and so on!... Why
+delay these confidences and confessions, my dear Lupin?... Come, do what
+I ask you!..."
+
+It was at the time when Lupin, though already famous, had not yet fought
+his biggest battles; the time that preceded the great adventures of _The
+Hollow Needle_ and _813_. He had not yet dreamt of annexing the
+accumulated treasures of the French Royal House[A] nor of changing the
+map of Europe under the Kaiser's nose[B]: he contented himself with
+milder surprises and humbler profits, making his daily effort, doing
+evil from day to day and doing a little good as well, naturally and for
+the love of the thing, like a whimsical and compassionate Don Quixote.
+
+
+  [A] _The Hollow Needle._ By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by Alexander
+  Teixeira de Mattos (Eveleigh Nash).
+
+  [B] _813._ By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de
+  Mattos (Mills & Boon).
+
+
+He was silent; and I insisted:
+
+"Lupin, I wish you would!"
+
+To my astonishment, he replied:
+
+"Take a sheet of paper, old fellow, and a pencil."
+
+I obeyed with alacrity, delighted at the thought that he at last meant
+to dictate to me some of those pages which he knows how to clothe with
+such vigour and fancy, pages which I, unfortunately, am obliged to spoil
+with tedious explanations and boring developments.
+
+"Are you ready?" he asked.
+
+"Quite."
+
+"Write down, 20, 1, 11, 5, 14, 15."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Write it down, I tell you."
+
+He was now sitting up, with his eyes turned to the open window and his
+fingers rolling a Turkish cigarette. He continued:
+
+"Write down, 21, 14, 14, 5...."
+
+He stopped. Then he went on:
+
+"3, 5, 19, 19 ..."
+
+And, after a pause:
+
+"5, 18, 25 ..."
+
+Was he mad? I looked at him hard and, presently, I saw that his eyes
+were no longer listless, as they had been a little before, but keen and
+attentive and that they seemed to be watching, somewhere, in space, a
+sight that apparently captivated them.
+
+Meanwhile, he dictated, with intervals between each number:
+
+"18, 9, 19, 11, 19 ..."
+
+There was hardly anything to be seen through the window but a patch of
+blue sky on the right and the front of the building opposite, an old
+private house, whose shutters were closed as usual. There was nothing
+particular about all this, no detail that struck me as new among those
+which I had had before my eyes for years....
+
+"1, 2...."
+
+And suddenly I understood ... or rather I thought I understood, for how
+could I admit that Lupin, a man so essentially level-headed under his
+mask of frivolity, could waste his time upon such childish nonsense?
+What he was counting was the intermittent flashes of a ray of sunlight
+playing on the dingy front of the opposite house, at the height of the
+second floor!
+
+"15, 22 ..." said Lupin.
+
+The flash disappeared for a few seconds and then struck the house again,
+successively, at regular intervals, and disappeared once more.
+
+I had instinctively counted the flashes and I said, aloud:
+
+"5...."
+
+"Caught the idea? I congratulate you!" he replied, sarcastically.
+
+He went to the window and leant out, as though to discover the exact
+direction followed by the ray of light. Then he came and lay on the sofa
+again, saying:
+
+"It's your turn now. Count away!"
+
+The fellow seemed so positive that I did as he told me. Besides, I could
+not help confessing that there was something rather curious about the
+ordered frequency of those gleams on the front of the house opposite,
+those appearances and disappearances, turn and turn about, like so many
+flash signals.
+
+They obviously came from a house on our side of the street, for the sun
+was entering my windows slantwise. It was as though some one were
+alternately opening and shutting a casement, or, more likely, amusing
+himself by making sunlight flashes with a pocket-mirror.
+
+"It's a child having a game!" I cried, after a moment or two, feeling a
+little irritated by the trivial occupation that had been thrust upon me.
+
+"Never mind, go on!"
+
+And I counted away.... And I put down rows of figures.... And the sun
+continued to play in front of me, with mathematical precision.
+
+"Well?" said Lupin, after a longer pause than usual.
+
+"Why, it seems finished.... There has been nothing for some
+minutes...."
+
+We waited and, as no more light flashed through space, I said,
+jestingly:
+
+"My idea is that we have been wasting our time. A few figures on paper:
+a poor result!"
+
+Lupin, without stirring from his sofa, rejoined:
+
+"Oblige me, old chap, by putting in the place of each of those numbers
+the corresponding letter of the alphabet. Count A as 1, B as 2 and so
+on. Do you follow me?"
+
+"But it's idiotic!"
+
+"Absolutely idiotic, but we do such a lot of idiotic things in this
+life.... One more or less, you know!..."
+
+I sat down to this silly work and wrote out the first letters:
+
+
+    "_Take no...._"
+
+
+I broke off in surprise:
+
+"Words!" I exclaimed. "Two English words meaning...."
+
+"Go on, old chap."
+
+And I went on and the next letters formed two more words, which I
+separated as they appeared. And, to my great amazement, a complete
+English sentence lay before my eyes.
+
+"Done?" asked Lupin, after a time.
+
+"Done!... By the way, there are mistakes in the spelling...."
+
+"Never mind those and read it out, please.... Read slowly."
+
+Thereupon I read out the following unfinished communication, which I
+will set down as it appeared on the paper in front of me:
+
+
+    "_Take no unnecessery risks. Above all, avoid atacks, approach
+    ennemy with great prudance and...._"
+
+
+I began to laugh:
+
+"And there you are! _Fiat lux!_ We're simply dazed with light! But,
+after all, Lupin, confess that this advice, dribbled out by a
+kitchen-maid, doesn't help you much!"
+
+Lupin rose, without breaking his contemptuous silence, and took the
+sheet of paper.
+
+I remembered soon after that, at this moment, I happened to look at the
+clock. It was eighteen minutes past five.
+
+Lupin was standing with the paper in his hand; and I was able at my ease
+to watch, on his youthful features, that extraordinary mobility of
+expression which baffles all observers and constitutes his great
+strength and his chief safeguard. By what signs can one hope to identify
+a face which changes at pleasure, even without the help of make-up, and
+whose every transient expression seems to be the final, definite
+expression?... By what signs? There was one which I knew well, an
+invariable sign: Two little crossed wrinkles that marked his forehead
+whenever he made a powerful effort of concentration. And I saw it at
+that moment, saw the tiny tell-tale cross, plainly and deeply scored.
+
+He put down the sheet of paper and muttered:
+
+"Child's play!"
+
+The clock struck half-past five.
+
+"What!" I cried. "Have you succeeded?... In twelve minutes?..."
+
+He took a few steps up and down the room, lit a cigarette and said:
+
+"You might ring up Baron Repstein, if you don't mind, and tell him I
+shall be with him at ten o'clock this evening."
+
+"Baron Repstein?" I asked. "The husband of the famous baroness?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Are you serious?"
+
+"Quite serious."
+
+Feeling absolutely at a loss, but incapable of resisting him, I opened
+the telephone-directory and unhooked the receiver. But, at that moment,
+Lupin stopped me with a peremptory gesture and said, with his eyes on
+the paper, which he had taken up again:
+
+"No, don't say anything.... It's no use letting him know.... There's
+something more urgent ... a queer thing that puzzles me.... Why on
+earth wasn't the last sentence finished? Why is the sentence...."
+
+He snatched up his hat and stick:
+
+"Let's be off. If I'm not mistaken, this is a business that requires
+immediate solution; and I don't believe I _am_ mistaken."
+
+He put his arm through mine, as we went down the stairs, and said:
+
+"I know what everybody knows. Baron Repstein, the company-promoter and
+racing-man, whose colt Etna won the Derby and the Grand Prix this year,
+has been victimized by his wife. The wife, who was well known for her
+fair hair, her dress and her extravagance, ran away a fortnight ago,
+taking with her a sum of three million francs, stolen from her husband,
+and quite a collection of diamonds, pearls and jewellery which the
+Princesse de Berny had placed in her hands and which she was supposed to
+buy. For two weeks the police have been pursuing the baroness across
+France and the continent: an easy job, as she scatters gold and jewels
+wherever she goes. They think they have her every moment. Two days ago,
+our champion detective, the egregious Ganimard, arrested a visitor at a
+big hotel in Belgium, a woman against whom the most positive evidence
+seemed to be heaped up. On enquiry, the lady turned out to be a
+notorious chorus-girl called Nelly Darbal. As for the baroness, she has
+vanished. The baron, on his side, has offered a reward of two hundred
+thousand francs to whosoever finds his wife. The money is in the hands
+of a solicitor. Moreover, he has sold his racing-stud, his house on the
+Boulevard Haussmann and his country-seat of Roquencourt in one lump, so
+that he may indemnify the Princesse de Berny for her loss."
+
+"And the proceeds of the sale," I added, "are to be paid over at once.
+The papers say that the princess will have her money to-morrow. Only,
+frankly, I fail to see the connection between this story, which you have
+told very well, and the puzzling sentence...."
+
+Lupin did not condescend to reply.
+
+We had been walking down the street in which I live and had passed some
+four or five houses, when he stepped off the pavement and began to
+examine a block of flats, not of the latest construction, which looked
+as if it contained a large number of tenants:
+
+"According to my calculations," he said, "this is where the signals came
+from, probably from that open window."
+
+"On the third floor?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He went to the portress and asked her:
+
+"Does one of your tenants happen to be acquainted with Baron Repstein?"
+
+"Why, of course!" replied the woman. "We have M. Lavernoux here, such a
+nice gentleman; he is the baron's secretary and agent. I look after his
+flat."
+
+"And can we see him?"
+
+"See him?... The poor gentleman is very ill."
+
+"Ill?"
+
+"He's been ill a fortnight ... ever since the trouble with the
+baroness.... He came home the next day with a temperature and took to
+his bed."
+
+"But he gets up, surely?"
+
+"Ah, that I can't say!"
+
+"How do you mean, you can't say?"
+
+"No, his doctor won't let any one into his room. He took my key from
+me."
+
+"Who did?"
+
+"The doctor. He comes and sees to his wants, two or three times a day.
+He left the house only twenty minutes ago ... an old gentleman with a
+grey beard and spectacles.... Walks quite bent.... But where are you
+going sir?"
+
+"I'm going up, show me the way," said Lupin, with his foot on the
+stairs. "It's the third floor, isn't it, on the left?"
+
+"But I mustn't!" moaned the portress, running after him. "Besides, I
+haven't the key ... the doctor...."
+
+They climbed the three flights, one behind the other. On the landing,
+Lupin took a tool from his pocket and, disregarding the woman's
+protests, inserted it in the lock. The door yielded almost immediately.
+We went in.
+
+At the back of a small dark room we saw a streak of light filtering
+through a door that had been left ajar. Lupin ran across the room and,
+on reaching the threshold, gave a cry:
+
+"Too late! Oh, hang it all!"
+
+The portress fell on her knees, as though fainting.
+
+I entered the bedroom, in my turn, and saw a man lying half-dressed on
+the carpet, with his legs drawn up under him, his arms contorted and his
+face quite white, an emaciated, fleshless face, with the eyes still
+staring in terror and the mouth twisted into a hideous grin.
+
+"He's dead," said Lupin, after a rapid examination.
+
+"But why?" I exclaimed. "There's not a trace of blood!"
+
+"Yes, yes, there is," replied Lupin, pointing to two or three drops that
+showed on the chest, through the open shirt. "Look, they must have taken
+him by the throat with one hand and pricked him to the heart with the
+other. I say, 'pricked,' because really the wound can't be seen. It
+suggests a hole made by a very long needle."
+
+
+[Illustration: "_Lupin took a tool from his pocket ... and inserted it
+in the lock_"]
+
+
+He looked on the floor, all round the corpse. There was nothing to
+attract his attention, except a little pocket-mirror, the little mirror
+with which M. Lavernoux had amused himself by making the sunbeams dance
+through space.
+
+But, suddenly, as the portress was breaking into lamentations and
+calling for help, Lupin flung himself on her and shook her:
+
+"Stop that!... Listen to me ... you can call out later.... Listen to me
+and answer me. It is most important. M. Lavernoux had a friend living in
+this street, had he not? On the same side, to the right? An intimate
+friend?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"A friend whom he used to meet at the cafe in the evening and with whom
+he exchanged the illustrated papers?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Was the friend an Englishman?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What's his name?"
+
+"Mr. Hargrove."
+
+"Where does he live?"
+
+"At No. 92 in this street."
+
+"One word more: had that old doctor been attending him long?"
+
+"No. I did not know him. He came on the evening when M. Lavernoux was
+taken ill."
+
+Without another word, Lupin dragged me away once more, ran down the
+stairs and, once in the street, turned to the right, which took us past
+my flat again. Four doors further, he stopped at No. 92, a small,
+low-storied house, of which the ground-floor was occupied by the
+proprietor of a dram-shop, who stood smoking in his doorway, next to the
+entrance-passage. Lupin asked if Mr. Hargrove was at home.
+
+"Mr. Hargrove went out about half-an-hour ago," said the publican. "He
+seemed very much excited and took a taxi-cab, a thing he doesn't often
+do."
+
+"And you don't know...."
+
+"Where he was going? Well, there's no secret about it He shouted it loud
+enough! 'Prefecture of Police' is what he said to the driver...."
+
+Lupin was himself just hailing a taxi, when he changed his mind; and I
+heard him mutter:
+
+"What's the good? He's got too much start of us...."
+
+He asked if any one called after Mr. Hargrove had gone.
+
+"Yes, an old gentleman with a grey beard and spectacles. He went up to
+Mr. Hargrove's, rang the bell, and went away again."
+
+"I am much obliged," said Lupin, touching his hat.
+
+He walked away slowly without speaking to me, wearing a thoughtful air.
+There was no doubt that the problem struck him as very difficult, and
+that he saw none too clearly in the darkness through which he seemed to
+be moving with such certainty.
+
+He himself, for that matter, confessed to me:
+
+"These are cases that require much more intuition than reflection. But
+this one, I may tell you, is well worth taking pains about."
+
+We had now reached the boulevards. Lupin entered a public reading-room
+and spent a long time consulting the last fortnight's newspapers. Now
+and again, he mumbled:
+
+"Yes ... yes ... of course ... it's only a guess, but it explains
+everything.... Well, a guess that answers every question is not far from
+being the truth...."
+
+It was now dark. We dined at a little restaurant and I noticed that
+Lupin's face became gradually more animated. His gestures were more
+decided. He recovered his spirits, his liveliness. When we left, during
+the walk which he made me take along the Boulevard Haussmann, towards
+Baron Repstein's house, he was the real Lupin of the great occasions,
+the Lupin who had made up his mind to go in and win.
+
+We slackened our pace just short of the Rue de Courcelles. Baron
+Repstein lived on the left-hand side, between this street and the
+Faubourg Saint-Honore, in a three-storied private house of which we
+could see the front, decorated with columns and caryatides.
+
+"Stop!" said Lupin, suddenly.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Another proof to confirm my supposition...."
+
+"What proof? I see nothing."
+
+"I do.... That's enough...."
+
+He turned up the collar of his coat, lowered the brim of his soft hat
+and said:
+
+"By Jove, it'll be a stiff fight! Go to bed, my friend. I'll tell you
+about my expedition to-morrow ... if it doesn't cost me my life."
+
+"What are you talking about?"
+
+"Oh, I know what I'm saying! I'm risking a lot. First of all, getting
+arrested, which isn't much. Next, getting killed, which is worse.
+But...." He gripped my shoulder. "But there's a third thing I'm risking,
+which is getting hold of two millions.... And, once I possess a capital
+of two millions, I'll show people what I can do! Good-night, old chap,
+and, if you never see me again...." He spouted Musset's lines:
+
+
+    "Plant a willow by my grave,
+      The weeping willow that I love...."
+
+
+I walked away. Three minutes later--I am continuing the narrative as he
+told it to me next day--three minutes later, Lupin rang at the door of
+the Hotel Repstein.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Is monsieur le baron at home?"
+
+"Yes," replied the butler, examining the intruder with an air of
+surprise, "but monsieur le baron does not see people as late as this."
+
+"Does monsieur le baron know of the murder of M. Lavernoux, his
+land-agent?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Well, please tell monsieur le baron that I have come about the murder
+and that there is not a moment to lose."
+
+A voice called from above:
+
+"Show the gentleman up, Antoine."
+
+In obedience to this peremptory order, the butler led the way to the
+first floor. In an open doorway stood a gentleman whom Lupin recognized
+from his photograph in the papers as Baron Repstein, husband of the
+famous baroness and owner of Etna, the horse of the year.
+
+He was an exceedingly tall, square-shouldered man. His clean-shaven face
+wore a pleasant, almost smiling expression, which was not affected by
+the sadness of his eyes. He was dressed in a well-cut morning-coat, with
+a tan waistcoat and a dark tie fastened with a pearl pin, the value of
+which struck Lupin as considerable.
+
+He took Lupin into his study, a large, three-windowed room, lined with
+book-cases, sets of pigeonholes, an American desk and a safe. And he at
+once asked, with ill-concealed eagerness:
+
+"Do you know anything?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur le baron."
+
+"About the murder of that poor Lavernoux?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur le baron, and about madame le baronne also."
+
+"Do you really mean it? Quick, I entreat you...."
+
+He pushed forward a chair. Lupin sat down and began:
+
+"Monsieur le baron, the circumstances are very serious. I will be
+brief."
+
+"Yes, do, please."
+
+"Well, monsieur le baron, in a few words, it amounts to this: five or
+six hours ago, Lavernoux, who, for the last fortnight, had been kept in
+a sort of enforced confinement by his doctor, Lavernoux--how shall I put
+it?--telegraphed certain revelations by means of signals which were
+partly taken down by me and which put me on the track of this case. He
+himself was surprised in the act of making this communication and was
+murdered."
+
+"But by whom? By whom?"
+
+"By his doctor."
+
+"Who is this doctor?"
+
+"I don't know. But one of M. Lavernoux's friends, an Englishman called
+Hargrove, the friend, in fact, with whom he was communicating, is bound
+to know and is also bound to know the exact and complete meaning of the
+communication, because, without waiting for the end, he jumped into a
+motor-cab and drove to the Prefecture of Police."
+
+"Why? Why?... And what is the result of that step?"
+
+"The result, monsieur le baron, is that your house is surrounded. There
+are twelve detectives under your windows. The moment the sun rises, they
+will enter in the name of the law and arrest the criminal."
+
+"Then is Lavernoux's murderer concealed in my house? Who is he? One of
+the servants? But no, for you were speaking of a doctor!..."
+
+"I would remark, monsieur le baron, that when this Mr. Hargrove went to
+the police to tell them of the revelations made by his friend Lavernoux,
+he was not aware that his friend Lavernoux was going to be murdered. The
+step taken by Mr Hargrove had to do with something else...."
+
+"With what?"
+
+"With the disappearance of madame la baronne, of which he knew the
+secret, thanks to the communication made by Lavernoux."
+
+"What! They know at last! They have found the baroness! Where is she?
+And the jewels? And the money she robbed me of?"
+
+Baron Repstein was talking in a great state of excitement. He rose and,
+almost shouting at Lupin, cried:
+
+"Finish your story, sir! I can't endure this suspense!"
+
+Lupin continued, in a slow and hesitating voice:
+
+"The fact is ... you see ... it is rather difficult to explain ... for
+you and I are looking at the thing from a totally different point of
+view."
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"And yet you ought to understand, monsieur le baron.... We begin by
+saying--I am quoting the newspapers--by saying, do we not, that Baroness
+Repstein knew all the secrets of your business and that she was able to
+open not only that safe over there, but also the one at the Credit
+Lyonnais in which you kept your securities locked up?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, one evening, a fortnight ago, while you were at your club,
+Baroness Repstein, who, unknown to yourself, had converted all those
+securities into cash, left this house with a travelling-bag, containing
+your money and all the Princesse de Berny's jewels?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And, since then, she has not been seen?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, there is an excellent reason why she has not been seen."
+
+"What reason?"
+
+"This, that Baroness Repstein has been murdered...."
+
+"Murdered!... The baroness!... But you're mad!"
+
+"Murdered ... and probably that same evening."
+
+"I tell you again, you are mad! How can the baroness have been murdered,
+when the police are following her tracks, so to speak, step by step?"
+
+"They are following the tracks of another woman."
+
+"What woman?"
+
+"The murderer's accomplice."
+
+"And who is the murderer?"
+
+"The same man who, for the last fortnight, knowing that Lavernoux,
+through the situation which he occupied in this house, had discovered
+the truth, kept him imprisoned, forced him to silence, threatened him,
+terrorized him; the same man who, finding Lavernoux in the act of
+communicating with a friend, made away with him in cold blood by
+stabbing him to the heart."
+
+"The doctor, therefore?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But who is this doctor? Who is this malevolent genius, this infernal
+being who appears and disappears, who slays in the dark and whom nobody
+suspects?"
+
+"Can't you guess?"
+
+"No."
+
+"And do you want to know?"
+
+"Do I want to know?... Why, speak, man, speak!... You know where he is
+hiding?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"In this house?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And it is he whom the police are after?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And I know him?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"You!"
+
+"I!..."
+
+Lupin had not been more than ten minutes with the baron; and the duel
+was commencing. The accusation was hurled, definitely, violently,
+implacably.
+
+Lupin repeated:
+
+"You yourself, got up in a false beard and a pair of spectacles, bent in
+two, like an old man. In short, you, Baron Repstein; and it is you for
+a very good reason, of which nobody has thought, which is that, if it
+was not you who contrived the whole plot, the case becomes inexplicable.
+Whereas, taking you as the criminal, you as murdering the baroness in
+order to get rid of her and run through those millions with another
+woman, you as murdering Lavernoux, your agent, in order to suppress an
+unimpeachable witness, oh, then the whole case is explained! Well, is it
+pretty clear? And are not you yourself convinced?"
+
+The baron, who, throughout this conversation, had stood bending over his
+visitor, waiting for each of his words with feverish avidity, now drew
+himself up and looked at Lupin as though he undoubtedly had to do with a
+madman. When Lupin had finished speaking, the baron stepped back two or
+three paces, seemed on the point of uttering words which he ended by not
+saying, and then, without taking his eyes from his strange visitor, went
+to the fireplace and rang the bell.
+
+Lupin did not make a movement. He waited smiling.
+
+The butler entered. His master said:
+
+"You can go to bed, Antoine. I will let this gentleman out."
+
+"Shall I put out the lights, sir?"
+
+"Leave a light in the hall."
+
+Antoine left the room and the baron, after taking a revolver from his
+desk, at once came back to Lupin, put the weapon in his pocket and said,
+very calmly:
+
+"You must excuse this little precaution, sir. I am obliged to take it in
+case you should be mad, though that does not seem likely. No, you are
+not mad. But you have come here with an object which I fail to grasp;
+and you have sprung upon me an accusation of so astounding a character
+that I am curious to know the reason. I have experienced so much
+disappointment and undergone so much suffering that an outrage of this
+kind leaves me indifferent. Continue, please."
+
+His voice shook with emotion and his sad eyes seemed moist with tears.
+
+Lupin shuddered. Had he made a mistake? Was the surmise which his
+intuition had suggested to him and which was based upon a frail
+groundwork of slight facts, was this surmise wrong?
+
+His attention was caught by a detail: through the opening in the baron's
+waistcoat he saw the point of the pin fixed in the tie and was thus able
+to realize the unusual length of the pin. Moreover, the gold stem was
+triangular and formed a sort of miniature dagger, very thin and very
+delicate, yet formidable in an expert hand.
+
+And Lupin had no doubt but that the pin attached to that magnificent
+pearl was the weapon which had pierced the heart of the unfortunate M.
+Lavernoux.
+
+He muttered:
+
+"You're jolly clever, monsieur le baron!"
+
+The other, maintaining a rather scornful gravity, kept silence, as
+though he did not understand and as though waiting for the explanation
+to which he felt himself entitled. And, in spite of everything, this
+impassive attitude worried Arsene Lupin. Nevertheless, his conviction
+was so profound and, besides, he had staked so much on the adventure
+that he repeated:
+
+"Yes, jolly clever, for it is evident that the baroness only obeyed your
+orders in realizing your securities and also in borrowing the princess's
+jewels on the pretence of buying them. And it is evident that the person
+who walked out of your house with a bag was not your wife, but an
+accomplice, that chorus-girl probably, and that it is your chorus-girl
+who is deliberately allowing herself to be chased across the continent
+by our worthy Ganimard. And I look upon the trick as marvellous. What
+does the woman risk, seeing that it is the baroness who is being looked
+for? And how could they look for any other woman than the baroness,
+seeing that you have promised a reward of two hundred thousand francs to
+the person who finds the baroness?... Oh, that two hundred thousand
+francs lodged with a solicitor: what a stroke of genius! It has dazzled
+the police! It has thrown dust in the eyes of the most clear-sighted! A
+gentleman who lodges two hundred thousand francs with a solicitor is a
+gentleman who speaks the truth.... So they go on hunting the baroness!
+And they leave you quietly to settle your affairs, to sell your stud and
+your two houses to the highest bidder and to prepare your flight!
+Heavens, what a joke!"
+
+The baron did not wince. He walked up to Lupin and asked, without
+abandoning his imperturbable coolness:
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+Lupin burst out laughing.
+
+"What can it matter who I am? Take it that I am an emissary of fate,
+looming out of the darkness for your destruction!"
+
+He sprang from his chair, seized the baron by the shoulder and jerked
+out:
+
+"Yes, for your destruction, my bold baron! Listen to me! Your wife's
+three millions, almost all the princess's jewels, the money you received
+to-day from the sale of your stud and your real estate: it's all there,
+in your pocket, or in that safe. Your flight is prepared. Look, I can
+see the leather of your portmanteau behind that hanging. The papers on
+your desk are in order. This very night, you would have done a guy.
+This very night, disguised beyond recognition, after taking all your
+precautions, you would have joined your chorus-girl, the creature for
+whose sake you have committed murder, that same Nelly Darbal, no doubt,
+whom Ganimard arrested in Belgium. But for one sudden, unforeseen
+obstacle: the police, the twelve detectives who, thanks to Lavernoux's
+revelations, have been posted under your windows. They've cooked your
+goose, old chap!... Well, I'll save you. A word through the telephone;
+and, by three or four o'clock in the morning, twenty of my friends will
+have removed the obstacle, polished off the twelve detectives, and you
+and I will slip away quietly. My conditions? Almost nothing; a trifle to
+you: we share the millions and the jewels. Is it a bargain?"
+
+He was leaning over the baron, thundering at him with irresistible
+energy. The baron whispered:
+
+"I'm beginning to understand. It's blackmail...."
+
+"Blackmail or not, call it what you please, my boy, but you've got to go
+through with it and do as I say. And don't imagine that I shall give way
+at the last moment. Don't say to yourself, 'Here's a gentleman whom the
+fear of the police will cause to think twice. If I run a big risk in
+refusing, he also will be risking the handcuffs, the cells and the rest
+of it, seeing that we are both being hunted down like wild beasts.' That
+would be a mistake, monsieur le baron. I can always get out of it. It's
+a question of yourself, of yourself alone.... Your money or your life,
+my lord! Share and share alike ... if not, the scaffold! Is it a
+bargain?"
+
+A quick movement. The baron released himself, grasped his revolver and
+fired.
+
+But Lupin was prepared for the attack, the more so as the baron's face
+had lost its assurance and gradually, under the slow impulse of rage and
+fear, acquired an expression of almost bestial ferocity that heralded
+the rebellion so long kept under control.
+
+He fired twice. Lupin first flung himself to one side and then dived at
+the baron's knees, seized him by both legs and brought him to the
+ground. The baron freed himself with an effort. The two enemies rolled
+over in each other's grip; and a stubborn, crafty, brutal, savage
+struggle followed.
+
+Suddenly, Lupin felt a pain at his chest:
+
+"You villain!" he yelled. "That's your Lavernoux trick; the tie-pin!"
+
+Stiffening his muscles with a desperate effort, he overpowered the baron
+and clutched him by the throat victorious at last and omnipotent.
+
+"You ass!" he cried. "If you hadn't shown your cards, I might have
+thrown up the game! You have such a look of the honest man about you!
+But what a biceps, my lord!... I thought for a moment.... But it's all
+over, now!... Come, my friend, hand us the pin and look cheerful.... No,
+that's what I call pulling a face.... I'm holding you too tight,
+perhaps? My lord's at his last gasp?... Come, be good!... That's it,
+just a wee bit of string round the wrists; do you allow me?... Why, you
+and I are agreeing like two brothers! It's touching!... At heart, you
+know, I'm rather fond of you.... And now, my bonnie lad, mind yourself!
+And a thousand apologies!..."
+
+Half raising himself, with all his strength he caught the other a
+terrible blow in the pit of the stomach. The baron gave a gurgle and lay
+stunned and unconscious.
+
+"That comes of having a deficient sense of logic, my friend," said
+Lupin. "I offered you half your money. Now I'll give you none at all ...
+provided I know where to find any of it. For that's the main thing.
+Where has the beggar hidden his dust? In the safe? By George, it'll be a
+tough job! Luckily, I have all the night before me...."
+
+He began to feel in the baron's pockets, came upon a bunch of keys,
+first made sure that the portmanteau behind the curtain held no papers
+or jewels, and then went to the safe.
+
+But, at that moment, he stopped short: he heard a noise somewhere. The
+servants? Impossible. Their attics were on the top floor. He listened.
+The noise came from below. And, suddenly, he understood: the detectives,
+who had heard the two shots, were banging at the front door, as was
+their duty, without waiting for daybreak. Then an electric bell rang,
+which Lupin recognized as that in the hall:
+
+"By Jupiter!" he said. "Pretty work! Here are these jokers coming ...
+and just as we were about to gather the fruits of our laborious efforts!
+Tut, tut, Lupin, keep cool! What's expected of you? To open a safe, of
+which you don't know the secret, in thirty seconds. That's a mere trifle
+to lose your head about! Come, all you have to do is to discover the
+secret! How many letters are there in the word? Four?"
+
+He went on thinking, while talking and listening to the noise outside.
+He double-locked the door of the outer room and then came back to the
+safe:
+
+"Four ciphers.... Four letters ... four letters.... Who can lend me a
+hand?... Who can give me just a tiny hint?... Who? Why, Lavernoux, of
+course! That good Lavernoux, seeing that he took the trouble to indulge
+in optical telegraphy at the risk of his life.... Lord, what a fool I
+am!... Why, of course, why, of course, that's it!... By Jove, this is
+too exciting!... Lupin, you must count ten and suppress that distracted
+beating of your heart. If not, it means bad work."
+
+He counted ten and, now quite calm, knelt in front of the safe. He
+turned the four knobs with careful attention. Next, he examined the
+bunch of keys, selected one of them, then another, and attempted, in
+vain, to insert them in the lock:
+
+"There's luck in odd numbers," he muttered, trying a third key.
+"Victory! This is the right one! Open Sesame, good old Sesame, open!"
+
+The lock turned. The door moved on its hinges. Lupin pulled it to him,
+after taking out the bunch of keys:
+
+"The millions are ours," he said. "Baron, I forgive you!"
+
+And then he gave a single bound backward, hiccoughing with fright. His
+legs staggered beneath him. The keys jingled together in his fevered
+hand with a sinister sound. And, for twenty, for thirty seconds, despite
+the din that was being raised and the electric bells that kept ringing
+through the house, he stood there, wild-eyed, gazing at the most
+horrible, the most abominable sight: a woman's body, half-dressed, bent
+in two in the safe, crammed in, like an over-large parcel ... and fair
+hair hanging down ... and blood ... clots of blood ... and livid flesh,
+blue in places, decomposing, flaccid.
+
+"The baroness!" he gasped. "The baroness!... Oh, the monster!..."
+
+He roused himself from his torpor, suddenly, to spit in the murderer's
+face and pound him with his heels:
+
+"Take that, you wretch!... Take that, you villain!... And, with it, the
+scaffold, the bran-basket!..."
+
+Meanwhile, shouts came from the upper floors in reply to the detectives'
+ringing. Lupin heard footsteps scurrying down the stairs. It was time to
+think of beating a retreat.
+
+In reality, this did not trouble him greatly. During his conversation
+with the baron, the enemy's extraordinary coolness had given him the
+feeling that there must be a private outlet. Besides, how could the
+baron have begun the fight, if he were not sure of escaping the police?
+
+Lupin went into the next room. It looked out on the garden. At the
+moment when the detectives were entering the house, he flung his legs
+over the balcony and let himself down by a rain-pipe. He walked round
+the building. On the opposite side was a wall lined with shrubs. He
+slipped in between the shrubs and the wall and at once found a little
+door which he easily opened with one of the keys on the bunch. All that
+remained for him to do was to walk across a yard and pass through the
+empty rooms of a lodge; and in a few moments he found himself in the Rue
+du Faubourg Saint-Honore. Of course--and this he had reckoned on--the
+police had not provided for this secret outlet.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Well, what do you think of Baron Repstein?" cried Lupin, after giving
+me all the details of that tragic night. "What a dirty scoundrel! And
+how it teaches one to distrust appearances! I swear to you, the fellow
+looked a thoroughly honest man!"
+
+"But what about the millions?" I asked. "The princess's jewels?"
+
+"They were in the safe. I remember seeing the parcel."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"They are there still."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"They are, upon my word! I might tell you that I was afraid of the
+detectives, or else plead a sudden attack of delicacy. But the truth is
+simpler ... and more prosaic: the smell was too awful!..."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Yes, my dear fellow, the smell that came from that safe ... from that
+coffin.... No, I couldn't do it ... my head swam.... Another second and
+I should have been ill.... Isn't it silly?... Look, this is all I got
+from my expedition: the tie-pin.... The bed-rock value of the pearl is
+thirty thousand francs.... But all the same, I feel jolly well annoyed.
+What a sell!"
+
+"One more question," I said. "The word that opened the safe!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"How did you guess it?"
+
+"Oh, quite easily! In fact, I am surprised that I didn't think of it
+sooner."
+
+"Well, tell me."
+
+"It was contained in the revelations telegraphed by that poor
+Lavernoux."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Just think, my dear chap, the mistakes in spelling...."
+
+"The mistakes in spelling?"
+
+"Why, of course! They were deliberate. Surely, you don't imagine that
+the agent, the private secretary of the baron--who was a
+company-promoter, mind you, and a racing-man--did not know English
+better than to spell 'necessery' with an 'e,' 'atack' with one 't,'
+'ennemy' with two 'n's' and 'prudance' with an 'a'! The thing struck me
+at once. I put the four letters together and got 'Etna,' the name of the
+famous horse."
+
+"And was that one word enough?"
+
+"Of course! It was enough to start with, to put me on the scent of the
+Repstein case, of which all the papers were full, and, next, to make me
+guess that it was the key-word of the safe, because, on the one hand,
+Lavernoux knew the gruesome contents of the safe and, on the other, he
+was denouncing the baron. And it was in the same way that I was led to
+suppose that Lavernoux had a friend in the street, that they both
+frequented the same cafe, that they amused themselves by working out the
+problems and cryptograms in the illustrated papers and that they had
+contrived a way of exchanging telegrams from window to window."
+
+"That makes it all quite simple!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Very simple. And the incident once more shows that, in the discovery of
+crimes, there is something much more valuable than the examination of
+facts, than observations, deductions, inferences and all that stuff and
+nonsense. What I mean is, as I said before, intuition ... intuition and
+intelligence.... And Arsene Lupin, without boasting, is deficient in
+neither one nor the other!..."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE WEDDING-RING
+
+
+Yvonne d'Origny kissed her son and told him to be good:
+
+"You know your grandmother d'Origny is not very fond of children. Now
+that she has sent for you to come and see her, you must show her what a
+sensible little boy you are." And, turning to the governess, "Don't
+forget, Fraeulein, to bring him home immediately after dinner.... Is
+monsieur still in the house?"
+
+"Yes, madame, monsieur le comte is in his study."
+
+As soon as she was alone, Yvonne d'Origny walked to the window to catch
+a glimpse of her son as he left the house. He was out in the street in a
+moment, raised his head and blew her a kiss, as was his custom every
+day. Then the governess took his hand with, as Yvonne remarked to her
+surprise, a movement of unusual violence. Yvonne leant further out of
+the window and, when the boy reached the corner of the boulevard, she
+suddenly saw a man step out of a motor-car and go up to him. The man, in
+whom she recognized Bernard, her husband's confidential servant, took
+the child by the arm, made both him and the governess get into the car,
+and ordered the chauffeur to drive off.
+
+The whole incident did not take ten seconds.
+
+Yvonne, in her trepidation, ran to her bedroom, seized a wrap and went
+to the door. The door was locked; and there was no key in the lock.
+
+She hurried back to the boudoir. The door of the boudoir also was
+locked.
+
+Then, suddenly, the image of her husband appeared before her, that
+gloomy face which no smile ever lit up, those pitiless eyes in which,
+for years, she had felt so much hatred and malice.
+
+"It's he ... it's he!" she said to herself. "He has taken the child....
+Oh, it's horrible!"
+
+She beat against the door with her fists, with her feet, then flew to
+the mantelpiece and pressed the bell fiercely.
+
+The shrill sound rang through the house from top to bottom. The servants
+would be sure to come. Perhaps a crowd would gather in the street. And,
+impelled by a sort of despairing hope, she kept her finger on the
+button.
+
+A key turned in the lock.... The door was flung wide open. The count
+appeared on the threshold of the boudoir. And the expression of his
+face was so terrible that Yvonne began to tremble.
+
+He entered the room. Five or six steps separated him from her. With a
+supreme effort, she tried to stir, but all movement was impossible; and,
+when she attempted to speak, she could only flutter her lips and emit
+incoherent sounds. She felt herself lost. The thought of death unhinged
+her. Her knees gave way beneath her and she sank into a huddled heap,
+with a moan.
+
+The count rushed at her and seized her by the throat:
+
+"Hold your tongue ... don't call out!" he said, in a low voice. "That
+will be best for you!..."
+
+Seeing that she was not attempting to defend herself, he loosened his
+hold of her and took from his pocket some strips of canvas ready rolled
+and of different lengths. In a few minutes, Yvonne was lying on a sofa,
+with her wrists and ankles bound and her arms fastened close to her
+body.
+
+It was now dark in the boudoir. The count switched on the electric light
+and went to a little writing-desk where Yvonne was accustomed to keep
+her letters. Not succeeding in opening it, he picked the lock with a
+bent wire, emptied the drawers and collected all the contents into a
+bundle, which he carried off in a cardboard file:
+
+"Waste of time, eh?" he grinned. "Nothing but bills and letters of no
+importance.... No proof against you.... Tah! I'll keep my son for all
+that; and I swear before Heaven that I will not let him go!"
+
+As he was leaving the room, he was joined, near the door, by his man
+Bernard. The two stopped and talked, in a low voice; but Yvonne heard
+these words spoken by the servant:
+
+"I have had an answer from the working jeweller. He says he holds
+himself at my disposal."
+
+And the count replied:
+
+"The thing is put off until twelve o'clock midday, to-morrow. My mother
+has just telephoned to say that she could not come before."
+
+Then Yvonne heard the key turn in the lock and the sound of steps going
+down to the ground-floor, where her husband's study was.
+
+She long lay inert, her brain reeling with vague, swift ideas that burnt
+her in passing, like flames. She remembered her husband's infamous
+behaviour, his humiliating conduct to her, his threats, his plans for a
+divorce; and she gradually came to understand that she was the victim of
+a regular conspiracy, that the servants had been sent away until the
+following evening by their master's orders, that the governess had
+carried off her son by the count's instructions and with Bernard's
+assistance, that her son would not come back and that she would never
+see him again.
+
+"My son!" she cried. "My son!..."
+
+Exasperated by her grief, she stiffened herself, with every nerve, with
+every muscle tense, to make a violent effort. And she was astonished to
+find that her right hand, which the count had fastened too hurriedly,
+still retained a certain freedom.
+
+Then a mad hope invaded her; and, slowly, patiently, she began the work
+of self-deliverance.
+
+It was long in the doing. She needed a deal of time to widen the knot
+sufficiently and a deal of time afterward, when the hand was released,
+to undo those other bonds which tied her arms to her body and those
+which fastened her ankles.
+
+Still, the thought of her son sustained her; and the last shackle fell
+as the clock struck eight. She was free!
+
+She was no sooner on her feet than she flew to the window and flung back
+the latch, with the intention of calling the first passer-by. At that
+moment a policeman came walking along the pavement. She leant out. But
+the brisk evening air, striking her face, calmed her. She thought of the
+scandal, of the judicial investigation, of the cross-examination, of her
+son. O Heaven! What could she do to get him back? How could she escape?
+The count might appear at the least sound. And who knew but that, in a
+moment of fury ...?
+
+She shivered from head to foot, seized with a sudden terror. The horror
+of death mingled, in her poor brain, with the thought of her son; and
+she stammered, with a choking throat:
+
+"Help!... Help!..."
+
+She stopped and said to herself, several times over, in a low voice,
+"Help!... Help!..." as though the word awakened an idea, a memory within
+her, and as though the hope of assistance no longer seemed to her
+impossible. For some minutes she remained absorbed in deep meditation,
+broken by fears and starts. Then, with an almost mechanical series of
+movements, she put out her arm to a little set of shelves hanging over
+the writing-desk, took down four books, one after the other, turned the
+pages with a distraught air, replaced them and ended by finding, between
+the pages of the fifth, a visiting-card on which her eyes spelt the
+name:
+
+
+                 HORACE VELMONT,
+
+
+followed by an address written in pencil:
+
+
+            CERCLE DE LA RUE ROYALE.
+
+
+And her memory conjured up the strange thing which that man had said to
+her, a few years before, in that same house, on a day when she was at
+home to her friends:
+
+"If ever a danger threatens you, if you need help, do not hesitate; post
+this card, which you see me put into this book; and, whatever the hour,
+whatever the obstacles, I will come."
+
+With what a curious air he had spoken these words and how well he had
+conveyed the impression of certainty, of strength, of unlimited power,
+of indomitable daring!
+
+Abruptly, unconsciously, acting under the impulse of an irresistible
+determination, the consequences of which she refused to anticipate,
+Yvonne, with the same automatic gestures, took a pneumatic-delivery
+envelope, slipped in the card, sealed it, directed it to "Horace
+Velmont, Cercle de la Rue Royale" and went to the open window. The
+policeman was walking up and down outside. She flung out the envelope,
+trusting to fate. Perhaps it would be picked up, treated as a lost
+letter and posted.
+
+She had hardly completed this act when she realized its absurdity. It
+was mad to suppose that the message would reach the address and madder
+still to hope that the man to whom she was sending could come to her
+assistance, "whatever the hour, whatever the obstacles."
+
+A reaction followed which was all the greater inasmuch as the effort had
+been swift and violent. Yvonne staggered, leant against a chair and,
+losing all energy, let herself fall.
+
+The hours passed by, the dreary hours of winter evenings when nothing
+but the sound of carriages interrupts the silence of the street. The
+clock struck, pitilessly. In the half-sleep that numbed her limbs,
+Yvonne counted the strokes. She also heard certain noises, on different
+floors of the house, which told her that her husband had dined, that he
+was going up to his room, that he was going down again to his study. But
+all this seemed very shadowy to her; and her torpor was such that she
+did not even think of lying down on the sofa, in case he should come
+in....
+
+The twelve strokes of midnight.... Then half-past twelve ... then
+one.... Yvonne thought of nothing, awaiting the events which were
+preparing and against which rebellion was useless. She pictured her son
+and herself as one pictures those beings who have suffered much and who
+suffer no more and who take each other in their loving arms. But a
+nightmare shattered this dream. For now those two beings were to be torn
+asunder; and she had the awful feeling, in her delirium, that she was
+crying and choking....
+
+She leapt from her seat. The key had turned in the lock. The count was
+coming, attracted by her cries. Yvonne glanced round for a weapon with
+which to defend herself. But the door was pushed back quickly and,
+astounded, as though the sight that presented itself before her eyes
+seemed to her the most inexplicable prodigy, she stammered:
+
+"You!... You!..."
+
+A man was walking up to her, in dress-clothes, with his opera-hat and
+cape under his arm, and this man, young, slender and elegant, she had
+recognized as Horace Velmont.
+
+"You!" she repeated.
+
+He said, with a bow:
+
+"I beg your pardon, madame, but I did not receive your letter until very
+late."
+
+"Is it possible? Is it possible that this is you ... that you were able
+to ...?"
+
+He seemed greatly surprised:
+
+"Did I not promise to come in answer to your call?"
+
+"Yes ... but ..."
+
+"Well, here I am," he said, with a smile.
+
+He examined the strips of canvas from which Yvonne had succeeded in
+freeing herself and nodded his head, while continuing his inspection:
+
+"So those are the means employed? The Comte d'Origny, I presume?... I
+also saw that he locked you in.... But then the pneumatic letter?... Ah,
+through the window!... How careless of you not to close it!"
+
+He pushed both sides to. Yvonne took fright:
+
+"Suppose they hear!"
+
+"There is no one in the house. I have been over it."
+
+"Still ..."
+
+"Your husband went out ten minutes ago."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"With his mother, the Comtesse d'Origny."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Oh, it's very simple! He was rung up by telephone and I awaited the
+result at the corner of this street and the boulevard. As I expected,
+the count came out hurriedly, followed by his man. I at once entered,
+with the aid of special keys."
+
+He told this in the most natural way, just as one tells a meaningless
+anecdote in a drawing-room. But Yvonne, suddenly seized with fresh
+alarm, asked:
+
+"Then it's not true?... His mother is not ill?... In that case, my
+husband will be coming back...."
+
+"Certainly, the count will see that a trick has been played on him and
+in three quarters of an hour at the latest...."
+
+"Let us go.... I don't want him to find me here.... I must go to my
+son...."
+
+"One moment...."
+
+"One moment!... But don't you know that they have taken him from me?...
+That they are hurting him, perhaps?..."
+
+With set face and feverish gestures, she tried to push Velmont back. He,
+with great gentleness, compelled her to sit down and, leaning over her
+in a respectful attitude, said, in a serious voice:
+
+"Listen, madame, and let us not waste time, when every minute is
+valuable. First of all, remember this: we met four times, six years
+ago.... And, on the fourth occasion, when I was speaking to you, in the
+drawing-room of this house, with too much--what shall I say?--with too
+much feeling, you gave me to understand that my visits were no longer
+welcome. Since that day I have not seen you. And, nevertheless, in spite
+of all, your faith in me was such that you kept the card which I put
+between the pages of that book and, six years later, you send for me and
+none other. That faith in me I ask you to continue. You must obey me
+blindly. Just as I surmounted every obstacle to come to you, so I will
+save you, whatever the position may be."
+
+Horace Velmont's calmness, his masterful voice, with the friendly
+intonation, gradually quieted the countess. Though still very weak, she
+gained a fresh sense of ease and security in that man's presence.
+
+"Have no fear," he went on. "The Comtesse d'Origny lives at the other
+end of the Bois de Vincennes. Allowing that your husband finds a
+motor-cab, it is impossible for him to be back before a quarter-past
+three. Well, it is twenty-five to three now. I swear to take you away at
+three o'clock exactly and to take you to your son. But I will not go
+before I know everything."
+
+"What am I to do?" she asked.
+
+"Answer me and very plainly. We have twenty minutes. It is enough. But
+it is not too much."
+
+"Ask me what you want to know."
+
+"Do you think that the count had any ... any murderous intentions?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then it concerns your son?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He is taking him away, I suppose, because he wants to divorce you and
+marry another woman, a former friend of yours, whom you have turned out
+of your house. Is that it? Oh, I entreat you, answer me frankly! These
+are facts of public notoriety; and your hesitation, your scruples, must
+all cease, now that the matter concerns your son. So your husband wished
+to marry another woman?
+
+"Yes."
+
+"The woman has no money. Your husband, on his side, has gambled away
+all his property and has no means beyond the allowance which he receives
+from his mother, the Comtesse d'Origny, and the income of a large
+fortune which your son inherited from two of your uncles. It is this
+fortune which your husband covets and which he would appropriate more
+easily if the child were placed in his hands. There is only one way:
+divorce. Am I right?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And what has prevented him until now is your refusal?"
+
+"Yes, mine and that of my mother-in-law, whose religious feelings are
+opposed to divorce. The Comtesse d'Origny would only yield in case ..."
+
+"In case ...?"
+
+"In case they could prove me guilty of shameful conduct."
+
+Velmont shrugged his shoulders:
+
+"Therefore he is powerless to do anything against you or against your
+son. Both from the legal point of view and from that of his own
+interests, he stumbles against an obstacle which is the most
+insurmountable of all: the virtue of an honest woman. And yet, in spite
+of everything, he suddenly shows fight."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that, if a man like the count, after so many hesitations and
+in the face of so many difficulties, risks so doubtful an adventure, it
+must be because he thinks he has command of weapons ..."
+
+"What weapons?"
+
+"I don't know. But they exist ... or else he would not have begun by
+taking away your son."
+
+Yvonne gave way to her despair:
+
+"Oh, this is horrible!... How do I know what he may have done, what he
+may have invented?"
+
+"Try and think.... Recall your memories.... Tell me, in this desk which
+he has broken open, was there any sort of letter which he could possibly
+turn against you?"
+
+"No ... only bills and addresses...."
+
+"And, in the words he used to you, in his threats, is there nothing that
+allows you to guess?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Still ... still," Velmont insisted, "there must be something." And he
+continued, "Has the count a particularly intimate friend ... in whom he
+confides?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Did anybody come to see him yesterday?"
+
+"No, nobody."
+
+"Was he alone when he bound you and locked you in?"
+
+"At that moment, yes."
+
+"But afterward?"
+
+"His man, Bernard, joined him near the door and I heard them talking
+about a working jeweller...."
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"And about something that was to happen the next day, that is, to-day,
+at twelve o'clock, because the Comtesse d'Origny could not come
+earlier."
+
+Velmont reflected:
+
+"Has that conversation any meaning that throws a light upon your
+husband's plans?"
+
+"I don't see any."
+
+"Where are your jewels?"
+
+"My husband has sold them all."
+
+"You have nothing at all left?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Not even a ring?"
+
+"No," she said, showing her hands, "none except this."
+
+"Which is your wedding-ring?"
+
+"Which is my ... wedding--..."
+
+She stopped, nonplussed. Velmont saw her flush as she stammered:
+
+"Could it be possible?... But no ... no ... he doesn't know...."
+
+Velmont at once pressed her with questions and Yvonne stood silent,
+motionless, anxious-faced. At last, she replied, in a low voice:
+
+"This is not my wedding-ring. One day, long ago, it dropped from the
+mantelpiece in my bedroom, where I had put it a minute before and, hunt
+for it as I might, I could not find it again. So I ordered another,
+without saying anything about it ... and this is the one, on my
+hand...."
+
+"Did the real ring bear the date of your wedding?"
+
+"Yes ... the 23rd of October."
+
+"And the second?"
+
+"This one has no date."
+
+He perceived a slight hesitation in her and a confusion which, in point
+of fact, she did not try to conceal.
+
+"I implore you," he exclaimed, "don't hide anything from me.... You see
+how far we have gone in a few minutes, with a little logic and
+calmness.... Let us go on, I ask you as a favour."
+
+"Are you sure," she said, "that it is necessary?"
+
+"I am sure that the least detail is of importance and that we are nearly
+attaining our object. But we must hurry. This is a crucial moment."
+
+"I have nothing to conceal," she said, proudly raising her head. "It was
+the most wretched and the most dangerous period of my life. While
+suffering humiliation at home, outside I was surrounded with attentions,
+with temptations, with pitfalls, like any woman who is seen to be
+neglected by her husband. Then I remembered: before my marriage, a man
+had been in love with me. I had guessed his unspoken love; and he has
+died since. I had the name of that man engraved inside the ring; and I
+wore it as a talisman. There was no love in me, because I was the wife
+of another. But, in my secret heart, there was a memory, a sad dream,
+something sweet and gentle that protected me...."
+
+She had spoken slowly, without embarrassment, and Velmont did not doubt
+for a second that she was telling the absolute truth. He kept silent;
+and she, becoming anxious again, asked:
+
+"Do you suppose ... that my husband ...?"
+
+He took her hand and, while examining the plain gold ring, said:
+
+"The puzzle lies here. Your husband, I don't know how, knows of the
+substitution of one ring for the other. His mother will be here at
+twelve o'clock. In the presence of witnesses, he will compel you to take
+off your ring; and, in this way, he will obtain the approval of his
+mother and, at the same time, will be able to obtain his divorce,
+because he will have the proof for which he was seeking."
+
+"I am lost!" she moaned. "I am lost!"
+
+"On the contrary, you are saved! Give me that ring ... and presently he
+will find another there, another which I will send you, to reach you
+before twelve, and which will bear the date of the 23rd of October. So...."
+
+He suddenly broke off. While he was speaking, Yvonne's hand had turned
+ice-cold in his; and, raising his eyes, he saw that the young woman was
+pale, terribly pale:
+
+"What's the matter? I beseech you ..."
+
+She yielded to a fit of mad despair:
+
+"This is the matter, that I am lost!... This is the matter, that I can't
+get the ring off! It has grown too small for me!... Do you
+understand?... It made no difference and I did not give it a thought....
+But to-day ... this proof ... this accusation.... Oh, what torture!...
+Look ... it forms part of my finger ... it has grown into my flesh ...
+and I can't ... I can't...."
+
+She pulled at the ring, vainly, with all her might, at the risk of
+injuring herself. But the flesh swelled up around the ring; and the ring
+did not budge.
+
+"Oh!" she cried, seized with an idea that terrified her. "I remember ...
+the other night ... a nightmare I had.... It seemed to me that some one
+entered my room and caught hold of my hand.... And I could not wake
+up.... It was he! It was he! He had put me to sleep, I was sure of it
+... and he was looking at the ring.... And presently he will pull it off
+before his mother's eyes.... Ah, I understand everything: that working
+jeweller!... He will cut it from my hand to-morrow.... You see, you
+see.... I am lost!..."
+
+She hid her face in her hands and began to weep. But, amid the silence,
+the clock struck once ... and twice ... and yet once more. And Yvonne
+drew herself up with a jerk:
+
+"There he is!" she cried. "He is coming!... It is three o'clock!... Let
+us go!..."
+
+She grabbed at her cloak and ran to the door ... Velmont barred the way
+and, in a masterful tone:
+
+"You shall not go!"
+
+"My son.... I want to see him, to take him back...."
+
+"You don't even know where he is!"
+
+"I want to go."
+
+"You shall not go!... It would be madness...."
+
+He took her by the wrists. She tried to release herself; and Velmont had
+to employ a little force to overcome her resistance. In the end, he
+succeeded in getting her back to the sofa, then in laying her at full
+length and, at once, without heeding her lamentations, he took the
+canvas strips and fastened her wrists and ankles:
+
+"Yes," he said, "It would be madness! Who would have set you free? Who
+would have opened that door for you? An accomplice? What an argument
+against you and what a pretty use your husband would make of it with his
+mother!... And, besides, what's the good? To run away means accepting
+divorce ... and what might that not lead to?... You must stay here...."
+
+She sobbed:
+
+"I'm frightened.... I'm frightened ... this ring burns me.... Break
+it.... Take it away.... Don't let him find it!"
+
+"And if it is not found on your finger, who will have broken it? Again
+an accomplice.... No, you must face the music ... and face it boldly,
+for I answer for everything.... Believe me ... I answer for
+everything.... If I have to tackle the Comtesse d'Origny bodily and thus
+delay the interview.... If I had to come myself before noon ... it is
+the real wedding-ring that shall be taken from your finger--that I
+swear!--and your son shall be restored to you."
+
+Swayed and subdued, Yvonne instinctively held out her hands to the
+bonds. When he stood up, she was bound as she had been before.
+
+He looked round the room to make sure that no trace of his visit
+remained. Then he stooped over the countess again and whispered:
+
+"Think of your son and, whatever happens, fear nothing.... I am watching
+over you."
+
+She heard him open and shut the door of the boudoir and, a few minutes
+later, the hall-door.
+
+At half-past three, a motor-cab drew up. The door downstairs was slammed
+again; and, almost immediately after, Yvonne saw her husband hurry in,
+with a furious look in his eyes. He ran up to her, felt to see if she
+was still fastened and, snatching her hand, examined the ring. Yvonne
+fainted....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+She could not tell, when she woke, how long she had slept. But the broad
+light of day was filling the boudoir; and she perceived, at the first
+movement which she made, that her bonds were cut. Then she turned her
+head and saw her husband standing beside her, looking at her:
+
+"My son ... my son ..." she moaned. "I want my son...."
+
+He replied, in a voice of which she felt the jeering insolence:
+
+"Our son is in a safe place. And, for the moment, it's a question not of
+him, but of you. We are face to face with each other, probably for the
+last time, and the explanation between us will be a very serious one. I
+must warn you that it will take place before my mother. Have you any
+objection?"
+
+Yvonne tried to hide her agitation and answered:
+
+"None at all."
+
+"Can I send for her?"
+
+"Yes. Leave me, in the meantime. I shall be ready when she comes."
+
+"My mother is here."
+
+"Your mother is here?" cried Yvonne, in dismay, remembering Horace
+Velmont's promise.
+
+"What is there to astonish you in that?"
+
+"And is it now ... is it at once that you want to ...?
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why?... Why not this evening?... Why not to-morrow?"
+
+"To-day and now," declared the count. "A rather curious incident
+happened in the course of last night, an incident which I cannot account
+for and which decided me to hasten the explanation. Don't you want
+something to eat first?"
+
+"No ... no...."
+
+"Then I will go and fetch my mother."
+
+He turned to Yvonne's bedroom. Yvonne glanced at the clock. It marked
+twenty-five minutes to eleven!
+
+"Ah!" she said, with a shiver of fright.
+
+Twenty-five minutes to eleven! Horace Velmont would not save her and
+nobody in the world and nothing in the world would save her, for there
+was no miracle that could place the wedding-ring upon her finger.
+
+The count, returning with the Comtesse d'Origny, asked her to sit down.
+She was a tall, lank, angular woman, who had always displayed a hostile
+feeling to Yvonne. She did not even bid her daughter-in-law
+good-morning, showing that her mind was made up as regards the
+accusation:
+
+"I don't think," she said, "that we need speak at length. In two words,
+my son maintains...."
+
+"I don't maintain, mother," said the count, "I declare. I declare on my
+oath that, three months ago, during the holidays, the upholsterer, when
+laying the carpet in this room and the boudoir, found the wedding-ring
+which I gave my wife lying in a crack in the floor. Here is the ring.
+The date of the 23rd of October is engraved inside."
+
+"Then," said the countess, "the ring which your wife carries...."
+
+"That is another ring, which she ordered in exchange for the real one.
+Acting on my instructions, Bernard, my man, after long searching, ended
+by discovering in the outskirts of Paris, where he now lives, the little
+jeweller to whom she went. This man remembers perfectly and is willing
+to bear witness that his customer did not tell him to engrave a date,
+but a name. He has forgotten the name, but the man who used to work with
+him in his shop may be able to remember it. This working jeweller has
+been informed by letter that I required his services and he replied
+yesterday, placing himself at my disposal. Bernard went to fetch him at
+nine o'clock this morning. They are both waiting in my study."
+
+He turned to his wife:
+
+"Will you give me that ring of your own free will?"
+
+"You know," she said, "from the other night, that it won't come off my
+finger."
+
+"In that case, can I have the man up? He has the necessary implements
+with him."
+
+"Yes," she said, in a voice faint as a whisper.
+
+She was resigned. She conjured up the future as in a vision: the
+scandal, the decree of divorce pronounced against herself, the custody
+of the child awarded to the father; and she accepted this, thinking that
+she would carry off her son, that she would go with him to the ends of
+the earth and that the two of them would live alone together and
+happy....
+
+Her mother-in-law said:
+
+"You have been very thoughtless, Yvonne."
+
+Yvonne was on the point of confessing to her and asking for her
+protection. But what was the good? How could the Comtesse d'Origny
+possibly believe her innocent? She made no reply.
+
+Besides, the count at once returned, followed by his servant and by a
+man carrying a bag of tools under his arm.
+
+And the count said to the man:
+
+"You know what you have to do?"
+
+"Yes," said the workman. "It's to cut a ring that's grown too
+small.... That's easily done.... A touch of the nippers...."
+
+"And then you will see," said the count, "if the inscription inside the
+ring was the one you engraved."
+
+Yvonne looked at the clock. It was ten minutes to eleven. She seemed to
+hear, somewhere in the house, a sound of voices raised in argument; and,
+in spite of herself, she felt a thrill of hope. Perhaps Velmont has
+succeeded.... But the sound was renewed; and she perceived that it was
+produced by some costermongers passing under her window and moving
+farther on.
+
+It was all over. Horace Velmont had been unable to assist her. And she
+understood that, to recover her child, she must rely upon her own
+strength, for the promises of others are vain.
+
+She made a movement of recoil. She had felt the workman's heavy hand on
+her hand; and that hateful touch revolted her.
+
+The man apologized, awkwardly. The count said to his wife:
+
+"You must make up your mind, you know."
+
+Then she put out her slim and trembling hand to the workman, who took
+it, turned it over and rested it on the table, with the palm upward.
+Yvonne felt the cold steel. She longed to die, then and there; and, at
+once attracted by that idea of death, she thought of the poisons which
+she would buy and which would send her to sleep almost without her
+knowing it.
+
+The operation did not take long. Inserted on the slant, the little steel
+pliers pushed back the flesh, made room for themselves and bit the ring.
+A strong effort ... and the ring broke. The two ends had only to be
+separated to remove the ring from the finger. The workman did so.
+
+The count exclaimed, in triumph:
+
+"At last! Now we shall see!... The proof is there! And we are all
+witnesses...."
+
+He snatched up the ring and looked at the inscription. A cry of
+amazement escaped him. The ring bore the date of his marriage to Yvonne:
+"23rd of October"!...
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We were sitting on the terrace at Monte Carlo. Lupin finished his story,
+lit a cigarette and calmly puffed the smoke into the blue air.
+
+I said:
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well what?"
+
+"Why, the end of the story...."
+
+"The end of the story? But what other end could there be?"
+
+"Come ... you're joking ..."
+
+"Not at all. Isn't that enough for you? The countess is saved. The
+count, not possessing the least proof against her, is compelled by his
+mother to forego the divorce and to give up the child. That is all.
+Since then, he has left his wife, who is living happily with her son, a
+fine lad of sixteen."
+
+"Yes ... yes ... but the way in which the countess was saved?"
+
+Lupin burst out laughing:
+
+"My dear old chap"--Lupin sometimes condescends to address me in this
+affectionate manner--"my dear old chap, you may be rather smart at
+relating my exploits, but, by Jove, you do want to have the i's dotted
+for you! I assure you, the countess did not ask for explanations!"
+
+"Very likely. But there's no pride about me," I added, laughing. "Dot
+those i's for me, will you?"
+
+He took out a five-franc piece and closed his hand over it.
+
+"What's in my hand?"
+
+"A five-franc piece."
+
+He opened his hand. The five-franc piece was gone.
+
+"You see how easy it is! A working jeweller, with his nippers, cuts a
+ring with a date engraved upon it: 23rd of October. It's a simple little
+trick of sleight-of-hand, one of many which I have in my bag. By Jove,
+I didn't spend six months with Dickson, the conjurer,[C] for nothing!"
+
+
+  [C] _The Exploits of Arsene Lupin._ By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by
+  Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (Cassell). IV. _The Escape of Arsene
+  Lupin._
+
+
+"But then ...?"
+
+"Out with it!"
+
+"The working jeweller?"
+
+"Was Horace Velmont! Was good old Lupin! Leaving the countess at three
+o'clock in the morning, I employed the few remaining minutes before the
+husband's return to have a look round his study. On the table I found
+the letter from the working jeweller. The letter gave me the address. A
+bribe of a few louis enabled me to take the workman's place; and I
+arrived with a wedding-ring ready cut and engraved. Hocus-pocus!
+Pass!... The count couldn't make head or tail of it."
+
+"Splendid!" I cried. And I added, a little chaffingly, in my turn, "But
+don't you think that you were humbugged a bit yourself, on this
+occasion?"
+
+"Oh! And by whom, pray?"
+
+"By the countess?"
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"Hang it all, that name engraved as a talisman!... The mysterious Adonis
+who loved her and suffered for her sake!... All that story seems very
+unlikely; and I wonder whether, Lupin though you be, you did not just
+drop upon a pretty love-story, absolutely genuine and ... none too
+innocent."
+
+Lupin looked at me out of the corner of his eye:
+
+"No," he said.
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"If the countess made a misstatement in telling me that she knew that
+man before her marriage--and that he was dead--and if she really did
+love him in her secret heart, I, at least, have a positive proof that it
+was an ideal love and that he did not suspect it."
+
+"And where is the proof?"
+
+"It is inscribed inside the ring which I myself broke on the countess's
+finger ... and which I carry on me. Here it is. You can read the name
+she had engraved on it."
+
+He handed me the ring. I read:
+
+"Horace Velmont."
+
+There was a moment of silence between Lupin and myself; and, noticing
+it, I also observed on his face a certain emotion, a tinge of
+melancholy.
+
+I resumed:
+
+"What made you tell me this story ... to which you have often alluded in
+my presence?"
+
+"What made me ...?"
+
+He drew my attention to a woman, still exceedingly handsome, who was
+passing on a young man's arm. She saw Lupin and bowed.
+
+"It's she," he whispered. "She and her son."
+
+"Then she recognized you?"
+
+"She always recognizes me, whatever my disguise."
+
+"But since the burglary at the Chateau de Thibermesnil,[D] the police
+have identified the two names of Arsene Lupin and Horace Velmont."
+
+
+  [D] _The Exploits of Arsene Lupin. IX. Holmlock Shears arrives too
+  late._
+
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Therefore she knows who you are."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And she bows to you?" I exclaimed, in spite of myself.
+
+He caught me by the arm and, fiercely:
+
+"Do you think that I am Lupin to her? Do you think that I am a burglar
+in her eyes, a rogue, a cheat?... Why, I might be the lowest of
+miscreants, I might be a murderer even ... and still she would bow to
+me!"
+
+"Why? Because she loved you once?"
+
+"Rot! That would be an additional reason, on the contrary, why she
+should now despise me."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"I am the man who gave her back her son!"
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE SIGN OF THE SHADOW
+
+
+"I received your telegram and here I am," said a gentleman with a grey
+moustache, who entered my study, dressed in a dark-brown frock-coat and
+a wide-brimmed hat, with a red ribbon in his buttonhole. "What's the
+matter?"
+
+Had I not been expecting Arsene Lupin, I should certainly never have
+recognized him in the person of this old half-pay officer:
+
+"What's the matter?" I echoed. "Oh, nothing much: a rather curious
+coincidence, that's all. And, as I know that you would just as soon
+clear up a mystery as plan one...."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"You seem in a great hurry!"
+
+"I am ... unless the mystery in question is worth putting myself out
+for. So let us get to the point."
+
+"Very well. Just begin by casting your eye on this little picture, which
+I picked up, a week or two ago, in a grimy old shop on the other side
+of the river. I bought it for the sake of its Empire frame, with the
+palm-leaf ornaments on the mouldings ... for the painting is execrable."
+
+"Execrable, as you say," said Lupin, after he had examined it, "but the
+subject itself is rather nice. That corner of an old courtyard, with its
+rotunda of Greek columns, its sun-dial and its fish-pond and that ruined
+well with the Renascence roof and those stone steps and stone benches:
+all very picturesque."
+
+"And genuine," I added. "The picture, good or bad, has never been taken
+out of its Empire frame. Besides, it is dated.... There, in the
+left-hand bottom corner: those red figures, 15. 4. 2, which obviously
+stand for 15 April, 1802."
+
+"I dare say ... I dare say.... But you were speaking of a coincidence
+and, so far, I fail to see...."
+
+I went to a corner of my study, took a telescope, fixed it on its stand
+and pointed it, through the open window, at the open window of a little
+room facing my flat, on the other side of the street. And I asked Lupin
+to look through it.
+
+He stooped forward. The slanting rays of the morning sun lit up the room
+opposite, revealing a set of mahogany furniture, all very simple, a
+large bed and a child's bed hung with cretonne curtains.
+
+"Ah!" cried Lupin, suddenly. "The same picture!"
+
+"Exactly the same!" I said. "And the date: do you see the date, in red?
+15. 4. 2."
+
+"Yes, I see.... And who lives in that room?"
+
+"A lady ... or, rather, a workwoman, for she has to work for her living
+... needlework, hardly enough to keep herself and her child."
+
+"What is her name?"
+
+"Louise d'Ernemont.... From what I hear, she is the great-granddaughter
+of a farmer-general who was guillotined during the Terror."
+
+"Yes, on the same day as Andre Chenier," said Lupin. "According to the
+memoirs of the time, this d'Ernemont was supposed to be a very rich
+man." He raised his head and said, "It's an interesting story.... Why
+did you wait before telling me?"
+
+"Because this is the 15th of April."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, I discovered yesterday--I heard them talking about it in the
+porter's box--that the 15th of April plays an important part in the life
+of Louise d'Ernemont."
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"Contrary to her usual habits, this woman who works every day of her
+life, who keeps her two rooms tidy, who cooks the lunch which her
+little girl eats when she comes home from the parish school ... this
+woman, on the 15th of April, goes out with the child at ten o'clock in
+the morning and does not return until nightfall. And this has happened
+for years and in all weathers. You must admit that there is something
+queer about this date which I find on an old picture, which is inscribed
+on another, similar picture and which controls the annual movements of
+the descendant of d'Ernemont the farmer-general."
+
+"Yes, it's curious ... you're quite right," said Lupin, slowly. "And
+don't you know where she goes to?"
+
+"Nobody knows. She does not confide in a soul. As a matter of fact, she
+talks very little."
+
+"Are you sure of your information?"
+
+"Absolutely. And the best proof of its accuracy is that here she comes."
+
+A door had opened at the back of the room opposite, admitting a little
+girl of seven or eight, who came and looked out of the window. A lady
+appeared behind her, tall, good-looking still and wearing a sad and
+gentle air. Both of them were ready and dressed, in clothes which were
+simple in themselves, but which pointed to a love of neatness and a
+certain elegance on the part of the mother.
+
+"You see," I whispered, "they are going out."
+
+And presently the mother took the child by the hand and they left the
+room together.
+
+Lupin caught up his hat:
+
+"Are you coming?"
+
+My curiosity was too great for me to raise the least objection. I went
+downstairs with Lupin.
+
+As we stepped into the street, we saw my neighbour enter a baker's shop.
+She bought two rolls and placed them in a little basket which her
+daughter was carrying and which seemed already to contain some other
+provisions. Then they went in the direction of the outer boulevards and
+followed them as far as the Place de l'Etoile, where they turned down
+the Avenue Kleber to walk toward Passy.
+
+Lupin strolled silently along, evidently obsessed by a train of thought
+which I was glad to have provoked. From time to time, he uttered a
+sentence which showed me the thread of his reflections; and I was able
+to see that the riddle remained as much a mystery to him as to myself.
+
+Louise d'Ernemont, meanwhile, had branched off to the left, along the
+Rue Raynouard, a quiet old street in which Franklin and Balzac once
+lived, one of those streets which, lined with old-fashioned houses and
+walled gardens, give you the impression of being in a country-town. The
+Seine flows at the foot of the slope which the street crowns; and a
+number of lanes run down to the river.
+
+My neighbour took one of these narrow, winding, deserted lanes. The
+first building, on the right, was a house the front of which faced the
+Rue Raynouard. Next came a moss-grown wall, of a height above the
+ordinary, supported by buttresses and bristling with broken glass.
+
+Half-way along the wall was a low, arched door. Louise d'Ernemont
+stopped in front of this door and opened it with a key which seemed to
+us enormous. Mother and child entered and closed the door.
+
+"In any case," said Lupin, "she has nothing to conceal, for she has not
+looked round once...."
+
+He had hardly finished his sentence when we heard the sound of footsteps
+behind us. It was two old beggars, a man and a woman, tattered, dirty,
+squalid, covered in rags. They passed us without paying the least
+attention to our presence. The man took from his wallet a key similar to
+my neighbour's and put it into the lock. The door closed behind them.
+
+And, suddenly, at the top of the lane, came the noise of a motor-car
+stopping.... Lupin dragged me fifty yards lower down, to a corner in
+which we were able to hide. And we saw coming down the lane, carrying a
+little dog under her arm, a young and very much over-dressed woman,
+wearing a quantity of jewellery, a young woman whose eyes were too dark,
+her lips too red, her hair too fair. In front of the door, the same
+performance, with the same key.... The lady and the dog disappeared from
+view.
+
+"This promises to be most amusing," said Lupin, chuckling. "What earthly
+connection can there be between those different people?"
+
+There hove in sight successively two elderly ladies, lean and rather
+poverty-stricken in appearance, very much alike, evidently sisters; a
+footman in livery; an infantry corporal; a fat gentleman in a soiled and
+patched jacket-suit; and, lastly, a workman's family, father, mother,
+and four children, all six of them pale and sickly, looking like people
+who never eat their fill. And each of the newcomers carried a basket or
+string-bag filled with provisions.
+
+"It's a picnic!" I cried.
+
+"It grows more and more surprising," said Lupin, "and I sha'n't be
+satisfied till I know what is happening behind that wall."
+
+To climb it was out of the question. We also saw that it finished, at
+the lower as well as at the upper end, at a house none of whose windows
+overlooked the enclosure which the wall contained.
+
+During the next hour, no one else came along. We vainly cast about for
+a stratagem; and Lupin, whose fertile brain had exhausted every possible
+expedient, was about to go in search of a ladder, when, suddenly, the
+little door opened and one of the workman's children came out.
+
+The boy ran up the lane to the Rue Raynouard. A few minutes later he
+returned, carrying two bottles of water, which he set down on the
+pavement to take the big key from his pocket.
+
+By that time Lupin had left me and was strolling slowly along the wall.
+When the child, after entering the enclosure, pushed back the door Lupin
+sprang forward and stuck the point of his knife into the staple of the
+lock. The bolt failed to catch; and it became an easy matter to push the
+door ajar.
+
+"That's done the trick!" said Lupin.
+
+He cautiously put his hand through the doorway and then, to my great
+surprise, entered boldly. But, on following his example, I saw that, ten
+yards behind the wall, a clump of laurels formed a sort of curtain which
+allowed us to come up unobserved.
+
+Lupin took his stand right in the middle of the clump. I joined him and,
+like him, pushed aside the branches of one of the shrubs. And the sight
+which presented itself to my eyes was so unexpected that I was unable to
+suppress an exclamation, while Lupin, on his side, muttered, between
+his teeth:
+
+"By Jupiter! This is a funny job!"
+
+We saw before us, within the confined space that lay between the two
+windowless houses, the identical scene represented in the old picture
+which I had bought at a second-hand dealer's!
+
+The identical scene! At the back, against the opposite wall, the same
+Greek rotunda displayed its slender columns. In the middle, the same
+stone benches topped a circle of four steps that ran down to a fish-pond
+with moss-grown flags. On the left, the same well raised its
+wrought-iron roof; and, close at hand, the same sun-dial showed its
+slanting gnomon and its marble face.
+
+The identical scene! And what added to the strangeness of the sight was
+the memory, obsessing Lupin and myself, of that date of the 15th of
+April, inscribed in a corner of the picture, and the thought that this
+very day was the 15th of April and that sixteen or seventeen people, so
+different in age, condition and manners, had chosen the 15th of April to
+come together in this forgotten corner of Paris!
+
+All of them, at the moment when we caught sight of them, were sitting in
+separate groups on the benches and steps; and all were eating. Not very
+far from my neighbour and her daughter, the workman's family and the
+beggar couple were sharing their provisions; while the footman, the
+gentleman in the soiled suit, the infantry corporal and the two lean
+sisters were making a common stock of their sliced ham, their tins of
+sardines and their gruyere cheese.
+
+The lady with the little dog alone, who had brought no food with her,
+sat apart from the others, who made a show of turning their backs upon
+her. But Louise d'Ernemont offered her a sandwich, whereupon her example
+was followed by the two sisters; and the corporal at once began to make
+himself as agreeable to the young person as he could.
+
+It was now half-past one. The beggar-man took out his pipe, as did the
+fat gentleman; and, when they found that one had no tobacco and the
+other no matches, their needs soon brought them together. The men went
+and smoked by the rotunda and the women joined them. For that matter,
+all these people seemed to know one another quite well.
+
+They were at some distance from where we were standing, so that we could
+not hear what they said. However, we gradually perceived that the
+conversation was becoming animated. The young person with the dog, in
+particular, who by this time appeared to be in great request, indulged
+in much voluble talk, accompanying her words with many gestures, which
+set the little dog barking furiously.
+
+But, suddenly, there was an outcry, promptly followed by shouts of rage;
+and one and all, men and women alike, rushed in disorder toward the
+well. One of the workman's brats was at that moment coming out of it,
+fastened by his belt to the hook at the end of the rope; and the three
+other urchins were drawing him up by turning the handle. More active
+than the rest, the corporal flung himself upon him; and forthwith the
+footman and the fat gentleman seized hold of him also, while the beggars
+and the lean sisters came to blows with the workman and his family.
+
+In a few seconds the little boy had not a stitch left on him beyond his
+shirt. The footman, who had taken possession of the rest of the clothes,
+ran away, pursued by the corporal, who snatched away the boy's breeches,
+which were next torn from the corporal by one of the lean sisters.
+
+"They are mad!" I muttered, feeling absolutely at sea.
+
+"Not at all, not at all," said Lupin.
+
+"What! Do you mean to say that you can make head or tail of what is
+going on?"
+
+He did not reply. The young lady with the little dog, tucking her pet
+under her arm, had started running after the child in the shirt, who
+uttered loud yells. The two of them raced round the laurel-clump in
+which we stood hidden; and the brat flung himself into his mother's
+arms.
+
+At long last, Louise d'Ernemont, who had played a conciliatory part from
+the beginning, succeeded in allaying the tumult. Everybody sat down
+again; but there was a reaction in all those exasperated people and they
+remained motionless and silent, as though worn out with their exertions.
+
+And time went by. Losing patience and beginning to feel the pangs of
+hunger, I went to the Rue Raynouard to fetch something to eat, which we
+divided while watching the actors in the incomprehensible comedy that
+was being performed before our eyes. They hardly stirred. Each minute
+that passed seemed to load them with increasing melancholy; and they
+sank into attitudes of discouragement, bent their backs more and more
+and sat absorbed in their meditations.
+
+The afternoon wore on in this way, under a grey sky that shed a dreary
+light over the enclosure.
+
+"Are they going to spend the night here?" I asked, in a bored voice.
+
+But, at five o'clock or so, the fat gentleman in the soiled jacket-suit
+took out his watch. The others did the same and all, watch in hand,
+seemed to be anxiously awaiting an event of no little importance to
+themselves. The event did not take place, for, in fifteen or twenty
+minutes, the fat gentleman gave a gesture of despair, stood up and put
+on his hat.
+
+Then lamentations broke forth. The two lean sisters and the workman's
+wife fell upon their knees and made the sign of the cross. The lady with
+the little dog and the beggar-woman kissed each other and sobbed; and we
+saw Louise d'Ernemont pressing her daughter sadly to her.
+
+"Let's go," said Lupin.
+
+"You think it's over?"
+
+"Yes; and we have only just time to make ourselves scarce."
+
+We went out unmolested. At the top of the lane, Lupin turned to the left
+and, leaving me outside, entered the first house in the Rue Raynouard,
+the one that backed on to the enclosure.
+
+After talking for a few seconds to the porter, he joined me and we
+stopped a passing taxi-cab:
+
+"No. 34 Rue de Turin," he said to the driver.
+
+The ground-floor of No. 34 was occupied by a notary's office; and we
+were shown in, almost without waiting, to Maitre Valandier, a smiling,
+pleasant-spoken man of a certain age.
+
+Lupin introduced himself by the name of Captain Jeanniot, retired from
+the army. He said that he wanted to build a house to his own liking
+and that some one had suggested to him a plot of ground situated near
+the Rue Raynouard.
+
+"But that plot is not for sale," said Maitre Valandier.
+
+"Oh, I was told...."
+
+"You have been misinformed, I fear."
+
+The lawyer rose, went to a cupboard and returned with a picture which he
+showed us. I was petrified. It was the same picture which I had bought,
+the same picture that hung in Louise d'Ernemont's room.
+
+"This is a painting," he said, "of the plot of ground to which you
+refer. It is known as the Clos d'Ernemont."
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Well, this close," continued the notary, "once formed part of a large
+garden belonging to d'Ernemont, the farmer-general, who was executed
+during the Terror. All that could be sold has been sold, piecemeal, by
+the heirs. But this last plot has remained and will remain in their
+joint possession ... unless...."
+
+The notary began to laugh.
+
+"Unless what?" asked Lupin.
+
+"Well, it's quite a romance, a rather curious romance, in fact. I often
+amuse myself by looking through the voluminous documents of the case."
+
+"Would it be indiscreet, if I asked ...?"
+
+"Not at all, not at all," declared Maitre Valandier, who seemed
+delighted, on the contrary, to have found a listener for his story. And,
+without waiting to be pressed, he began: "At the outbreak of the
+Revolution, Louis Agrippa d'Ernemont, on the pretence of joining his
+wife, who was staying at Geneva with their daughter Pauline, shut up his
+mansion in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, dismissed his servants and, with
+his son Charles, came and took up his abode in his pleasure-house at
+Passy, where he was known to nobody except an old and devoted
+serving-woman. He remained there in hiding for three years and he had
+every reason to hope that his retreat would not be discovered, when, one
+day, after luncheon, as he was having a nap, the old servant burst into
+his room. She had seen, at the end of the street, a patrol of armed men
+who seemed to be making for the house. Louis d'Ernemont got ready
+quickly and, at the moment when the men were knocking at the front door,
+disappeared through the door that led to the garden, shouting to his
+son, in a scared voice, to keep them talking, if only for five minutes.
+He may have intended to escape and found the outlets through the garden
+watched. In any case, he returned in six or seven minutes, replied very
+calmly to the questions put to him and raised no difficulty about
+accompanying the men. His son Charles, although only eighteen years of
+age, was arrested also."
+
+"When did this happen?" asked Lupin.
+
+"It happened on the 26th day of Germinal, Year II, that is to say, on
+the...."
+
+Maitre Valandier stopped, with his eyes fixed on a calendar that hung on
+the wall, and exclaimed:
+
+"Why, it was on this very day! This is the 15th of April, the
+anniversary of the farmer-general's arrest."
+
+"What an odd coincidence!" said Lupin. "And considering the period at
+which it took place, the arrest, no doubt, had serious consequences?"
+
+"Oh, most serious!" said the notary, laughing. "Three months later, at
+the beginning of Thermidor, the farmer-general mounted the scaffold. His
+son Charles was forgotten in prison and their property was confiscated."
+
+"The property was immense, I suppose?" said Lupin.
+
+"Well, there you are! That's just where the thing becomes complicated.
+The property, which was, in fact, immense, could never be traced. It was
+discovered that the Faubourg Saint-Germain mansion had been sold, before
+the Revolution, to an Englishman, together with all the country-seats
+and estates and all the jewels, securities and collections belonging to
+the farmer-general. The Convention instituted minute inquiries, as did
+the Directory afterward. But the inquiries led to no result."
+
+"There remained, at any rate, the Passy house," said Lupin.
+
+"The house at Passy was bought, for a mere song, by a delegate of the
+Commune, the very man who had arrested d'Ernemont, one Citizen Broquet.
+Citizen Broquet shut himself up in the house, barricaded the doors,
+fortified the walls and, when Charles d'Ernemont was at last set free
+and appeared outside, received him by firing a musket at him. Charles
+instituted one law-suit after another, lost them all and then proceeded
+to offer large sums of money. But Citizen Broquet proved intractable. He
+had bought the house and he stuck to the house; and he would have stuck
+to it until his death, if Charles had not obtained the support of
+Bonaparte. Citizen Broquet cleared out on the 12th of February, 1803;
+but Charles d'Ernemont's joy was so great and his brain, no doubt, had
+been so violently unhinged by all that he had gone through, that, on
+reaching the threshold of the house of which he had at last recovered
+the ownership, even before opening the door he began to dance and sing
+in the street. He had gone clean off his head."
+
+"By Jove!" said Lupin. "And what became of him?"
+
+"His mother and his sister Pauline, who had ended by marrying a cousin
+of the same name at Geneva, were both dead. The old servant-woman took
+care of him and they lived together in the Passy house. Years passed
+without any notable event; but, suddenly, in 1812, an unexpected
+incident happened. The old servant made a series of strange revelations
+on her death-bed, in the presence of two witnesses whom she sent for.
+She declared that the farmer-general had carried to his house at Passy a
+number of bags filled with gold and silver and that those bags had
+disappeared a few days before the arrest. According to earlier
+confidences made by Charles d'Ernemont, who had them from his father,
+the treasures were hidden in the garden, between the rotunda, the
+sun-dial and the well. In proof of her statement, she produced three
+pictures, or rather, for they were not yet framed, three canvases, which
+the farmer-general had painted during his captivity and which he had
+succeeded in conveying to her, with instructions to hand them to his
+wife, his son and his daughter. Tempted by the lure of wealth, Charles
+and the old servant had kept silence. Then came the law-suits, the
+recovery of the house, Charles's madness, the servant's own useless
+searches; and the treasures were still there."
+
+"And they are there now," chuckled Lupin.
+
+"And they will be there always," exclaimed Maitre Valandier. "Unless ...
+unless Citizen Broquet, who no doubt smelt a rat, succeeded in ferreting
+them out. But this is an unlikely supposition, for Citizen Broquet died
+in extreme poverty."
+
+"So then ...?"
+
+"So then everybody began to hunt. The children of Pauline, the sister,
+hastened from Geneva. It was discovered that Charles had been secretly
+married and that he had sons. All these heirs set to work."
+
+"But Charles himself?"
+
+"Charles lived in the most absolute retirement. He did not leave his
+room."
+
+"Never?"
+
+"Well, that is the most extraordinary, the most astounding part of the
+story. Once a year, Charles d'Ernemont, impelled by a sort of
+subconscious will-power, came downstairs, took the exact road which his
+father had taken, walked across the garden and sat down either on the
+steps of the rotunda, which you see here, in the picture, or on the kerb
+of the well. At twenty-seven minutes past five, he rose and went indoors
+again; and until his death, which occurred in 1820, he never once failed
+to perform this incomprehensible pilgrimage. Well, the day on which this
+happened was invariably the 15th of April, the anniversary of the
+arrest."
+
+Maitre Valandier was no longer smiling and himself seemed impressed by
+the amazing story which he was telling us.
+
+"And, since Charles's death?" asked Lupin, after a moment's reflection.
+
+"Since that time," replied the lawyer, with a certain solemnity of
+manner, "for nearly a hundred years, the heirs of Charles and Pauline
+d'Ernemont have kept up the pilgrimage of the 15th of April. During the
+first few years they made the most thorough excavations. Every inch of
+the garden was searched, every clod of ground dug up. All this is now
+over. They take hardly any pains. All they do is, from time to time, for
+no particular reason, to turn over a stone or explore the well. For the
+most part, they are content to sit down on the steps of the rotunda,
+like the poor madman; and, like him, they wait. And that, you see, is
+the sad part of their destiny. In those hundred years, all these people
+who have succeeded one another, from father to son, have lost--what
+shall I say?--the energy of life. They have no courage left, no
+initiative. They wait. They wait for the 15th of April; and, when the
+15th of April comes, they wait for a miracle to take place. Poverty has
+ended by overtaking every one of them. My predecessors and I have sold
+first the house, in order to build another which yields a better rent,
+followed by bits of the garden and further bits. But, as to that corner
+over there," pointing to the picture, "they would rather die than sell
+it. On this they are all agreed: Louise d'Ernemont, who is the direct
+heiress of Pauline, as well as the beggars, the workman, the footman,
+the circus-rider and so on, who represent the unfortunate Charles."
+
+There was a fresh pause; and Lupin asked:
+
+"What is your own opinion, Maitre Valandier?"
+
+"My private opinion is that there's nothing in it. What credit can we
+give to the statements of an old servant enfeebled by age? What
+importance can we attach to the crotchets of a madman? Besides, if the
+farmer-general had realized his fortune, don't you think that that
+fortune would have been found? One could manage to hide a paper, a
+document, in a confined space like that, but not treasures."
+
+"Still, the pictures?..."
+
+"Yes, of course. But, after all, are they a sufficient proof?"
+
+Lupin bent over the copy which the solicitor had taken from the cupboard
+and, after examining it at length, said:
+
+"You spoke of three pictures."
+
+"Yes, the one which you see was handed to my predecessor by the heirs of
+Charles. Louise d'Ernemont possesses another. As for the third, no one
+knows what became of it."
+
+Lupin looked at me and continued:
+
+"And do they all bear the same date?"
+
+"Yes, the date inscribed by Charles d'Ernemont when he had them framed,
+not long before his death.... The same date, that is to say the 15th of
+April, Year II, according to the revolutionary calendar, as the arrest
+took place in April, 1794."
+
+"Oh, yes, of course," said Lupin. "The figure 2 means...."
+
+He thought for a few moments and resumed:
+
+"One more question, if I may. Did no one ever come forward to solve the
+problem?"
+
+Maitre Valandier threw up his arms:
+
+"Goodness gracious me!" he cried. "Why, it was the plague of the office!
+One of my predecessors, Maitre Turbon, was summoned to Passy no fewer
+than eighteen times, between 1820 and 1843, by the groups of heirs, whom
+fortune-tellers, clairvoyants, visionaries, impostors of all sorts had
+promised that they would discover the farmer-general's treasures. At
+last, we laid down a rule: any outsider applying to institute a search
+was to begin by depositing a certain sum."
+
+"What sum?"
+
+"A thousand francs."
+
+"And did this have the effect of frightening them off?"
+
+"No. Four years ago, an Hungarian hypnotist tried the experiment and
+made me waste a whole day. After that, we fixed the deposit at five
+thousand francs. In case of success, a third of the treasure goes to the
+finder. In case of failure, the deposit is forfeited to the heirs. Since
+then, I have been left in peace."
+
+"Here are your five thousand francs."
+
+The lawyer gave a start:
+
+"Eh? What do you say?"
+
+"I say," repeated Lupin, taking five bank-notes from his pocket and
+calmly spreading them on the table, "I say that here is the deposit of
+five thousand francs. Please give me a receipt and invite all the
+d'Ernemont heirs to meet me at Passy on the 15th of April next year."
+
+The notary could not believe his senses. I myself, although Lupin had
+accustomed me to these surprises, was utterly taken back.
+
+"Are you serious?" asked Maitre Valandier.
+
+"Perfectly serious."
+
+"But, you know, I told you my opinion. All these improbable stories rest
+upon no evidence of any kind."
+
+"I don't agree with you," said Lupin.
+
+The notary gave him the look which we give to a person who is not quite
+right in his head. Then, accepting the situation, he took his pen and
+drew up a contract on stamped paper, acknowledging the payment of the
+deposit by Captain Jeanniot and promising him a third of such moneys as
+he should discover:
+
+"If you change your mind," he added, "you might let me know a week
+before the time comes. I shall not inform the d'Ernemont family until
+the last moment, so as not to give those poor people too long a spell of
+hope."
+
+"You can inform them this very day, Maitre Valandier. It will make them
+spend a happier year."
+
+We said good-bye. Outside, in the street, I cried:
+
+"So you have hit upon something?"
+
+"I?" replied Lupin. "Not a bit of it! And that's just what amuses me."
+
+"But they have been searching for a hundred years!"
+
+"It is not so much a matter of searching as of thinking. Now I have
+three hundred and sixty-five days to think in. It is a great deal more
+than I want; and I am afraid that I shall forget all about the business,
+interesting though it may be. Oblige me by reminding me, will you?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I reminded him of it several times during the following months, though
+he never seemed to attach much importance to the matter. Then came a
+long period during which I had no opportunity of seeing him. It was the
+period, as I afterward learnt, of his visit to Armenia and of the
+terrible struggle on which he embarked against Abdul the Damned, a
+struggle which ended in the tyrant's downfall.
+
+I used to write to him, however, at the address which he gave me and I
+was thus able to send him certain particulars which I had succeeded in
+gathering, here and there, about my neighbour Louise d'Ernemont, such as
+the love which she had conceived, a few years earlier, for a very rich
+young man, who still loved her, but who had been compelled by his family
+to throw her over; the young widow's despair, and the plucky life which
+she led with her little daughter.
+
+Lupin replied to none of my letters. I did not know whether they reached
+him; and, meantime, the date was drawing near and I could not help
+wondering whether his numerous undertakings would not prevent him from
+keeping the appointment which he himself had fixed.
+
+As a matter of fact, the morning of the 15th of April arrived and Lupin
+was not with me by the time I had finished lunch. It was a quarter-past
+twelve. I left my flat and took a cab to Passy.
+
+I had no sooner entered the lane than I saw the workman's four brats
+standing outside the door in the wall. Maitre Valandier, informed by
+them of my arrival, hastened in my direction:
+
+"Well?" he cried. "Where's Captain Jeanniot?"
+
+"Hasn't he come?"
+
+"No; and I can assure you that everybody is very impatient to see him."
+
+The different groups began to crowd round the lawyer; and I noticed that
+all those faces which I recognized had thrown off the gloomy and
+despondent expression which they wore a year ago.
+
+"They are full of hope," said Maitre Valandier, "and it is my fault. But
+what could I do? Your friend made such an impression upon me that I
+spoke to these good people with a confidence ... which I cannot say I
+feel. However, he seems a queer sort of fellow, this Captain Jeanniot of
+yours...."
+
+He asked me many questions and I gave him a number of more or less
+fanciful details about the captain, to which the heirs listened, nodding
+their heads in appreciation of my remarks.
+
+"Of course, the truth was bound to be discovered sooner or later," said
+the fat gentleman, in a tone of conviction.
+
+The infantry corporal, dazzled by the captain's rank, did not entertain
+a doubt in his mind.
+
+The lady with the little dog wanted to know if Captain Jeanniot was
+young.
+
+But Louise d'Ernemont said:
+
+"And suppose he does not come?"
+
+"We shall still have the five thousand francs to divide," said the
+beggar-man.
+
+For all that, Louise d'Ernemont's words had damped their enthusiasm.
+Their faces began to look sullen and I felt an atmosphere as of anguish
+weighing upon us.
+
+At half-past one, the two lean sisters felt faint and sat down. Then the
+fat gentleman in the soiled suit suddenly rounded on the notary:
+
+"It's you, Maitre Valandier, who are to blame.... You ought to have
+brought the captain here by main force.... He's a humbug, that's quite
+clear."
+
+He gave me a savage look, and the footman, in his turn, flung muttered
+curses at me.
+
+I confess that their reproaches seemed to me well-founded and that
+Lupin's absence annoyed me greatly:
+
+"He won't come now," I whispered to the lawyer.
+
+And I was thinking of beating a retreat, when the eldest of the brats
+appeared at the door, yelling:
+
+"There's some one coming!... A motor-cycle!..."
+
+A motor was throbbing on the other side of the wall. A man on a
+motor-bicycle came tearing down the lane at the risk of breaking his
+neck. Suddenly, he put on his brakes, outside the door, and sprang from
+his machine.
+
+Under the layer of dust which covered him from head to foot, we could
+see that his navy-blue reefer-suit, his carefully creased trousers, his
+black felt hat and patent-leather boots were not the clothes in which a
+man usually goes cycling.
+
+"But that's not Captain Jeanniot!" shouted the notary, who failed to
+recognize him.
+
+"Yes, it is," said Lupin, shaking hands with us. "I'm Captain Jeanniot
+right enough ... only I've shaved off my moustache.... Besides, Maitre
+Valandier, here's your receipt."
+
+He caught one of the workman's children by the arm and said:
+
+"Run to the cab-rank and fetch a taxi to the corner of the Rue
+Raynouard. Look sharp! I have an urgent appointment to keep at two
+o'clock, or a quarter-past at the latest."
+
+There was a murmur of protest. Captain Jeanniot took out his watch:
+
+"Well! It's only twelve minutes to two! I have a good quarter of an hour
+before me. But, by Jingo, how tired I feel! And how hungry into the
+bargain!"
+
+The corporal thrust his ammunition-bread into Lupin's hand; and he
+munched away at it as he sat down and said:
+
+"You must forgive me. I was in the Marseilles express, which left the
+rails between Dijon and Laroche. There were twelve people killed and any
+number injured, whom I had to help. Then I found this motor-cycle in the
+luggage-van.... Maitre Valandier, you must be good enough to restore it
+to the owner. You will find the label fastened to the handle-bar. Ah,
+you're back, my boy! Is the taxi there? At the corner of the Rue
+Raynouard? Capital!"
+
+He looked at his watch again:
+
+"Hullo! No time to lose!"
+
+I stared at him with eager curiosity. But how great must the excitement
+of the d'Ernemont heirs have been! True, they had not the same faith in
+Captain Jeanniot that I had in Lupin. Nevertheless, their faces were
+pale and drawn. Captain Jeanniot turned slowly to the left and walked up
+to the sun-dial. The pedestal represented the figure of a man with a
+powerful torso, who bore on his shoulders a marble slab the surface of
+which had been so much worn by time that we could hardly distinguish the
+engraved lines that marked the hours. Above the slab, a Cupid, with
+outspread wings, held an arrow that served as a gnomon.
+
+The captain stood leaning forward for a minute, with attentive eyes.
+
+Then he said:
+
+"Somebody lend me a knife, please."
+
+A clock in the neighbourhood struck two. At that exact moment, the
+shadow of the arrow was thrown upon the sunlit dial along the line of a
+crack in the marble which divided the slab very nearly in half.
+
+The captain took the knife handed to him. And with the point, very
+gently, he began to scratch the mixture of earth and moss that filled
+the narrow cleft.
+
+Almost immediately, at a couple of inches from the edge, he stopped, as
+though his knife had encountered an obstacle, inserted his thumb and
+forefinger and withdrew a small object which he rubbed between the palms
+of his hands and gave to the lawyer:
+
+"Here, Maitre Valandier. Something to go on with."
+
+It was an enormous diamond, the size of a hazelnut and beautifully cut.
+
+The captain resumed his work. The next moment, a fresh stop. A second
+diamond, magnificent and brilliant as the first, appeared in sight.
+
+And then came a third and a fourth.
+
+In a minute's time, following the crack from one edge to the other and
+certainly without digging deeper than half an inch, the captain had
+taken out eighteen diamonds of the same size.
+
+During this minute, there was not a cry, not a movement around the
+sun-dial. The heirs seemed paralyzed with a sort of stupor. Then the fat
+gentleman muttered:
+
+"Geminy!"
+
+And the corporal moaned:
+
+"Oh, captain!... Oh, captain!..."
+
+The two sisters fell in a dead faint. The lady with the little dog
+dropped on her knees and prayed, while the footman, staggering like a
+drunken man, held his head in his two hands, and Louise d'Ernemont wept.
+
+When calm was restored and all became eager to thank Captain Jeanniot,
+they saw that he was gone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Some years passed before I had an opportunity of talking to Lupin about
+this business. He was in a confidential vein and answered:
+
+"The business of the eighteen diamonds? By Jove, when I think that three
+or four generations of my fellow-men had been hunting for the solution!
+And the eighteen diamonds were there all the time, under a little mud
+and dust!"
+
+"But how did you guess?..."
+
+"I did not guess. I reflected. I doubt if I need even have reflected.
+I was struck, from the beginning, by the fact that the whole
+circumstance was governed by one primary question: the question of time.
+When Charles d'Ernemont was still in possession of his wits, he wrote a
+date upon the three pictures. Later, in the gloom in which he was
+struggling, a faint glimmer of intelligence led him every year to the
+centre of the old garden; and the same faint glimmer led him away from
+it every year at the same moment, that is to say, at twenty-seven
+minutes past five. Something must have acted on the disordered machinery
+of his brain in this way. What was the superior force that controlled
+the poor madman's movements? Obviously, the instinctive notion of time
+represented by the sun-dial in the farmer-general's pictures. It was the
+annual revolution of the earth around the sun that brought Charles
+d'Ernemont back to the garden at a fixed date. And it was the earth's
+daily revolution upon its own axis that took him from it at a fixed
+hour, that is to say, at the hour, most likely, when the sun, concealed
+by objects different from those of to-day, ceased to light the Passy
+garden. Now of all this the sun-dial was the symbol. And that is why I
+at once knew where to look."
+
+"But how did you settle the hour at which to begin looking?"
+
+"Simply by the pictures. A man living at that time, such as Charles
+d'Ernemont, would have written either 26 Germinal, Year II, or else 15
+April, 1794, but not 15 April, Year II. I was astounded that no one had
+thought of that."
+
+"Then the figure 2 stood for two o'clock?"
+
+"Evidently. And what must have happened was this: the farmer-general
+began by turning his fortune into solid gold and silver money. Then, by
+way of additional precaution, with this gold and silver he bought
+eighteen wonderful diamonds. When he was surprised by the arrival of the
+patrol, he fled into his garden. Which was the best place to hide the
+diamonds? Chance caused his eyes to light upon the sun-dial. It was two
+o'clock. The shadow of the arrow was then falling along the crack in the
+marble. He obeyed this sign of the shadow, rammed his eighteen diamonds
+into the dust and calmly went back and surrendered to the soldiers."
+
+"But the shadow of the arrow coincides with the crack in the marble
+every day of the year and not only on the 15th of April."
+
+"You forget, my dear chap, that we are dealing with a lunatic and that
+he remembered only this date of the 15th of April."
+
+"Very well; but you, once you had solved the riddle, could easily have
+made your way into the enclosure and taken the diamonds."
+
+"Quite true; and I should not have hesitated, if I had had to do with
+people of another description. But I really felt sorry for those poor
+wretches. And then you know the sort of idiot that Lupin is. The idea of
+appearing suddenly as a benevolent genius and amazing his kind would be
+enough to make him commit any sort of folly."
+
+"Tah!" I cried. "The folly was not so great as all that. Six magnificent
+diamonds! How delighted the d'Ernemont heirs must have been to fulfil
+their part of the contract!"
+
+Lupin looked at me and burst into uncontrollable laughter:
+
+"So you haven't heard? Oh, what a joke! The delight of the d'Ernemont
+heirs!.... Why, my dear fellow, on the next day, that worthy Captain
+Jeanniot had so many mortal enemies! On the very next day, the two lean
+sisters and the fat gentleman organized an opposition. A contract? Not
+worth the paper it was written on, because, as could easily be proved,
+there was no such person as Captain Jeanniot. Where did that adventurer
+spring from? Just let him sue them and they'd soon show him what was
+what!"
+
+"Louise d'Ernemont too?"
+
+"No, Louise d'Ernemont protested against that piece of rascality. But
+what could she do against so many? Besides, now that she was rich, she
+got back her young man. I haven't heard of her since."
+
+"So ...?"
+
+"So, my dear fellow, I was caught in a trap, with not a leg to stand on,
+and I had to compromise and accept one modest diamond as my share, the
+smallest and the least handsome of the lot. That comes of doing one's
+best to help people!"
+
+And Lupin grumbled between his teeth:
+
+"Oh, gratitude!... All humbug!... Where should we honest men be if we
+had not our conscience and the satisfaction of duty performed to reward
+us?"
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE INFERNAL TRAP
+
+
+When the race was over, a crowd of people, streaming toward the exit
+from the grand stand, pushed against Nicolas Dugrival. He brought his
+hand smartly to the inside pocket of his jacket.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked his wife.
+
+"I still feel nervous ... with that money on me! I'm afraid of some
+nasty accident."
+
+She muttered:
+
+"And I can't understand you. How can you think of carrying such a sum
+about with you? Every farthing we possess! Lord knows, it cost us
+trouble enough to earn!"
+
+"Pooh!" he said. "No one would guess that it is here, in my
+pocket-book."
+
+"Yes, yes," she grumbled. "That young man-servant whom we discharged
+last week knew all about it, didn't he, Gabriel?"
+
+"Yes, aunt," said a youth standing beside her.
+
+Nicolas Dugrival, his wife and his nephew Gabriel were well-known
+figures at the race-meetings, where the regular frequenters saw them
+almost every day: Dugrival, a big, fat, red-faced man, who looked as if
+he knew how to enjoy life; his wife, also built on heavy lines, with a
+coarse, vulgar face, and always dressed in a plum-coloured silk much the
+worse for wear; the nephew, quite young, slender, with pale features,
+dark eyes and fair and rather curly hair.
+
+As a rule, the couple remained seated throughout the afternoon. It was
+Gabriel who betted for his uncle, watching the horses in the paddock,
+picking up tips to right and left among the jockeys and stable-lads,
+running backward and forward between the stands and the _pari-mutuel_.
+
+Luck had favoured them that day, for, three times, Dugrival's neighbours
+saw the young man come back and hand him money.
+
+The fifth race was just finishing. Dugrival lit a cigar. At that moment,
+a gentleman in a tight-fitting brown suit, with a face ending in a
+peaked grey beard, came up to him and asked, in a confidential whisper:
+
+"Does this happen to belong to you, sir?"
+
+And he displayed a gold watch and chain.
+
+Dugrival gave a start:
+
+"Why, yes ... it's mine.... Look, here are my initials, N. G.: Nicolas
+Dugrival!"
+
+And he at once, with a movement of terror, clapped his hand to his
+jacket-pocket. The note-case was still there.
+
+"Ah," he said, greatly relieved, "that's a piece of luck!... But, all
+the same, how on earth was it done?... Do you know the scoundrel?"
+
+"Yes, we've got him locked up. Pray come with me and we'll soon look
+into the matter."
+
+"Whom have I the honour ...?"
+
+"M. Delangle, detective-inspector. I have sent to let M. Marquenne, the
+magistrate, know."
+
+Nicolas Dugrival went out with the inspector; and the two of them
+started for the commissary's office, some distance behind the grand
+stand. They were within fifty yards of it, when the inspector was
+accosted by a man who said to him, hurriedly:
+
+"The fellow with the watch has blabbed; we are on the tracks of a whole
+gang. M. Marquenne wants you to wait for him at the _pari-mutuel_ and to
+keep a look-out near the fourth booth."
+
+There was a crowd outside the betting-booths and Inspector Delangle
+muttered:
+
+"It's an absurd arrangement.... Whom am I to look out for?... That's
+just like M. Marquenne!..."
+
+He pushed aside a group of people who were crowding too close upon him:
+
+"By Jove, one has to use one's elbows here and keep a tight hold on
+one's purse. That's the way you got your watch pinched, M. Dugrival!"
+
+"I can't understand...."
+
+"Oh, if you knew how those gentry go to work! One never guesses what
+they're up to next. One of them treads on your foot, another gives you a
+poke in the eye with his stick and the third picks your pocket before
+you know where you are.... I've been had that way myself." He stopped
+and then continued, angrily. "But, bother it, what's the use of hanging
+about here! What a mob! It's unbearable!... Ah, there's M. Marquenne
+making signs to us!... One moment, please ... and be sure and wait for
+me here."
+
+He shouldered his way through the crowd. Nicolas Dugrival followed him
+for a moment with his eyes. Once the inspector was out of sight, he
+stood a little to one side, to avoid being hustled.
+
+A few minutes passed. The sixth race was about to start, when Dugrival
+saw his wife and nephew looking for him. He explained to them that
+Inspector Delangle was arranging matters with the magistrate.
+
+"Have you your money still?" asked his wife.
+
+"Why, of course I have!" he replied. "The inspector and I took good
+care, I assure you, not to let the crowd jostle us."
+
+He felt his jacket, gave a stifled cry, thrust his hand into his pocket
+and began to stammer inarticulate syllables, while Mme. Dugrival gasped,
+in dismay:
+
+"What is it? What's the matter?"
+
+"Stolen!" he moaned. "The pocket-book ... the fifty notes!..."
+
+"It's not true!" she screamed. "It's not true!"
+
+"Yes, the inspector ... a common sharper ... he's the man...."
+
+She uttered absolute yells:
+
+"Thief! Thief! Stop thief!... My husband's been robbed!... Fifty
+thousand francs!... We are ruined!... Thief! Thief ..."
+
+In a moment they were surrounded by policemen and taken to the
+commissary's office. Dugrival went like a lamb, absolutely bewildered.
+His wife continued to shriek at the top of her voice, piling up
+explanations, railing against the inspector:
+
+"Have him looked for!... Have him found!... A brown suit.... A pointed
+beard.... Oh, the villain, to think what he's robbed us of!... Fifty
+thousand francs!... Why ... why, Dugrival, what are you doing?"
+
+With one bound, she flung herself upon her husband. Too late! He had
+pressed the barrel of a revolver against his temple. A shot rang out.
+Dugrival fell. He was dead.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The reader cannot have forgotten the commotion made by the newspapers in
+connection with this case, nor how they jumped at the opportunity once
+more to accuse the police of carelessness and blundering. Was it
+conceivable that a pick-pocket could play the part of an inspector like
+that, in broad daylight and in a public place, and rob a respectable man
+with impunity?
+
+Nicolas Dugrival's widow kept the controversy alive, thanks to her
+jeremiads and to the interviews which she granted on every hand. A
+reporter had secured a snapshot of her in front of her husband's body,
+holding up her hand and swearing to revenge his death. Her nephew
+Gabriel was standing beside her, with hatred pictured in his face. He,
+too, it appeared, in a few words uttered in a whisper, but in a tone of
+fierce determination, had taken an oath to pursue and catch the
+murderer.
+
+The accounts described the humble apartment which they occupied at the
+Batignolles; and, as they had been robbed of all their means, a
+sporting-paper opened a subscription on their behalf.
+
+As for the mysterious Delangle, he remained undiscovered. Two men were
+arrested, but had to be released forthwith. The police took up a number
+of clues, which were at once abandoned; more than one name was
+mentioned; and, lastly, they accused Arsene Lupin, an action which
+provoked the famous burglar's celebrated cable, dispatched from New York
+six days after the incident:
+
+
+    "Protest indignantly against calumny invented by baffled police.
+    Send my condolences to unhappy victims. Instructing my bankers to
+    remit them fifty thousand francs.
+
+                                                             "LUPIN."
+
+
+True enough, on the day after the publication of the cable, a stranger
+rang at Mme. Dugrival's door and handed her an envelope. The envelope
+contained fifty thousand-franc notes.
+
+This theatrical stroke was not at all calculated to allay the universal
+comment. But an event soon occurred which provided any amount of
+additional excitement. Two days later, the people living in the same
+house as Mme. Dugrival and her nephew were awakened, at four o'clock in
+the morning, by horrible cries and shrill calls for help. They rushed to
+the flat. The porter succeeded in opening the door. By the light of a
+lantern carried by one of the neighbours, he found Gabriel stretched at
+full-length in his bedroom, with his wrists and ankles bound and a gag
+forced into his mouth, while, in the next room, Mme. Dugrival lay with
+her life's blood ebbing away through a great gash in her breast.
+
+She whispered:
+
+"The money.... I've been robbed.... All the notes gone...."
+
+And she fainted away.
+
+What had happened? Gabriel said--and, as soon as she was able to speak,
+Mme. Dugrival completed her nephew's story--that he was startled from
+his sleep by finding himself attacked by two men, one of whom gagged
+him, while the other fastened him down. He was unable to see the men in
+the dark, but he heard the noise of the struggle between them and his
+aunt. It was a terrible struggle, Mme. Dugrival declared. The ruffians,
+who obviously knew their way about, guided by some intuition, made
+straight for the little cupboard containing the money and, in spite of
+her resistance and outcries, laid hands upon the bundle of bank-notes.
+As they left, one of them, whom she had bitten in the arm, stabbed her
+with a knife, whereupon the men had both fled.
+
+"Which way?" she was asked.
+
+"Through the door of my bedroom and afterward, I suppose, through the
+hall-door."
+
+"Impossible! The porter would have noticed them."
+
+For the whole mystery lay in this: how had the ruffians entered the
+house and how did they manage to leave it? There was no outlet open to
+them. Was it one of the tenants? A careful inquiry proved the absurdity
+of such a supposition.
+
+What then?
+
+Chief-inspector Ganimard, who was placed in special charge of the case,
+confessed that he had never known anything more bewildering:
+
+"It's very like Lupin," he said, "and yet it's not Lupin.... No, there's
+more in it than meets the eye, something very doubtful and
+suspicious.... Besides, if it were Lupin, why should he take back the
+fifty thousand francs which he sent? There's another question that
+puzzles me: what is the connection between the second robbery and the
+first, the one on the race-course? The whole thing is incomprehensible
+and I have a sort of feeling--which is very rare with me--that it is no
+use hunting. For my part, I give it up."
+
+The examining-magistrate threw himself into the case with heart and
+soul. The reporters united their efforts with those of the police. A
+famous English sleuth-hound crossed the Channel. A wealthy American,
+whose head had been turned by detective-stories, offered a big reward to
+whosoever should supply the first information leading to the discovery
+of the truth. Six weeks later, no one was any the wiser. The public
+adopted Ganimard's view; and the examining-magistrate himself grew tired
+of struggling in a darkness which only became denser as time went on.
+
+And life continued as usual with Dugrival's widow. Nursed by her nephew,
+she soon recovered from her wound. In the mornings, Gabriel settled her
+in an easy-chair at the dining-room window, did the rooms and then went
+out marketing. He cooked their lunch without even accepting the
+proffered assistance of the porter's wife.
+
+Worried by the police investigations and especially by the requests for
+interviews, the aunt and nephew refused to see anybody. Not even the
+portress, whose chatter disturbed and wearied Mme. Dugrival, was
+admitted. She fell back upon Gabriel, whom she accosted each time that
+he passed her room:
+
+"Take care, M. Gabriel, you're both of you being spied upon. There are
+men watching you. Why, only last night, my husband caught a fellow
+staring up at your windows."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Gabriel. "It's all right. That's the police, protecting
+us."
+
+One afternoon, at about four o'clock, there was a violent altercation
+between two costermongers at the bottom of the street. The porter's wife
+at once left her room to listen to the invectives which the adversaries
+were hurling at each other's heads. Her back was no sooner turned than
+a man, young, of medium height and dressed in a grey suit of
+irreproachable cut, slipped into the house and ran up the staircase.
+
+When he came to the third floor, he rang the bell. Receiving no answer,
+he rang again. At the third summons, the door opened.
+
+"Mme. Dugrival?" he asked, taking off his hat.
+
+"Mme. Dugrival is still an invalid and unable to see any one," said
+Gabriel, who stood in the hall.
+
+"It's most important that I should speak to her."
+
+"I am her nephew and perhaps I could take her a message...."
+
+"Very well," said the man. "Please tell Mme. Dugrival that an accident
+has supplied me with valuable information concerning the robbery from
+which she has suffered and that I should like to go over the flat and
+ascertain certain particulars for myself. I am accustomed to this sort
+of inquiry; and my call is sure to be of use to her."
+
+Gabriel examined the visitor for a moment, reflected and said:
+
+"In that case, I suppose my aunt will consent ... Pray come in."
+
+He opened the door of the dining-room and stepped back to allow the
+other to pass. The stranger walked to the threshold, but, at the moment
+when he was crossing it, Gabriel raised his arm and, with a swift
+movement, struck him with a dagger over the right shoulder.
+
+A burst of laughter rang through the room:
+
+"Got him!" cried Mme. Dugrival, darting up from her chair. "Well done,
+Gabriel! But, I say, you haven't killed the scoundrel, have you?"
+
+"I don't think so, aunt. It's a small blade and I didn't strike him too
+hard."
+
+The man was staggering, with his hands stretched in front of him and his
+face deathly pale.
+
+"You fool!" sneered the widow. "So you've fallen into the trap ... and a
+good job too! We've been looking out for you a long time. Come, my fine
+fellow, down with you! You don't care about it, do you? But you can't
+help yourself, you see. That's right: one knee on the ground, before the
+missus ... now the other knee.... How well we've been brought up!...
+Crash, there we go on the floor! Lord, if my poor Dugrival could only
+see him like that!... And now, Gabriel, to work!"
+
+She went to her bedroom and opened one of the doors of a hanging
+wardrobe filled with dresses. Pulling these aside, she pushed open
+another door which formed the back of the wardrobe and led to a room in
+the next house:
+
+"Help me carry him, Gabriel. And you'll nurse him as well as you can,
+won't you? For the present, he's worth his weight in gold to us, the
+artist!..."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The hours succeeded one another. Days passed.
+
+One morning, the wounded man regained a moment's consciousness. He
+raised his eyelids and looked around him.
+
+He was lying in a room larger than that in which he had been stabbed, a
+room sparsely furnished, with thick curtains hanging before the windows
+from top to bottom. There was light enough, however, to enable him to
+see young Gabriel Dugrival seated on a chair beside him and watching
+him.
+
+"Ah, it's you, youngster!" he murmured. "I congratulate you, my lad. You
+have a sure and pretty touch with the dagger."
+
+And he fell asleep again.
+
+That day and the following days, he woke up several times and, each
+time, he saw the stripling's pale face, his thin lips and his dark eyes,
+with the hard look in them:
+
+"You frighten me," he said. "If you have sworn to do for me, don't stand
+on ceremony. But cheer up, for goodness' sake. The thought of death has
+always struck me as the most humorous thing in the world. Whereas, with
+you, old chap, it simply becomes lugubrious. I prefer to go to sleep.
+Good-night!"
+
+Still, Gabriel, in obedience to Mme. Dugrival's orders, continued to
+nurse him with the utmost care and attention. The patient was almost
+free from fever and was beginning to take beef-tea and milk. He gained a
+little strength and jested:
+
+"When will the convalescent be allowed his first drive? Is the
+bath-chair there? Why, cheer up, stupid! You look like a weeping-willow
+contemplating a crime. Come, just one little smile for daddy!"
+
+One day, on waking, he had a very unpleasant feeling of constraint.
+After a few efforts, he perceived that, during his sleep, his legs,
+chest and arms had been fastened to the bedstead with thin wire strands
+that cut into his flesh at the least movements.
+
+"Ah," he said to his keeper, "this time it's the great performance! The
+chicken's going to be bled. Are you operating, Angel Gabriel? If so, see
+that your razor's nice and clean, old chap! The antiseptic treatment,
+_if_ you please!"
+
+But he was interrupted by the sound of a key grating in the lock. The
+door opposite opened and Mme. Dugrival appeared.
+
+She approached slowly, took a chair and, producing a revolver from her
+pocket, cocked it and laid it on the table by the bedside.
+
+"Brrrrr!" said the prisoner. "We might be at the Ambigu!... Fourth act:
+the Traitor's Doom. And the fair sex to do the deed.... The hand of the
+Graces.... What an honour!... Mme. Dugrival, I rely on you not to
+disfigure me."
+
+"Hold your tongue, Lupin."
+
+"Ah, so you know?... By Jove, how clever we are!"
+
+"Hold your tongue, Lupin."
+
+There was a solemn note in her voice that impressed the captive and
+compelled him to silence. He watched his two gaolers in turns. The
+bloated features and red complexion of Mme. Dugrival formed a striking
+contrast with her nephew's refined face; but they both wore the same air
+of implacable resolve.
+
+The widow leant forward and said:
+
+"Are you prepared to answer my questions?"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Then listen to me. How did you know that Dugrival carried all his money
+in his pocket?"
+
+"Servants' gossip...."
+
+"A young man-servant whom we had in our employ: was that it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And did you steal Dugrival's watch in order to give it back to him and
+inspire him with confidence?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+She suppressed a movement of fury:
+
+"You fool! You fool!... What! You rob my man, you drive him to kill
+himself and, instead of making tracks to the uttermost ends of the earth
+and hiding yourself, you go on playing Lupin in the heart of Paris!...
+Did you forget that I swore, on my dead husband's head, to find his
+murderer?"
+
+"That's what staggers me," said Lupin. "How did you come to suspect me?"
+
+"How? Why, you gave yourself away!"
+
+"I did?..."
+
+"Of course.... The fifty thousand francs...."
+
+"Well, what about it? A present...."
+
+"Yes, a present which you gave cabled instructions to have sent to me,
+so as to make believe that you were in America on the day of the races.
+A present, indeed! What humbug! The fact is, you didn't like to think of
+the poor fellow whom you had murdered. So you restored the money to the
+widow, publicly, of course, because you love playing to the gallery and
+ranting and posing, like the mountebank that you are. That was all very
+nicely thought out. Only, my fine fellow, you ought not to have sent me
+the selfsame notes that were stolen from Dugrival! Yes, you silly fool,
+the selfsame notes and no others! We knew the numbers, Dugrival and I
+did. And you were stupid enough to send the bundle to me. Now do you
+understand your folly?"
+
+Lupin began to laugh:
+
+"It was a pretty blunder, I confess. I'm not responsible; I gave
+different orders. But, all the same I can't blame any one except
+myself."
+
+"Ah, so you admit it! You signed your theft and you signed your ruin at
+the same time. There was nothing left to be done but to find you. Find
+you? No, better than that. Sensible people don't find Lupin: they make
+him come to them! That was a masterly notion. It belongs to my young
+nephew, who loathes you as much as I do, if possible, and who knows you
+thoroughly, through reading all the books that have been written about
+you. He knows your prying nature, your need to be always plotting, your
+mania for hunting in the dark and unravelling what others have failed to
+unravel. He also knows that sort of sham kindness of yours, the
+drivelling sentimentality that makes you shed crocodile tears over the
+people you victimize; And he planned the whole farce! He invented the
+story of the two burglars, the second theft of fifty thousand francs!
+Oh, I swear to you, before Heaven, that the stab which I gave myself
+with my own hands never hurt me! And I swear to you, before Heaven, that
+we spent a glorious time waiting for you, the boy and I, peeping out at
+your confederates who prowled under our windows, taking their bearings!
+And there was no mistake about it: you were bound to come! Seeing that
+you had restored the Widow Dugrival's fifty thousand francs, it was out
+of the question that you should allow the Widow Dugrival to be robbed of
+her fifty thousand francs! You were bound to come, attracted by the
+scent of the mystery. You were bound to come, for swagger, out of
+vanity! And you come!"
+
+The widow gave a strident laugh:
+
+"Well played, wasn't it? The Lupin of Lupins, the master of masters,
+inaccessible and invisible, caught in a trap by a woman and a boy!...
+Here he is in flesh and bone ... here he is with hands and feet tied, no
+more dangerous than a sparrow ... here is he ... here he is!..."
+
+She shook with joy and began to pace the room, throwing sidelong glances
+at the bed, like a wild beast that does not for a moment take its eyes
+from its victim. And never had Lupin beheld greater hatred and savagery
+in any human being.
+
+"Enough of this prattle," she said.
+
+Suddenly restraining herself, she stalked back to him and, in a quite
+different tone, in a hollow voice, laying stress on every syllable:
+
+"Thanks to the papers in your pocket, Lupin, I have made good use of the
+last twelve days. I know all your affairs, all your schemes, all your
+assumed names, all the organization of your band, all the lodgings which
+you possess in Paris and elsewhere. I have even visited one of them, the
+most secret, the one where you hide your papers, your ledgers and the
+whole story of your financial operations. The result of my
+investigations is very satisfactory. Here are four cheques, taken from
+four cheque-books and corresponding with four accounts which you keep at
+four different banks under four different names. I have filled in each
+of them for ten thousand francs. A larger figure would have been too
+risky. And, now, sign."
+
+"By Jove!" said Lupin, sarcastically. "This is blackmail, my worthy Mme.
+Dugrival."
+
+"That takes your breath away, what?"
+
+"It takes my breath away, as you say."
+
+"And you find an adversary who is a match for you?"
+
+"The adversary is far beyond me. So the trap--let us call it
+infernal--the infernal trap into which I have fallen was laid not merely
+by a widow thirsting for revenge, but also by a first-rate business
+woman anxious to increase her capital?"
+
+"Just so."
+
+"My congratulations. And, while I think of it, used M. Dugrival perhaps
+to ...?"
+
+"You have hit it, Lupin. After all, why conceal the fact? It will
+relieve your conscience. Yes, Lupin, Dugrival used to work on the same
+lines as yourself. Oh, not on the same scale!... We were modest people:
+a louis here, a louis there ... a purse or two which we trained Gabriel
+to pick up at the races.... And, in this way, we had made our little
+pile ... just enough to buy a small place in the country."
+
+"I prefer it that way," said Lupin.
+
+"That's all right! I'm only telling you, so that you may know that I am
+not a beginner and that you have nothing to hope for. A rescue? No. The
+room in which we now are communicates with my bedroom. It has a private
+outlet of which nobody knows. It was Dugrival's special apartment. He
+used to see his friends here. He kept his implements and tools here, his
+disguises ... his telephone even, as you perceive. So there's no hope,
+you see. Your accomplices have given up looking for you here. I have
+sent them off on another track. Your goose is cooked. Do you begin to
+realize the position?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then sign the cheques."
+
+"And, when I have signed them, shall I be free?"
+
+"I must cash them first."
+
+"And after that?"
+
+"After that, on my soul, as I hope to be saved, you will be free."
+
+"I don't trust you."
+
+"Have you any choice?"
+
+"That's true. Hand me the cheques."
+
+She unfastened Lupin's right hand, gave him a pen and said:
+
+"Don't forget that the four cheques require four different signatures
+and that the handwriting has to be altered in each case."
+
+"Never fear."
+
+He signed the cheques.
+
+"Gabriel," said the widow, "it is ten o'clock. If I am not back by
+twelve, it will mean that this scoundrel has played me one of his
+tricks. At twelve o'clock, blow out his brains. I am leaving you the
+revolver with which your uncle shot himself. There are five bullets left
+out of the six. That will be ample."
+
+She left the room, humming a tune as she went.
+
+Lupin mumbled:
+
+"I wouldn't give twopence for my life."
+
+He shut his eyes for an instant and then, suddenly, said to Gabriel:
+
+"How much?"
+
+And, when the other did not appear to understand, he grew irritated:
+
+"I mean what I say. How much? Answer me, can't you? We drive the same
+trade, you and I. I steal, thou stealest, we steal. So we ought to come
+to terms: that's what we are here for. Well? Is it a bargain? Shall we
+clear out together. I will give you a post in my gang, an easy,
+well-paid post. How much do you want for yourself? Ten thousand? Twenty
+thousand? Fix your own price; don't be shy. There's plenty to be had for
+the asking."
+
+An angry shiver passed through his frame as he saw the impassive face of
+his keeper:
+
+"Oh, the beggar won't even answer! Why, you can't have been so fond of
+old Dugrival as all that! Listen to me: if you consent to release
+me...."
+
+But he interrupted himself. The young man's eyes wore the cruel
+expression which he knew so well. What was the use of trying to move
+him?
+
+"Hang it all!" he snarled. "I'm not going to croak here, like a dog! Oh,
+if I could only...."
+
+Stiffening all his muscles, he tried to burst his bonds, making a
+violent effort that drew a cry of pain from him; and he fell back upon
+his bed, exhausted.
+
+"Well, well," he muttered, after a moment, "it's as the widow said: my
+goose is cooked. Nothing to be done. _De profundis_, Lupin."
+
+A quarter of an hour passed, half an hour....
+
+Gabriel, moving closer to Lupin, saw that his eyes were shut and that
+his breath came evenly, like that of a man sleeping. But Lupin said:
+
+"Don't imagine that I'm asleep, youngster. No, people don't sleep at a
+moment like this. Only I am consoling myself. Needs must, eh?... And
+then I am thinking of what is to come after.... Exactly. I have a little
+theory of my own about that. You wouldn't think it, to look at me, but I
+believe in metempsychosis, in the transmigration of souls. It would take
+too long to explain, however.... I say, boy ... suppose we shook hands
+before we part? You won't? Then good-bye. Good health and a long life to
+you, Gabriel!..."
+
+He closed his eyelids and did not stir again before Mme. Dugrival's
+return.
+
+The widow entered with a lively step, at a few minutes before twelve.
+She seemed greatly excited:
+
+"I have the money," she said to her nephew. "Run away. I'll join you in
+the motor down below."
+
+"But...."
+
+"I don't want your help to finish him off. I can do that alone. Still,
+if you feel like seeing the sort of a face a rogue can pull.... Pass me
+the weapon."
+
+Gabriel handed her the revolver and the widow continued:
+
+"Have you burnt our papers?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then to work. And, as soon as he's done for, be off. The shots may
+bring the neighbours. They must find both the flats empty."
+
+She went up to the bed:
+
+"Are you ready, Lupin?"
+
+"Ready's not the word: I'm burning with impatience."
+
+"Have you any request to make of me?"
+
+"None."
+
+"Then...."
+
+"One word, though."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"If I meet Dugrival in the next world, what message am I to give him
+from you?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders and put the barrel of the revolver to Lupin's
+temple.
+
+"That's it," he said, "and be sure your hand doesn't shake, my dear
+lady. It won't hurt you, I swear. Are you ready? At the word of command,
+eh? One ... two ... three...."
+
+The widow pulled the trigger. A shot rang out.
+
+"Is this death?" said Lupin. "That's funny! I should have thought it was
+something much more different from life!"
+
+There was a second shot. Gabriel snatched the weapon from his aunt's
+hands and examined it:
+
+"Ah," he exclaimed, "the bullets have been removed!... There are only
+the percussion-caps left!..."
+
+His aunt and he stood motionless, for a moment, and confused:
+
+"Impossible!" she blurted out. "Who could have done it?... An
+inspector?... The examining-magistrate?..."
+
+She stopped and, in a low voice:
+
+"Hark.... I hear a noise...."
+
+They listened and the widow went into the hall. She returned, furious,
+exasperated by her failure and by the scare which she had received:
+
+"There's nobody there.... It must have been the neighbours going out....
+We have plenty of time.... Ah, Lupin, you were beginning to make
+merry!... The knife, Gabriel."
+
+"It's in my room."
+
+"Go and fetch it."
+
+Gabriel hurried away. The widow stamped with rage:
+
+"I've sworn to do it!... You've got to suffer, my fine fellow!... I
+swore to Dugrival that I would do it and I have repeated my oath every
+morning and evening since.... I have taken it on my knees, yes, on my
+knees, before Heaven that listens to me! It's my duty and my right to
+revenge my dead husband!... By the way, Lupin, you don't look quite as
+merry as you did!... Lord, one would almost think you were afraid!...
+He's afraid! He's afraid! I can see it in his eyes!... Come along,
+Gabriel, my boy!... Look at his eyes!... Look at his lips!... He's
+trembling!... Give me the knife, so that I may dig it into his heart
+while he's shivering.... Oh, you coward!... Quick, quick, Gabriel, the
+knife!..."
+
+"I can't find it anywhere," said the young man, running back in dismay.
+"It has gone from my room! I can't make it out!"
+
+"Never mind!" cried the Widow Dugrival, half demented. "All the better!
+I will do the business myself."
+
+She seized Lupin by the throat, clutched him with her ten fingers,
+digging her nails into his flesh, and began to squeeze with all her
+might. Lupin uttered a hoarse rattle and gave himself up for lost.
+
+Suddenly, there was a crash at the window. One of the panes was smashed
+to pieces.
+
+"What's that? What is it?" stammered the widow, drawing herself erect,
+in alarm.
+
+Gabriel, who had turned even paler than usual, murmured:
+
+"I don't know.... I can't think...."
+
+"Who can have done it?" said the widow.
+
+She dared not move, waiting for what would come next. And one thing
+above all terrified her, the fact that there was no missile on the floor
+around them, although the pane of glass, as was clearly visible, had
+given way before the crash of a heavy and fairly large object, a stone,
+probably.
+
+After a while, she looked under the bed, under the chest of drawers:
+
+"Nothing," she said.
+
+"No," said her nephew, who was also looking. And, resuming her seat, she
+said:
+
+"I feel frightened ... my arms fail me ... you finish him off...."
+
+Gabriel confessed:
+
+"I'm frightened also."
+
+"Still ... still," she stammered, "it's got to be done.... I swore
+it...."
+
+Making one last effort, she returned to Lupin and gasped his neck with
+her stiff fingers. But Lupin, who was watching her pallid face, received
+a very clear sensation that she would not have the courage to kill him.
+To her he was becoming something sacred, invulnerable. A mysterious
+power was protecting him against every attack, a power which had already
+saved him three times by inexplicable means and which would find other
+means to protect him against the wiles of death.
+
+She said to him, in a hoarse voice:
+
+"How you must be laughing at me!"
+
+"Not at all, upon my word. I should feel frightened myself, in your
+place."
+
+"Nonsense, you scum of the earth! You imagine that you will be rescued
+... that your friends are waiting outside? It's out of the question, my
+fine fellow."
+
+"I know. It's not they defending me ... nobody's defending me...."
+
+"Well, then?..."
+
+"Well, all the same, there's something strange at the bottom of it,
+something fantastic and miraculous that makes your flesh creep, my fine
+lady."
+
+"You villain!... You'll be laughing on the other side of your mouth
+before long."
+
+"I doubt it."
+
+"You wait and see."
+
+She reflected once more and said to her nephew:
+
+"What would you do?"
+
+"Fasten his arm again and let's be off," he replied.
+
+A hideous suggestion! It meant condemning Lupin to the most horrible of
+all deaths, death by starvation.
+
+"No," said the widow. "He might still find a means of escape. I know
+something better than that."
+
+She took down the receiver of the telephone, waited and asked:
+
+"Number 82248, please."
+
+And, after a second or two:
+
+"Hullo!... Is that the Criminal Investigation Department?... Is
+Chief-inspector Ganimard there?... In twenty minutes, you say?... I'm
+sorry!... However!... When he comes, give him this message from Mme.
+Dugrival.... Yes, Mme. Nicolas Dugrival.... Ask him to come to my flat.
+Tell him to open the looking-glass door of my wardrobe; and, when he has
+done so, he will see that the wardrobe hides an outlet which makes my
+bedroom communicate with two other rooms. In one of these, he will find
+a man bound hand and foot. It is the thief, Dugrival's murderer.... You
+don't believe me?... Tell M. Ganimard; he'll believe me right enough....
+Oh, I was almost forgetting to give you the man's name: Arsene Lupin!"
+
+And, without another word, she replaced the receiver.
+
+"There, Lupin, that's done. After all, I would just as soon have my
+revenge this way. How I shall hold my sides when I read the reports of
+the Lupin trial!... Are you coming, Gabriel?"
+
+"Yes, aunt."
+
+"Good-bye, Lupin. You and I sha'n't see each other again, I expect, for
+we are going abroad. But I promise to send you some sweets while you're
+in prison."
+
+"Chocolates, mother! We'll eat them together!"
+
+"Good-bye."
+
+"_Au revoir._"
+
+The widow went out with her nephew, leaving Lupin fastened down to the
+bed.
+
+He at once moved his free arm and tried to release himself; but he
+realized, at the first attempt, that he would never have the strength to
+break the wire strands that bound him. Exhausted with fever and pain,
+what could he do in the twenty minutes or so that were left to him
+before Ganimard's arrival?
+
+Nor did he count upon his friends. True, he had been thrice saved from
+death; but this was evidently due to an astounding series of accidents
+and not to any interference on the part of his allies. Otherwise they
+would not have contented themselves with these extraordinary
+manifestations, but would have rescued him for good and all.
+
+No, he must abandon all hope. Ganimard was coming. Ganimard would find
+him there. It was inevitable. There was no getting away from the fact.
+
+And the prospect of what was coming irritated him singularly. He already
+heard his old enemy's gibes ringing in his ears. He foresaw the roars of
+laughter with which the incredible news would be greeted on the morrow.
+To be arrested in action, so to speak, on the battlefield, by an
+imposing detachment of adversaries, was one thing: but to be arrested,
+or rather picked up, scraped up, gathered up, in such condition, was
+really too silly. And Lupin, who had so often scoffed at others, felt
+all the ridicule that was falling to his share in this ending of the
+Dugrival business, all the bathos of allowing himself to be caught in
+the widow's infernal trap and finally of being "served up" to the police
+like a dish of game, roasted to a turn and nicely seasoned.
+
+"Blow the widow!" he growled. "I had rather she had cut my throat and
+done with it."
+
+He pricked up his ears. Some one was moving in the next room. Ganimard!
+No. Great as his eagerness would be, he could not be there yet. Besides,
+Ganimard would not have acted like that, would not have opened the door
+as gently as that other person was doing. What other person? Lupin
+remembered the three miraculous interventions to which he owed his life.
+Was it possible that there was really somebody who had protected him
+against the widow, and that that somebody was now attempting to rescue
+him? But, if so, who?
+
+Unseen by Lupin, the stranger stooped behind the bed. Lupin heard the
+sound of the pliers attacking the wire strands and releasing him little
+by little. First his chest was freed, then his arms, then his legs.
+
+And a voice said to him:
+
+"You must get up and dress."
+
+Feeling very weak, he half-raised himself in bed at the moment when the
+stranger rose from her stooping posture.
+
+"Who are you?" he whispered. "Who are you?"
+
+And a great surprise over came him.
+
+By his side stood a woman, a woman dressed in black, with a lace shawl
+over her head, covering part of her face. And the woman, as far as he
+could judge, was young and of a graceful and slender stature.
+
+"Who are you?" he repeated.
+
+"You must come now," said the woman. "There's no time to lose."
+
+"Can I?" asked Lupin, making a desperate effort. "I doubt if I have the
+strength."
+
+"Drink this."
+
+She poured some milk into a cup; and, as she handed it to him, her lace
+opened, leaving the face uncovered.
+
+"You!" he stammered. "It's you!... It's you who ... it was you who
+were...."
+
+He stared in amazement at this woman whose features presented so
+striking a resemblance to Gabriel's, whose delicate, regular face had
+the same pallor, whose mouth wore the same hard and forbidding
+expression. No sister could have borne so great a likeness to her
+brother. There was not a doubt possible: it was the identical person.
+And, without believing for a moment that Gabriel had concealed himself
+in a woman's clothes, Lupin, on the contrary, received the distinct
+impression that it was a woman standing beside him and that the
+stripling who had pursued him with his hatred and struck him with the
+dagger was in very deed a woman. In order to follow their trade with
+greater ease, the Dugrival pair had accustomed her to disguise herself
+as a boy.
+
+"You ... you ...!" he repeated. "Who would have suspected ...?"
+
+She emptied the contents of a phial into the cup:
+
+"Drink this cordial," she said.
+
+He hesitated, thinking of poison.
+
+She added:
+
+"It was I who saved you."
+
+"Of course, of course," he said. "It was you who removed the bullets
+from the revolver?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you who hid the knife?"
+
+"Here it is, in my pocket."
+
+"And you who smashed the window-pane while your aunt was throttling me?"
+
+"Yes, it was I, with the paper-weight on the table: I threw it into the
+street."
+
+"But why? Why?" he asked, in utter amazement.
+
+"Drink the cordial."
+
+"Didn't you want me to die? But then why did you stab me to begin with?"
+
+"Drink the cordial."
+
+He emptied the cup at a draught, without quite knowing the reason of his
+sudden confidence.
+
+"Dress yourself ... quickly," she commanded, retiring to the window.
+
+He obeyed and she came back to him, for he had dropped into a chair,
+exhausted.
+
+"We must go now, we must, we have only just time.... Collect your
+strength."
+
+She bent forward a little, so that he might lean on her shoulder, and
+turned toward the door and the staircase.
+
+And Lupin walked as one walks in a dream, one of those queer dreams in
+which the most inconsequent things occur, a dream that was the happy
+sequel of the terrible nightmare in which he had lived for the past
+fortnight.
+
+A thought struck him, however. He began to laugh:
+
+"Poor Ganimard! Upon my word, the fellow has no luck, I would give
+twopence to see him coming to arrest me."
+
+After descending the staircase with the aid of his companion, who
+supported him with incredible vigour, he found himself in the street,
+opposite a motor-car into which she helped him to mount.
+
+"Right away," she said to the driver.
+
+Lupin, dazed by the open air and the speed at which they were
+travelling, hardly took stock of the drive and of the incidents on the
+road. He recovered all his consciousness when he found himself at home
+in one of the flats which he occupied, looked after by his servant, to
+whom the girl gave a few rapid instructions.
+
+"You can go," he said to the man.
+
+But, when the girl turned to go as well, he held her back by a fold of
+her dress.
+
+"No ... no ... you must first explain.... Why did you save me? Did you
+return unknown to your aunt? But why did you save me? Was it from pity?"
+
+She did not answer. With her figure drawn up and her head flung back a
+little, she retained her hard and impenetrable air. Nevertheless, he
+thought he noticed that the lines of her mouth showed not so much
+cruelty as bitterness. Her eyes, her beautiful dark eyes, revealed
+melancholy. And Lupin, without as yet understanding, received a vague
+intuition of what was passing within her. He seized her hand. She pushed
+him away, with a start of revolt in which he felt hatred, almost
+repulsion. And, when he insisted, she cried:
+
+"Let me be, will you?... Let me be!... Can't you see that I detest you?"
+
+They looked at each other for a moment, Lupin disconcerted, she
+quivering and full of uneasiness, her pale face all flushed with
+unwonted colour.
+
+He said to her, gently:
+
+"If you detested me, you should have let me die.... It was simple
+enough.... Why didn't you?"
+
+"Why?... Why?... How do I know?..."
+
+Her face contracted. With a sudden movement, she hid it in her two
+hands; and he saw tears trickle between her fingers.
+
+Greatly touched, he thought of addressing her in fond words, such as one
+would use to a little girl whom one wished to console, and of giving her
+good advice and saving her, in his turn, and snatching her from the bad
+life which she was leading, perhaps against her better nature.
+
+But such words would have sounded ridiculous, coming from his lips, and
+he did not know what to say, now that he understood the whole story and
+was able to picture the young woman sitting beside his sick-bed,
+nursing the man whom she had wounded, admiring his pluck and gaiety,
+becoming attached to him, falling in love with him and thrice over,
+probably in spite of herself, under a sort of instinctive impulse, amid
+fits of spite and rage, saving him from death.
+
+And all this was so strange, so unforeseen; Lupin was so much unmanned
+by his astonishment, that, this time, he did not try to retain her when
+she made for the door, backward, without taking her eyes from him.
+
+She lowered her head, smiled for an instant and disappeared.
+
+He rang the bell, quickly:
+
+"Follow that woman," he said to his man. "Or no, stay where you are....
+After all, it is better so...."
+
+He sat brooding for a while, possessed by the girl's image. Then he
+revolved in his mind all that curious, stirring and tragic adventure, in
+which he had been so very near succumbing; and, taking a hand-glass from
+the table, he gazed for a long time and with a certain self-complacency
+at his features, which illness and pain had not succeeded in impairing
+to any great extent:
+
+"Good looks count for something, after all!" he muttered.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE RED SILK SCARF
+
+
+On leaving his house one morning, at his usual early hour for going to
+the Law Courts, Chief-inspector Ganimard noticed the curious behaviour
+of an individual who was walking along the Rue Pergolese in front of
+him. Shabbily dressed and wearing a straw hat, though the day was the
+first of December, the man stooped at every thirty or forty yards to
+fasten his boot-lace, or pick up his stick, or for some other reason.
+And, each time, he took a little piece of orange-peel from his pocket
+and laid it stealthily on the kerb of the pavement. It was probably a
+mere display of eccentricity, a childish amusement to which no one else
+would have paid attention; but Ganimard was one of those shrewd
+observers who are indifferent to nothing that strikes their eyes and who
+are never satisfied until they know the secret cause of things. He
+therefore began to follow the man.
+
+Now, at the moment when the fellow was turning to the right, into the
+Avenue de la Grande-Armee, the inspector caught him exchanging signals
+with a boy of twelve or thirteen, who was walking along the houses on
+the left-hand side. Twenty yards farther, the man stooped and turned up
+the bottom of his trousers legs. A bit of orange-peel marked the place.
+At the same moment, the boy stopped and, with a piece of chalk, drew a
+white cross, surrounded by a circle, on the wall of the house next to
+him.
+
+The two continued on their way. A minute later, a fresh halt. The
+strange individual picked up a pin and dropped a piece of orange-peel;
+and the boy at once made a second cross on the wall and again drew a
+white circle round it.
+
+"By Jove!" thought the chief-inspector, with a grunt of satisfaction.
+"This is rather promising.... What on earth can those two merchants be
+plotting?"
+
+The two "merchants" went down the Avenue Friedland and the Rue du
+Faubourg-Saint-Honore, but nothing occurred that was worthy of special
+mention. The double performance was repeated at almost regular intervals
+and, so to speak, mechanically. Nevertheless, it was obvious, on the one
+hand, that the man with the orange-peel did not do his part of the
+business until after he had picked out with a glance the house that was
+to be marked and, on the other hand, that the boy did not mark that
+particular house until after he had observed his companion's signal. It
+was certain, therefore, that there was an agreement between the two; and
+the proceedings presented no small interest in the chief-inspector's
+eyes.
+
+At the Place Beauveau the man hesitated. Then, apparently making up his
+mind, he twice turned up and twice turned down the bottom of his
+trousers legs. Hereupon, the boy sat down on the kerb, opposite the
+sentry who was mounting guard outside the Ministry of the Interior, and
+marked the flagstone with two little crosses contained within two
+circles. The same ceremony was gone through a little further on, when
+they reached the Elysee. Only, on the pavement where the President's
+sentry was marching up and down, there were three signs instead of two.
+
+"Hang it all!" muttered Ganimard, pale with excitement and thinking, in
+spite of himself, of his inveterate enemy, Lupin, whose name came to his
+mind whenever a mysterious circumstance presented itself. "Hang it all,
+what does it mean?"
+
+He was nearly collaring and questioning the two "merchants." But he was
+too clever to commit so gross a blunder. The man with the orange-peel
+had now lit a cigarette; and the boy, also placing a cigarette-end
+between his lips, had gone up to him, apparently with the object of
+asking for a light.
+
+They exchanged a few words. Quick as thought, the boy handed his
+companion an object which looked--at least, so the inspector
+believed--like a revolver. They both bent over this object; and the man,
+standing with his face to the wall, put his hand six times in his pocket
+and made a movement as though he were loading a weapon.
+
+As soon as this was done, they walked briskly to the Rue de Surene; and
+the inspector, who followed them as closely as he was able to do without
+attracting their attention, saw them enter the gateway of an old house
+of which all the shutters were closed, with the exception of those on
+the third or top floor.
+
+He hurried in after them. At the end of the carriage-entrance he saw a
+large courtyard, with a house-painter's sign at the back and a staircase
+on the left.
+
+He went up the stairs and, as soon as he reached the first floor, ran
+still faster, because he heard, right up at the top, a din as of a
+free-fight.
+
+When he came to the last landing he found the door open. He entered,
+listened for a second, caught the sound of a struggle, rushed to the
+room from which the sound appeared to proceed and remained standing on
+the threshold, very much out of breath and greatly surprised to see
+the man of the orange-peel and the boy banging the floor with chairs.
+
+At that moment a third person walked out of an adjoining room. It was a
+young man of twenty-eight or thirty, wearing a pair of short whiskers in
+addition to his moustache, spectacles, and a smoking-jacket with an
+astrakhan collar and looking like a foreigner, a Russian.
+
+"Good morning, Ganimard," he said. And turning to the two companions,
+"Thank you, my friends, and all my congratulations on the successful
+result. Here's the reward I promised you."
+
+He gave them a hundred-franc note, pushed them outside and shut both
+doors.
+
+"I am sorry, old chap," he said to Ganimard. "I wanted to talk to you
+... wanted to talk to you badly."
+
+He offered him his hand and, seeing that the inspector remained
+flabbergasted and that his face was still distorted with anger, he
+exclaimed:
+
+"Why, you don't seem to understand!... And yet it's clear enough.... I
+wanted to see you particularly.... So what could I do?" And, pretending
+to reply to an objection, "No, no, old chap," he continued. "You're
+quite wrong. If I had written or telephoned, you would not have come
+... or else you would have come with a regiment. Now I wanted to see you
+all alone; and I thought the best thing was to send those two decent
+fellows to meet you, with orders to scatter bits of orange-peel and draw
+crosses and circles, in short, to mark out your road to this place....
+Why, you look quite bewildered! What is it? Perhaps you don't recognize
+me? Lupin.... Arsene Lupin.... Ransack your memory.... Doesn't the name
+remind you of anything?"
+
+"You dirty scoundrel!" Ganimard snarled between his teeth.
+
+Lupin seemed greatly distressed and, in an affectionate voice:
+
+"Are you vexed? Yes, I can see it in your eyes.... The Dugrival
+business, I suppose? I ought to have waited for you to come and take me
+in charge?... There now, the thought never occurred to me! I promise
+you, next time...."
+
+"You scum of the earth!" growled Ganimard.
+
+"And I thinking I was giving you a treat! Upon my word, I did. I said to
+myself, 'That dear old Ganimard! We haven't met for an age. He'll simply
+rush at me when he sees me!'"
+
+Ganimard, who had not yet stirred a limb, seemed to be waking from his
+stupor. He looked around him, looked at Lupin, visibly asked himself
+whether he would not do well to rush at him in reality and then,
+controlling himself, took hold of a chair and settled himself in it, as
+though he had suddenly made up his mind to listen to his enemy:
+
+"Speak," he said. "And don't waste my time with any nonsense. I'm in a
+hurry."
+
+"That's it," said Lupin, "let's talk. You can't imagine a quieter place
+than this. It's an old manor-house, which once stood in the open
+country, and it belongs to the Duc de Rochelaure. The duke, who has
+never lived in it, lets this floor to me and the outhouses to a painter
+and decorator. I always keep up a few establishments of this kind: it's
+a sound, practical plan. Here, in spite of my looking like a Russian
+nobleman, I am M. Daubreuil, an ex-cabinet-minister.... You understand,
+I had to select a rather overstocked profession, so as not to attract
+attention...."
+
+"Do you think I care a hang about all this?" said Ganimard, interrupting
+him.
+
+"Quite right, I'm wasting words and you're in a hurry. Forgive me. I
+sha'n't be long now.... Five minutes, that's all.... I'll start at
+once.... Have a cigar? No? Very well, no more will I."
+
+He sat down also, drummed his fingers on the table, while thinking, and
+began in this fashion:
+
+"On the 17th of October, 1599, on a warm and sunny autumn day ... Do
+you follow me?... But, now that I come to think of it, is it really
+necessary to go back to the reign of Henry IV, and tell you all about
+the building of the Pont-Neuf? No, I don't suppose you are very well up
+in French history; and I should only end by muddling you. Suffice it,
+then, for you to know that, last night, at one o'clock in the morning, a
+boatman passing under the last arch of the Pont-Neuf aforesaid, along
+the left bank of the river, heard something drop into the front part of
+his barge. The thing had been flung from the bridge and its evident
+destination was the bottom of the Seine. The bargee's dog rushed
+forward, barking, and, when the man reached the end of his craft, he saw
+the animal worrying a piece of newspaper that had served to wrap up a
+number of objects. He took from the dog such of the contents as had not
+fallen into the water, went to his cabin and examined them carefully.
+The result struck him as interesting; and, as the man is connected with
+one of my friends, he sent to let me know. This morning I was waked up
+and placed in possession of the facts and of the objects which the man
+had collected. Here they are."
+
+He pointed to them, spread out on a table. There were, first of all, the
+torn pieces of a newspaper. Next came a large cut-glass inkstand, with a
+long piece of string fastened to the lid. There was a bit of broken
+glass and a sort of flexible cardboard, reduced to shreds. Lastly, there
+was a piece of bright scarlet silk, ending in a tassel of the same
+material and colour.
+
+"You see our exhibits, friend of my youth," said Lupin. "No doubt, the
+problem would be more easily solved if we had the other objects which
+went overboard owing to the stupidity of the dog. But it seems to me,
+all the same, that we ought to be able to manage, with a little
+reflection and intelligence. And those are just your great qualities.
+How does the business strike you?"
+
+Ganimard did not move a muscle. He was willing to stand Lupin's chaff,
+but his dignity commanded him not to speak a single word in answer nor
+even to give a nod or shake of the head that might have been taken to
+express approval or or criticism.
+
+"I see that we are entirely of one mind," continued Lupin, without
+appearing to remark the chief-inspector's silence. "And I can sum up the
+matter briefly, as told us by these exhibits. Yesterday evening, between
+nine and twelve o'clock, a showily dressed young woman was wounded with
+a knife and then caught round the throat and choked to death by a
+well-dressed gentleman, wearing a single eyeglass and interested in
+racing, with whom the aforesaid showily dressed young lady had been
+eating three meringues and a coffee eclair."
+
+Lupin lit a cigarette and, taking Ganimard by the sleeve:
+
+"Aha, that's up against you, chief-inspector! You thought that, in the
+domain of police deductions, such feats as those were prohibited to
+outsiders! Wrong, sir! Lupin juggles with inferences and deductions for
+all the world like a detective in a novel. My proofs are dazzling and
+absolutely simple."
+
+And, pointing to the objects one by one, as he demonstrated his
+statement, he resumed:
+
+"I said, after nine o'clock yesterday evening. This scrap of newspaper
+bears yesterday's date, with the words, 'Evening edition.' Also, you
+will see here, pasted to the paper, a bit of one of those yellow
+wrappers in which the subscribers' copies are sent out. These copies are
+always delivered by the nine o'clock post. Therefore, it was after nine
+o'clock. I said, a well-dressed man. Please observe that this tiny piece
+of glass has the round hole of a single eyeglass at one of the edges and
+that the single eyeglass is an essentially aristocratic article of wear.
+This well-dressed man walked into a pastry-cook's shop. Here is the very
+thin cardboard, shaped like a box, and still showing a little of the
+cream of the meringues and eclairs which were packed in it in the usual
+way. Having got his parcel, the gentleman with the eyeglass joined a
+young person whose eccentricity in the matter of dress is pretty clearly
+indicated by this bright-red silk scarf. Having joined her, for some
+reason as yet unknown he first stabbed her with a knife and then
+strangled her with the help of this same scarf. Take your magnifying
+glass, chief-inspector, and you will see, on the silk, stains of a
+darker red which are, here, the marks of a knife wiped on the scarf and,
+there, the marks of a hand, covered with blood, clutching the material.
+Having committed the murder, his next business is to leave no trace
+behind him. So he takes from his pocket, first, the newspaper to which
+he subscribes--a racing-paper, as you will see by glancing at the
+contents of this scrap; and you will have no difficulty in discovering
+the title--and, secondly, a cord, which, on inspection, turns out to be
+a length of whip-cord. These two details prove--do they not?--that our
+man is interested in racing and that he himself rides. Next, he picks up
+the fragments of his eyeglass, the cord of which has been broken in the
+struggle. He takes a pair of scissors--observe the hacking of the
+scissors--and cuts off the stained part of the scarf, leaving the other
+end, no doubt, in his victim's clenched hands. He makes a ball of the
+confectioner's cardboard box. He also puts in certain things that would
+have betrayed him, such as the knife, which must have slipped into the
+Seine. He wraps everything in the newspaper, ties it with the cord and
+fastens this cut-glass inkstand to it, as a make-weight. Then he makes
+himself scarce. A little later, the parcel falls into the waterman's
+barge. And there you are. Oof, it's hot work!... What do you say to the
+story?"
+
+He looked at Ganimard to see what impression his speech had produced on
+the inspector. Ganimard did not depart from his attitude of silence.
+
+Lupin began to laugh:
+
+"As a matter of fact, you're annoyed and surprised. But you're
+suspicious as well: 'Why should that confounded Lupin hand the business
+over to me,' say you, 'instead of keeping it for himself, hunting down
+the murderer and rifling his pockets, if there was a robbery?' The
+question is quite logical, of course. But--there is a 'but'--I have no
+time, you see. I am full up with work at the present moment: a burglary
+in London, another at Lausanne, an exchange of children at Marseilles,
+to say nothing of having to save a young girl who is at this moment
+shadowed by death. That's always the way: it never rains but it pours.
+So I said to myself, 'Suppose I handed the business over to my dear old
+Ganimard? Now that it is half-solved for him, he is quite capable of
+succeeding. And what a service I shall be doing him! How magnificently
+he will be able to distinguish himself!' No sooner said than done. At
+eight o'clock in the morning, I sent the joker with the orange-peel to
+meet you. You swallowed the bait; and you were here by nine, all on edge
+and eager for the fray."
+
+Lupin rose from his chair. He went over to the inspector and, with his
+eyes in Ganimard's, said:
+
+"That's all. You now know the whole story. Presently, you will know the
+victim: some ballet-dancer, probably, some singer at a music-hall. On
+the other hand, the chances are that the criminal lives near the
+Pont-Neuf, most likely on the left bank. Lastly, here are all the
+exhibits. I make you a present of them. Set to work. I shall only keep
+this end of the scarf. If ever you want to piece the scarf together,
+bring me the other end, the one which the police will find round the
+victim's neck. Bring it me in four weeks from now to the day, that is to
+say, on the 29th of December, at ten o'clock in the morning. You can be
+sure of finding me here. And don't be afraid: this is all perfectly
+serious, friend of my youth; I swear it is. No humbug, honour bright.
+You can go straight ahead. Oh, by the way, when you arrest the fellow
+with the eyeglass, be a bit careful: he is left-handed! Good-bye, old
+dear, and good luck to you!"
+
+Lupin spun round on his heel, went to the door, opened it and
+disappeared before Ganimard had even thought of taking a decision. The
+inspector rushed after him, but at once found that the handle of the
+door, by some trick of mechanism which he did not know, refused to turn.
+It took him ten minutes to unscrew the lock and ten minutes more to
+unscrew the lock of the hall-door. By the time that he had scrambled
+down the three flights of stairs, Ganimard had given up all hope of
+catching Arsene Lupin.
+
+Besides, he was not thinking of it. Lupin inspired him with a queer,
+complex feeling, made up of fear, hatred, involuntary admiration and
+also the vague instinct that he, Ganimard, in spite of all his efforts,
+in spite of the persistency of his endeavours, would never get the
+better of this particular adversary. He pursued him from a sense of duty
+and pride, but with the continual dread of being taken in by that
+formidable hoaxer and scouted and fooled in the face of a public that
+was always only too willing to laugh at the chief-inspector's mishaps.
+
+This business of the red scarf, in particular, struck him as most
+suspicious. It was interesting, certainly, in more ways than one, but
+so very improbable! And Lupin's explanation, apparently so logical,
+would never stand the test of a severe examination!
+
+"No," said Ganimard, "this is all swank: a parcel of suppositions and
+guesswork based upon nothing at all. I'm not to be caught with chaff."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When he reached the headquarters of police, at 36 Quai des Orfevres, he
+had quite made up his mind to treat the incident as though it had never
+happened.
+
+He went up to the Criminal Investigation Department. Here, one of his
+fellow-inspectors said:
+
+"Seen the chief?"
+
+"No."
+
+"He was asking for you just now."
+
+"Oh, was he?"
+
+"Yes, you had better go after him."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"To the Rue de Berne ... there was a murder there last night."
+
+"Oh! Who's the victim?"
+
+"I don't know exactly ... a music-hall singer, I believe."
+
+Ganimard simply muttered:
+
+"By Jove!"
+
+Twenty minutes later he stepped out of the underground railway-station
+and made for the Rue de Berne.
+
+The victim, who was known in the theatrical world by her stage-name of
+Jenny Saphir, occupied a small flat on the second floor of one of the
+houses. A policeman took the chief-inspector upstairs and showed him the
+way, through two sitting-rooms, to a bedroom, where he found the
+magistrates in charge of the inquiry, together with the divisional
+surgeon and M. Dudouis, the head of the detective-service.
+
+Ganimard started at the first glance which he gave into the room. He
+saw, lying on a sofa, the corpse of a young woman whose hands clutched a
+strip of red silk! One of the shoulders, which appeared above the
+low-cut bodice, bore the marks of two wounds surrounded with clotted
+blood. The distorted and almost blackened features still bore an
+expression of frenzied terror.
+
+The divisional surgeon, who had just finished his examination, said:
+
+"My first conclusions are very clear. The victim was twice stabbed with
+a dagger and afterward strangled. The immediate cause of death was
+asphyxia."
+
+"By Jove!" thought Ganimard again, remembering Lupin's words and the
+picture which he had drawn of the crime.
+
+The examining-magistrate objected:
+
+"But the neck shows no discoloration."
+
+"She may have been strangled with a napkin or a handkerchief," said the
+doctor.
+
+"Most probably," said the chief detective, "with this silk scarf, which
+the victim was wearing and a piece of which remains, as though she had
+clung to it with her two hands to protect herself."
+
+"But why does only that piece remain?" asked the magistrate. "What has
+become of the other?"
+
+"The other may have been stained with blood and carried off by the
+murderer. You can plainly distinguish the hurried slashing of the
+scissors."
+
+"By Jove!" said Ganimard, between his teeth, for the third time. "That
+brute of a Lupin saw everything without seeing a thing!"
+
+"And what about the motive of the murder?" asked the magistrate. "The
+locks have been forced, the cupboards turned upside down. Have you
+anything to tell me, M. Dudouis?"
+
+The chief of the detective-service replied:
+
+"I can at least suggest a supposition, derived from the statements made
+by the servant. The victim, who enjoyed a greater reputation on account
+of her looks than through her talent as a singer, went to Russia, two
+years ago, and brought back with her a magnificent sapphire, which she
+appears to have received from some person of importance at the court.
+Since then, she went by the name of Jenny Saphir and seems generally to
+have been very proud of that present, although, for prudence sake, she
+never wore it. I daresay that we shall not be far out if we presume the
+theft of the sapphire to have been the cause of the crime."
+
+"But did the maid know where the stone was?"
+
+"No, nobody did. And the disorder of the room would tend to prove that
+the murderer did not know either."
+
+"We will question the maid," said the examining-magistrate.
+
+M. Dudouis took the chief-inspector aside and said:
+
+"You're looking very old-fashioned, Ganimard. What's the matter? Do you
+suspect anything?"
+
+"Nothing at all, chief."
+
+"That's a pity. We could do with a bit of showy work in the department.
+This is one of a number of crimes, all of the same class, of which we
+have failed to discover the perpetrator. This time we want the criminal
+... and quickly!"
+
+"A difficult job, chief."
+
+"It's got to be done. Listen to me, Ganimard. According to what the maid
+says, Jenny Saphir led a very regular life. For a month past she was in
+the habit of frequently receiving visits, on her return from the
+music-hall, that is to say, at about half-past ten, from a man who would
+stay until midnight or so. 'He's a society man,' Jenny Saphir used to
+say, 'and he wants to marry me.' This society man took every precaution
+to avoid being seen, such as turning up his coat-collar and lowering the
+brim of his hat when he passed the porter's box. And Jenny Saphir always
+made a point of sending away her maid, even before he came. This is the
+man whom we have to find."
+
+"Has he left no traces?"
+
+"None at all. It is obvious that we have to deal with a very clever
+scoundrel, who prepared his crime beforehand and committed it with every
+possible chance of escaping unpunished. His arrest would be a great
+feather in our cap. I rely on you, Ganimard."
+
+"Ah, you rely on me, chief?" replied the inspector. "Well, we shall see
+... we shall see.... I don't say no.... Only...."
+
+He seemed in a very nervous condition, and his agitation struck M.
+Dudouis.
+
+"Only," continued Ganimard, "only I swear ... do you hear, chief? I
+swear...."
+
+"What do you swear?"
+
+"Nothing.... We shall see, chief ... we shall see...."
+
+Ganimard did not finish his sentence until he was outside, alone. And
+he finished it aloud, stamping his foot, in a tone of the most violent
+anger:
+
+"Only, I swear to Heaven that the arrest shall be effected by my own
+means, without my employing a single one of the clues with which that
+villain has supplied me. Ah, no! Ah, no!..."
+
+Railing against Lupin, furious at being mixed up in this business and
+resolved, nevertheless, to get to the bottom of it, he wandered
+aimlessly about the streets. His brain was seething with irritation; and
+he tried to adjust his ideas a little and to discover, among the chaotic
+facts, some trifling detail, unperceived by all, unsuspected by Lupin
+himself, that might lead him to success.
+
+He lunched hurriedly at a bar, resumed his stroll and suddenly stopped,
+petrified, astounded and confused. He was walking under the gateway of
+the very house in the Rue de Surene to which Lupin had enticed him a few
+hours earlier! A force stronger than his own will was drawing him there
+once more. The solution of the problem lay there. There and there alone
+were all the elements of the truth. Do and say what he would, Lupin's
+assertions were so precise, his calculations so accurate, that, worried
+to the innermost recesses of his being by so prodigious a display of
+perspicacity, he could not do other than take up the work at the point
+where his enemy had left it.
+
+Abandoning all further resistance, he climbed the three flights of
+stairs. The door of the flat was open. No one had touched the exhibits.
+He put them in his pocket and walked away.
+
+From that moment, he reasoned and acted, so to speak, mechanically,
+under the influence of the master whom he could not choose but obey.
+
+Admitting that the unknown person whom he was seeking lived in the
+neighbourhood of the Pont-Neuf, it became necessary to discover,
+somewhere between that bridge and the Rue de Berne, the first-class
+confectioner's shop, open in the evenings, at which the cakes were
+bought. This did not take long to find. A pastry-cook near the Gare
+Saint-Lazare showed him some little cardboard boxes, identical in
+material and shape with the one in Ganimard's possession. Moreover, one
+of the shop-girls remembered having served, on the previous evening, a
+gentleman whose face was almost concealed in the collar of his fur coat,
+but whose eyeglass she had happened to notice.
+
+"That's one clue checked," thought the inspector. "Our man wears an
+eyeglass."
+
+He next collected the pieces of the racing-paper and showed them to a
+newsvendor, who easily recognized the _Turf Illustre_. Ganimard at once
+went to the offices of the _Turf_ and asked to see the list of
+subscribers. Going through the list, he jotted down the names and
+addresses of all those who lived anywhere near the Pont-Neuf and
+principally--because Lupin had said so--those on the left bank of the
+river.
+
+He then went back to the Criminal Investigation Department, took half a
+dozen men and packed them off with the necessary instructions.
+
+At seven o'clock in the evening, the last of these men returned and
+brought good news with him. A certain M. Prevailles, a subscriber to the
+_Turf_, occupied an entresol flat on the Quai des Augustins. On the
+previous evening, he left his place, wearing a fur coat, took his
+letters and his paper, the _Turf Illustre_, from the porter's wife,
+walked away and returned home at midnight. This M. Prevailles wore a
+single eyeglass. He was a regular race-goer and himself owned several
+hacks which he either rode himself or jobbed out.
+
+The inquiry had taken so short a time and the results obtained were so
+exactly in accordance with Lupin's predictions that Ganimard felt quite
+overcome on hearing the detective's report. Once more he was measuring
+the prodigious extent of the resources at Lupin's disposal. Never in the
+course of his life--and Ganimard was already well-advanced in years--had
+he come across such perspicacity, such a quick and far-seeing mind.
+
+He went in search of M. Dudouis.
+
+"Everything's ready, chief. Have you a warrant?"
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"I said, everything is ready for the arrest, chief."
+
+"You know the name of Jenny Saphir's murderer?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But how? Explain yourself."
+
+Ganimard had a sort of scruple of conscience, blushed a little and
+nevertheless replied:
+
+"An accident, chief. The murderer threw everything that was likely to
+compromise him into the Seine. Part of the parcel was picked up and
+handed to me."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"A boatman who refused to give his name, for fear of getting into
+trouble. But I had all the clues I wanted. It was not so difficult as I
+expected."
+
+And the inspector described how he had gone to work.
+
+"And you call that an accident!" cried M. Dudouis. "And you say that it
+was not difficult! Why, it's one of your finest performances! Finish it
+yourself, Ganimard, and be prudent."
+
+Ganimard was eager to get the business done. He went to the Quai des
+Augustins with his men and distributed them around the house. He
+questioned the portress, who said that her tenant took his meals out of
+doors, but made a point of looking in after dinner.
+
+A little before nine o'clock, in fact, leaning out of her window, she
+warned Ganimard, who at once gave a low whistle. A gentleman in a tall
+hat and a fur coat was coming along the pavement beside the Seine. He
+crossed the road and walked up to the house.
+
+Ganimard stepped forward:
+
+"M. Prevailles, I believe?"
+
+"Yes, but who are you?"
+
+"I have a commission to...."
+
+He had not time to finish his sentence. At the sight of the men
+appearing out of the shadow, Prevailles quickly retreated to the wall
+and faced his adversaries, with his back to the door of a shop on the
+ground-floor, the shutters of which were closed.
+
+"Stand back!" he cried. "I don't know you!"
+
+His right hand brandished a heavy stick, while his left was slipped
+behind him and seemed to be trying to open the door.
+
+Ganimard had an impression that the man might escape through this way
+and through some secret outlet:
+
+"None of this nonsense," he said, moving closer to him. "You're
+caught.... You had better come quietly."
+
+But, just as he was laying hold of Prevailles' stick, Ganimard
+remembered the warning which Lupin gave him: Prevailles was left-handed;
+and it was his revolver for which he was feeling behind his back.
+
+The inspector ducked his head. He had noticed the man's sudden movement.
+Two reports rang out. No one was hit.
+
+A second later, Prevailles received a blow under the chin from the
+butt-end of a revolver, which brought him down where he stood. He was
+entered at the Depot soon after nine o'clock.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ganimard enjoyed a great reputation even at that time. But this capture,
+so quickly effected, by such very simple means, and at once made public
+by the police, won him a sudden celebrity. Prevailles was forthwith
+saddled with all the murders that had remained unpunished; and the
+newspapers vied with one another in extolling Ganimard's prowess.
+
+The case was conducted briskly at the start. It was first of all
+ascertained that Prevailles, whose real name was Thomas Derocq, had
+already been in trouble. Moreover, the search instituted in his rooms,
+while not supplying any fresh proofs, at least led to the discovery of a
+ball of whip-cord similar to the cord used for doing up the parcel and
+also to the discovery of daggers which would have produced a wound
+similar to the wounds on the victim.
+
+But, on the eighth day, everything was changed. Until then Prevailles
+had refused to reply to the questions put to him; but now, assisted by
+his counsel, he pleaded a circumstantial alibi and maintained that he
+was at the Folies-Bergere on the night of the murder.
+
+As a matter of fact, the pockets of his dinner-jacket contained the
+counterfoil of a stall-ticket and a programme of the performance, both
+bearing the date of that evening.
+
+"An alibi prepared in advance," objected the examining-magistrate.
+
+"Prove it," said Prevailles.
+
+The prisoner was confronted with the witnesses for the prosecution. The
+young lady from the confectioner's "thought she knew" the gentleman with
+the eyeglass. The hall-porter in the Rue de Berne "thought he knew" the
+gentleman who used to come to see Jenny Saphir. But nobody dared to make
+a more definite statement.
+
+The examination, therefore, led to nothing of a precise character,
+provided no solid basis whereon to found a serious accusation.
+
+The judge sent for Ganimard and told him of his difficulty.
+
+"I can't possibly persist, at this rate. There is no evidence to support
+the charge."
+
+"But surely you are convinced in your own mind, monsieur le juge
+d'instruction! Prevailles would never have resisted his arrest unless he
+was guilty."
+
+"He says that he thought he was being assaulted. He also says that he
+never set eyes on Jenny Saphir; and, as a matter of fact, we can find no
+one to contradict his assertion. Then again, admitting that the sapphire
+has been stolen, we have not been able to find it at his flat."
+
+"Nor anywhere else," suggested Ganimard.
+
+"Quite true, but that is no evidence against him. I'll tell you what we
+shall want, M. Ganimard, and that very soon: the other end of this red
+scarf."
+
+"The other end?"
+
+"Yes, for it is obvious that, if the murderer took it away with him, the
+reason was that the stuff is stained with the marks of the blood on his
+fingers."
+
+Ganimard made no reply. For several days he had felt that the
+whole business was tending to this conclusion. There was no
+other proof possible. Given the silk scarf--and in no other
+circumstances--Prevailles' guilt was certain. Now Ganimard's position
+required that Prevailles' guilt should be established. He was
+responsible for the arrest, it had cast a glamour around him, he had
+been praised to the skies as the most formidable adversary of criminals;
+and he would look absolutely ridiculous if Prevailles were released.
+
+Unfortunately, the one and only indispensable proof was in Lupin's
+pocket. How was he to get hold of it?
+
+Ganimard cast about, exhausted himself with fresh investigations, went
+over the inquiry from start to finish, spent sleepless nights in turning
+over the mystery of the Rue de Berne, studied the records of Prevailles'
+life, sent ten men hunting after the invisible sapphire. Everything was
+useless.
+
+On the 28th of December, the examining-magistrate stopped him in one of
+the passages of the Law Courts:
+
+"Well, M. Ganimard, any news?"
+
+"No, monsieur le juge d'instruction."
+
+"Then I shall dismiss the case."
+
+"Wait one day longer."
+
+"What's the use? We want the other end of the scarf; have you got it?"
+
+"I shall have it to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow!"
+
+"Yes, but please lend me the piece in your possession."
+
+"What if I do?"
+
+"If you do, I promise to let you have the whole scarf complete."
+
+"Very well, that's understood."
+
+Ganimard followed the examining-magistrate to his room and came out with
+the piece of silk:
+
+"Hang it all!" he growled. "Yes, I will go and fetch the proof and I
+shall have it too ... always presuming that Master Lupin has the courage
+to keep the appointment."
+
+In point of fact, he did not doubt for a moment that Master Lupin would
+have this courage, and that was just what exasperated him. Why had Lupin
+insisted on this meeting? What was his object, in the circumstances?
+
+Anxious, furious and full of hatred, he resolved to take every
+precaution necessary not only to prevent his falling into a trap
+himself, but to make his enemy fall into one, now that the opportunity
+offered. And, on the next day, which was the 29th of December, the date
+fixed by Lupin, after spending the night in studying the old manor-house
+in the Rue de Surene and convincing himself that there was no other
+outlet than the front door, he warned his men that he was going on a
+dangerous expedition and arrived with them on the field of battle.
+
+He posted them in a cafe and gave them formal instructions: if he showed
+himself at one of the third-floor windows, or if he failed to return
+within an hour, the detectives were to enter the house and arrest any
+one who tried to leave it.
+
+The chief-inspector made sure that his revolver was in working order and
+that he could take it from his pocket easily. Then he went upstairs.
+
+He was surprised to find things as he had left them, the doors open and
+the locks broken. After ascertaining that the windows of the principal
+room looked out on the street, he visited the three other rooms that
+made up the flat. There was no one there.
+
+"Master Lupin was afraid," he muttered, not without a certain
+satisfaction.
+
+"Don't be silly," said a voice behind him.
+
+Turning round, he saw an old workman, wearing a house-painter's long
+smock, standing in the doorway.
+
+"You needn't bother your head," said the man. "It's I, Lupin. I have
+been working in the painter's shop since early morning. This is when we
+knock off for breakfast. So I came upstairs."
+
+He looked at Ganimard with a quizzing smile and cried:
+
+"'Pon my word, this is a gorgeous moment I owe you, old chap! I wouldn't
+sell it for ten years of your life; and yet you know how I love you!
+What do you think of it, artist? Wasn't it well thought out and well
+foreseen? Foreseen from alpha to omega? Did I understand the business?
+Did I penetrate the mystery of the scarf? I'm not saying that there were
+no holes in my argument, no links missing in the chain.... But what a
+masterpiece of intelligence! Ganimard, what a reconstruction of events!
+What an intuition of everything that had taken place and of everything
+that was going to take place, from the discovery of the crime to your
+arrival here in search of a proof! What really marvellous divination!
+Have you the scarf?"
+
+"Yes, half of it. Have you the other?"
+
+"Here it is. Let's compare."
+
+They spread the two pieces of silk on the table. The cuts made by the
+scissors corresponded exactly. Moreover, the colours were identical.
+
+"But I presume," said Lupin, "that this was not the only thing you came
+for. What you are interested in seeing is the marks of the blood. Come
+with me, Ganimard: it's rather dark in here."
+
+They moved into the next room, which, though it overlooked the
+courtyard, was lighter; and Lupin held his piece of silk against the
+window-pane:
+
+"Look," he said, making room for Ganimard.
+
+The inspector gave a start of delight. The marks of the five fingers and
+the print of the palm were distinctly visible. The evidence was
+undeniable. The murderer had seized the stuff in his bloodstained hand,
+in the same hand that had stabbed Jenny Saphir, and tied the scarf round
+her neck.
+
+"And it is the print of a left hand," observed Lupin. "Hence my warning,
+which had nothing miraculous about it, you see. For, though I admit,
+friend of my youth, that you may look upon me as a superior
+intelligence, I won't have you treat me as a wizard."
+
+Ganimard had quickly pocketed the piece of silk. Lupin nodded his head
+in approval:
+
+"Quite right, old boy, it's for you. I'm so glad you're glad! And, you
+see, there was no trap about all this ... only the wish to oblige ... a
+service between friends, between pals.... And also, I confess, a little
+curiosity.... Yes, I wanted to examine this other piece of silk, the one
+the police had.... Don't be afraid: I'll give it back to you.... Just a
+second...."
+
+Lupin, with a careless movement, played with the tassel at the end of
+this half of the scarf, while Ganimard listened to him in spite of
+himself:
+
+"How ingenious these little bits of women's work are! Did you notice one
+detail in the maid's evidence? Jenny Saphir was very handy with her
+needle and used to make all her own hats and frocks. It is obvious that
+she made this scarf herself.... Besides, I noticed that from the first.
+I am naturally curious, as I have already told you, and I made a
+thorough examination of the piece of silk which you have just put in
+your pocket. Inside the tassel, I found a little sacred medal, which the
+poor girl had stitched into it to bring her luck. Touching, isn't it,
+Ganimard? A little medal of Our Lady of Good Succour."
+
+The inspector felt greatly puzzled and did not take his eyes off the
+other. And Lupin continued:
+
+"Then I said to myself, 'How interesting it would be to explore the
+other half of the scarf, the one which the police will find round the
+victim's neck!' For this other half, which I hold in my hands at last,
+is finished off in the same way ... so I shall be able to see if it has
+a hiding-place too and what's inside it.... But look, my friend, isn't
+it cleverly made? And so simple! All you have to do is to take a skein
+of red cord and braid it round a wooden cup, leaving a little recess, a
+little empty space in the middle, very small, of course, but large
+enough to hold a medal of a saint ... or anything.... A precious stone,
+for instance.... Such as a sapphire...."
+
+At that moment he finished pushing back the silk cord and, from the
+hollow of a cup he took between his thumb and forefinger a wonderful
+blue stone, perfect in respect of size and purity.
+
+"Ha! What did I tell you, friend of my youth?"
+
+He raised his head. The inspector had turned livid and was staring
+wild-eyed, as though fascinated by the stone that sparkled before him.
+He at last realized the whole plot:
+
+"You dirty scoundrel!" he muttered, repeating the insults which he had
+used at the first interview. "You scum of the earth!"
+
+The two men were standing one against the other.
+
+"Give me back that," said the inspector.
+
+Lupin held out the piece of silk.
+
+"And the sapphire," said Ganimard, in a peremptory tone.
+
+"Don't be silly."
+
+"Give it back, or...."
+
+"Or what, you idiot!" cried Lupin. "Look here, do you think I put you on
+to this soft thing for nothing?"
+
+"Give it back!"
+
+"You haven't noticed what I've been about, that's plain! What! For four
+weeks I've kept you on the move like a deer; and you want to ...! Come,
+Ganimard, old chap, pull yourself together!... Don't you see that you've
+been playing the good dog for four weeks on end?... Fetch it, Rover!...
+There's a nice blue pebble over there, which master can't get at. Hunt
+it, Ganimard, fetch it ... bring it to master.... Ah, he's his master's
+own good little dog!... Sit up! Beg!... Does'ms want a bit of sugar,
+then?..."
+
+Ganimard, containing the anger that seethed within him, thought only of
+one thing, summoning his detectives. And, as the room in which he now
+was looked out on the courtyard, he tried gradually to work his way
+round to the communicating door. He would then run to the window and
+break one of the panes.
+
+"All the same," continued Lupin, "what a pack of dunderheads you and the
+rest must be! You've had the silk all this time and not one of you ever
+thought of feeling it, not one of you ever asked himself the reason why
+the poor girl hung on to her scarf. Not one of you! You just acted at
+haphazard, without reflecting, without foreseeing anything...."
+
+The inspector had attained his object. Taking advantage of a second when
+Lupin had turned away from him, he suddenly wheeled round and grasped
+the door-handle. But an oath escaped him: the handle did not budge.
+
+Lupin burst into a fit of laughing:
+
+"Not even that! You did not even foresee that! You lay a trap for me and
+you won't admit that I may perhaps smell the thing out beforehand....
+And you allow yourself to be brought into this room without asking
+whether I am not bringing you here for a particular reason and without
+remembering that the locks are fitted with a special mechanism. Come
+now, speaking frankly, what do you think of it yourself?"
+
+"What do I think of it?" roared Ganimard, beside himself with rage.
+
+He had drawn his revolver and was pointing it straight at Lupin's face.
+
+"Hands up!" he cried. "That's what I think of it!"
+
+Lupin placed himself in front of him and shrugged his shoulders:
+
+"Sold again!" he said.
+
+"Hands up, I say, once more!"
+
+"And sold again, say I. Your deadly weapon won't go off."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Old Catherine, your housekeeper, is in my service. She damped the
+charges this morning while you were having your breakfast coffee."
+
+Ganimard made a furious gesture, pocketed the revolver and rushed at
+Lupin.
+
+"Well?" said Lupin, stopping him short with a well-aimed kick on the
+shin.
+
+Their clothes were almost touching. They exchanged defiant glances, the
+glances of two adversaries who mean to come to blows. Nevertheless,
+there was no fight. The recollection of the earlier struggles made any
+present struggle useless. And Ganimard, who remembered all his past
+failures, his vain attacks, Lupin's crushing reprisals, did not lift a
+limb. There was nothing to be done. He felt it. Lupin had forces at his
+command against which any individual force simply broke to pieces. So
+what was the good?
+
+"I agree," said Lupin, in a friendly voice, as though answering
+Ganimard's unspoken thought, "you would do better to let things be as
+they are. Besides, friend of my youth, think of all that this incident
+has brought you: fame, the certainty of quick promotion and, thanks to
+that, the prospect of a happy and comfortable old age! Surely, you don't
+want the discovery of the sapphire and the head of poor Arsene Lupin in
+addition! It wouldn't be fair. To say nothing of the fact that poor
+Arsene Lupin saved your life.... Yes, sir! Who warned you, at this very
+spot, that Prevailles was left-handed?... And is this the way you thank
+me? It's not pretty of you, Ganimard. Upon my word, you make me blush
+for you!"
+
+While chattering, Lupin had gone through the same performance as
+Ganimard and was now near the door. Ganimard saw that his foe was about
+to escape him. Forgetting all prudence, he tried to block his way and
+received a tremendous butt in the stomach, which sent him rolling to
+the opposite wall.
+
+Lupin dexterously touched a spring, turned the handle, opened the door
+and slipped away, roaring with laughter as he went.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Twenty minutes later, when Ganimard at last succeeded in joining his
+men, one of them said to him:
+
+"A house-painter left the house, as his mates were coming back from
+breakfast, and put a letter in my hand. 'Give that to your governor,' he
+said. 'Which governor?' I asked; but he was gone. I suppose it's meant
+for you."
+
+"Let's have it."
+
+Ganimard opened the letter. It was hurriedly scribbled in pencil and
+contained these words:
+
+
+    "This is to warn you, friend of my youth, against excessive
+    credulity. When a fellow tells you that the cartridges in your
+    revolver are damp, however great your confidence in that fellow may
+    be, even though his name be Arsene Lupin, never allow yourself to
+    be taken in. Fire first; and, if the fellow hops the twig, you will
+    have acquired the proof (1) that the cartridges are not damp; and
+    (2) that old Catherine is the most honest and respectable of
+    housekeepers.
+
+    "One of these days, I hope to have the pleasure of making her
+    acquaintance.
+
+    "Meanwhile, friend of my youth, believe me always affectionately
+    and sincerely yours,
+
+                                                   "ARSENE LUPIN."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+SHADOWED BY DEATH
+
+
+After he had been round the walls of the property, Arsene Lupin returned
+to the spot from which he started. It was perfectly clear to him that
+there was no breach in the walls; and the only way of entering the
+extensive grounds of the Chateau de Maupertuis was through a little low
+door, firmly bolted on the inside, or through the principal gate, which
+was overlooked by the lodge.
+
+"Very well," he said. "We must employ heroic methods."
+
+Pushing his way into the copsewood where he had hidden his
+motor-bicycle, he unwound a length of twine from under the saddle and
+went to a place which he had noticed in the course of his exploration.
+At this place, which was situated far from the road, on the edge of a
+wood, a number of large trees, standing inside the park, overlapped the
+wall.
+
+Lupin fastened a stone to the end of the string, threw it up and caught
+a thick branch, which he drew down to him and bestraddled. The branch,
+in recovering its position, raised him from the ground. He climbed over
+the wall, slipped down the tree, and sprang lightly on the grass.
+
+It was winter; and, through the leafless boughs, across the undulating
+lawns, he could see the little Chateau de Maupertuis in the distance.
+Fearing lest he should be perceived, he concealed himself behind a clump
+of fir-trees. From there, with the aid of a field-glass, he studied the
+dark and melancholy front of the manor-house. All the windows were
+closed and, as it were, barricaded with solid shutters. The house might
+easily have been uninhabited.
+
+"By Jove!" muttered Lupin. "It's not the liveliest of residences. I
+shall certainly not come here to end my days!"
+
+But the clock struck three; one of the doors on the ground-floor opened;
+and the figure of a woman appeared, a very slender figure wrapped in a
+brown cloak.
+
+The woman walked up and down for a few minutes and was at once
+surrounded by birds, to which she scattered crumbs of bread. Then she
+went down the stone steps that led to the middle lawn and skirted it,
+taking the path on the right.
+
+With his field-glass, Lupin could distinctly see her coming in his
+direction. She was tall, fair-haired, graceful in appearance, and
+seemed to be quite a young girl. She walked with a sprightly step,
+looking at the pale December sun and amusing herself by breaking the
+little dead twigs on the shrubs along the road.
+
+She had gone nearly two thirds of the distance that separated her from
+Lupin when there came a furious sound of barking and a huge dog, a
+colossal Danish boarhound, sprang from a neighbouring kennel and stood
+erect at the end of the chain by which it was fastened.
+
+The girl moved a little to one side, without paying further attention to
+what was doubtless a daily incident. The dog grew angrier than ever,
+standing on its legs and dragging at its collar, at the risk of
+strangling itself.
+
+Thirty or forty steps farther, yielding probably to an impulse of
+impatience, the girl turned round and made a gesture with her hand. The
+great Dane gave a start of rage, retreated to the back of its kennel and
+rushed out again, this time unfettered. The girl uttered a cry of mad
+terror. The dog was covering the space between them, trailing its broken
+chain behind it.
+
+She began to run, to run with all her might, and screamed out
+desperately for help. But the dog came up with her in a few bounds.
+
+She fell, at once exhausted, giving herself up for lost. The animal was
+already upon her, almost touching her.
+
+At that exact moment a shot rang out. The dog turned a complete
+somersault, recovered its feet, tore the ground and then lay down,
+giving a number of hoarse, breathless howls, which ended in a dull moan
+and an indistinct gurgling. And that was all.
+
+"Dead," said Lupin, who had hastened up at once, prepared, if necessary,
+to fire his revolver a second time.
+
+The girl had risen and stood pale, still staggering. She looked in great
+surprise at this man whom she did not know and who had saved her life;
+and she whispered:
+
+"Thank you.... I have had a great fright.... You were in the nick of
+time.... I thank you, monsieur."
+
+Lupin took off his hat:
+
+"Allow me to introduce myself, mademoiselle.... My name is Paul
+Daubreuil.... But before entering into any explanations, I must ask for
+one moment...."
+
+He stooped over the dog's dead body and examined the chain at the part
+where the brute's effort had snapped it:
+
+"That's it," he said, between his teeth. "It's just as I suspected. By
+Jupiter, things are moving rapidly!... I ought to have come earlier."
+
+Returning to the girl's side, he said to her, speaking very quickly:
+
+"Mademoiselle, we have not a minute to lose. My presence in these
+grounds is quite irregular. I do not wish to be surprised here; and this
+for reasons that concern yourself alone. Do you think that the report
+can have been heard at the house?"
+
+The girl seemed already to have recovered from her emotion; and she
+replied, with a calmness that revealed all her pluck:
+
+"I don't think so."
+
+"Is your father in the house to-day?"
+
+"My father is ill and has been in bed for months. Besides, his room
+looks out on the other front."
+
+"And the servants?"
+
+"Their quarters and the kitchen are also on the other side. No one ever
+comes to this part. I walk here myself, but nobody else does."
+
+"It is probable, therefore, that I have not been seen either, especially
+as the trees hide us?"
+
+"It is most probable."
+
+"Then I can speak to you freely?"
+
+"Certainly, but I don't understand...."
+
+"You will, presently. Permit me to be brief. The point is this: four
+days ago, Mlle. Jeanne Darcieux...."
+
+"That is my name," she said, smiling.
+
+"Mlle. Jeanne Darcieux," continued Lupin, "wrote a letter to one of her
+friends, called Marceline, who lives at Versailles...."
+
+"How do you know all that?" asked the girl, in astonishment. "I tore up
+the letter before I had finished it."
+
+"And you flung the pieces on the edge of the road that runs from the
+house to Vendome."
+
+"That's true.... I had gone out walking...."
+
+"The pieces were picked up and they came into my hands next day."
+
+"Then ... you must have read them," said Jeanne Darcieux, betraying a
+certain annoyance by her manner.
+
+"Yes, I committed that indiscretion; and I do not regret it, because I
+can save you."
+
+"Save me? From what?"
+
+"From death."
+
+Lupin spoke this little sentence in a very distinct voice. The girl gave
+a shudder. Then she said:
+
+"I am not threatened with death."
+
+"Yes, you are, mademoiselle. At the end of October, you were reading on
+a bench on the terrace where you were accustomed to sit at the same hour
+every day, when a block of stone fell from the cornice above your head
+and you were within a few inches of being crushed."
+
+"An accident...."
+
+"One fine evening in November, you were walking in the kitchen-garden,
+by moonlight. A shot was fired, The bullet whizzed past your ear."
+
+"At least, I thought so."
+
+"Lastly, less than a week ago, the little wooden bridge that crosses the
+river in the park, two yards from the waterfall, gave way while you were
+on it. You were just able, by a miracle, to catch hold of the root of a
+tree."
+
+Jeanne Darcieux tried to smile.
+
+"Very well. But, as I wrote to Marceline, these are only a series of
+coincidences, of accidents...."
+
+"No, mademoiselle, no. One accident of this sort is allowable.... So are
+two ... and even then!... But we have no right to suppose that the
+chapter of accidents, repeating the same act three times in such
+different and extraordinary circumstances, is a mere amusing
+coincidence. That is why I thought that I might presume to come to your
+assistance. And, as my intervention can be of no use unless it remains
+secret, I did not hesitate to make my way in here ... without walking
+through the gate. I came in the nick of time, as you said. Your enemy
+was attacking you once more."
+
+"What!... Do you think?... No, it is impossible.... I refuse to
+believe...."
+
+Lupin picked up the chain and, showing it to her:
+
+"Look at the last link. There is no question but that it has been filed.
+Otherwise, so powerful a chain as this would never have yielded.
+Besides, you can see the mark of the file here."
+
+Jeanne turned pale and her pretty features were distorted with terror:
+
+"But who can bear me such a grudge?" she gasped. "It is terrible.... I
+have never done any one harm.... And yet you are certainly right....
+Worse still...."
+
+She finished her sentence in a lower voice:
+
+"Worse still, I am wondering whether the same danger does not threaten
+my father."
+
+"Has he been attacked also?"
+
+"No, for he never stirs from his room. But his is such a mysterious
+illness!... He has no strength ... he cannot walk at all.... In addition
+to that, he is subject to fits of suffocation, as though his heart
+stopped beating.... Oh, what an awful thing!"
+
+Lupin realized all the authority which he was able to assert at such a
+moment, and he said:
+
+"Have no fear, mademoiselle. If you obey me blindly, I shall be sure to
+succeed."
+
+"Yes ... yes ... I am quite willing ... but all this is so terrible...."
+
+"Trust me, I beg of you. And please listen to me, I shall want a few
+particulars."
+
+He rapped out a number of questions, which Jeanne Darcieux answered
+hurriedly:
+
+"That animal was never let loose, was he?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Who used to feed him?"
+
+"The lodge-keeper. He brought him his food every evening."
+
+"Consequently, he could go near him without being bitten?"
+
+"Yes; and he only, for the dog was very savage."
+
+"You don't suspect the man?"
+
+"Oh, no!... Baptiste?... Never!"
+
+"And you can't think of anybody?"
+
+"No. Our servants are quite devoted to us. They are very fond of me."
+
+"You have no friends staying in the house?"
+
+"No."
+
+"No brother?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then your father is your only protector?"
+
+"Yes; and I have told you the condition he is in."
+
+"Have you told him of the different attempts?"
+
+"Yes; and it was wrong of me to do so. Our doctor, old Dr. Gueroult,
+forbade me to cause him the least excitement."
+
+"Your mother?..."
+
+"I don't remember her. She died sixteen years ago ... just sixteen years
+ago."
+
+"How old were you then?"
+
+"I was not quite five years old."
+
+"And were you living here?"
+
+"We were living in Paris. My father only bought this place the year
+after."
+
+Lupin was silent for a few moments. Then he concluded:
+
+"Very well, mademoiselle, I am obliged to you. Those particulars are all
+I need for the present. Besides, it would not be wise for us to remain
+together longer."
+
+"But," she said, "the lodge-keeper will find the dog soon.... Who will
+have killed him?"
+
+"You, mademoiselle, to defend yourself against an attack."
+
+"I never carry firearms."
+
+"I am afraid you do," said Lupin, smiling, "because you killed the dog
+and there is no one but you who could have killed him. For that matter,
+let them think what they please. The great thing is that I shall not be
+suspected when I come to the house."
+
+"To the house? Do you intend to?"
+
+"Yes. I don't yet know how ... But I shall come.... This very
+evening.... So, once more, be easy in your mind. I will answer for
+everything."
+
+Jeanne looked at him and, dominated by him, conquered by his air of
+assurance and good faith, she said, simply:
+
+"I am quite easy."
+
+"Then all will go well. Till this evening, mademoiselle."
+
+"Till this evening."
+
+She walked away; and Lupin, following her with his eyes until the moment
+when she disappeared round the corner of the house, murmured:
+
+"What a pretty creature! It would be a pity if any harm were to come to
+her. Luckily, Arsene Lupin is keeping his weather-eye open."
+
+Taking care not to be seen, with eyes and ears attentive to the least
+sight or sound, he inspected every nook and corner of the grounds,
+looked for the little low door which he had noticed outside and which
+was the door of the kitchen garden, drew the bolt, took the key and then
+skirted the walls and found himself once more near the tree which he had
+climbed. Two minutes later, he was mounting his motor-cycle.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The village of Maupertuis lay quite close to the estate. Lupin inquired
+and learnt that Dr. Gueroult lived next door to the church.
+
+He rang, was shown into the consulting-room and introduced himself by
+his name of Paul Daubreuil, of the Rue de Surene, Paris, adding that he
+had official relations with the detective-service, a fact which he
+requested might be kept secret. He had become acquainted, by means of a
+torn letter, with the incidents that had endangered Mlle. Darcieux's
+life; and he had come to that young lady's assistance.
+
+Dr. Gueroult, an old country practitioner, who idolized Jeanne, on
+hearing Lupin's explanations at once admitted that those incidents
+constituted undeniable proofs of a plot. He showed great concern,
+offered his visitor hospitality and kept him to dinner.
+
+The two men talked at length. In the evening, they walked round to the
+manor-house together.
+
+The doctor went to the sick man's room, which was on the first floor,
+and asked leave to bring up a young colleague, to whom he intended soon
+to make over his practice, when he retired.
+
+Lupin, on entering, saw Jeanne Darcieux seated by her father's bedside.
+She suppressed a movement of surprise and, at a sign from the doctor,
+left the room.
+
+The consultation thereupon took place in Lupin's presence. M. Darcieux's
+face was worn, with much suffering and his eyes were bright with fever.
+He complained particularly, that day, of his heart. After the
+auscultation, he questioned the doctor with obvious anxiety; and each
+reply seemed to give him relief. He also spoke of Jeanne and expressed
+his conviction that they were deceiving him and that his daughter had
+escaped yet more accidents. He continued perturbed, in spite of the
+doctor's denials. He wanted to have the police informed and inquiries
+set on foot.
+
+But his excitement tired him and he gradually dropped off to sleep.
+
+Lupin stopped the doctor in the passage:
+
+"Come, doctor, give me your exact opinion. Do you think that M.
+Darcieux's illness can be attributed to an outside cause?"
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"Well, suppose that the same enemy should be interested in removing both
+father and daughter."
+
+The doctor seemed struck by the suggestion.
+
+"Upon my word, there is something in what you say.... The father's
+illness at times adopts such a very unusual character!... For instance,
+the paralysis of the legs, which is almost complete, ought to be
+accompanied by...."
+
+The doctor reflected for a moment and then said in a low voice:
+
+"You think it's poison, of course ... but what poison?... Besides, I see
+no toxic symptoms.... It would have to be.... But what are you doing?
+What's the matter?..."
+
+The two men were talking outside a little sitting-room on the first
+floor, where Jeanne, seizing the opportunity while the doctor was with
+her father, had begun her evening meal. Lupin, who was watching her
+through the open door, saw her lift a cup to her lips and take a few
+sups.
+
+Suddenly, he rushed at her and caught her by the arm:
+
+"What are you drinking there?"
+
+"Why," she said, taken aback, "only tea!"
+
+"You pulled a face of disgust ... what made you do that?"
+
+"I don't know ... I thought...."
+
+"You thought what?"
+
+"That ... that it tasted rather bitter.... But I expect that comes from
+the medicine I mixed with it."
+
+"What medicine?"
+
+"Some drops which I take at dinner ... the drops which you prescribed
+for me, you know, doctor."
+
+"Yes," said Dr. Gueroult, "but that medicine has no taste of any
+kind.... You know it hasn't, Jeanne, for you have been taking it for a
+fortnight and this is the first time...."
+
+"Quite right," said the girl, "and this does have a taste....
+There--oh!--my mouth is still burning."
+
+Dr. Gueroult now took a sip from the cup;
+
+"Faugh!" he exclaimed, spitting it out again. "There's no mistake about
+it...."
+
+Lupin, on his side, was examining the bottle containing the medicine;
+and he asked:
+
+"Where is this bottle kept in the daytime?"
+
+But Jeanne was unable to answer. She had put her hand to her heart and,
+wan-faced, with staring eyes, seemed to be suffering great pain:
+
+"It hurts ... it hurts," she stammered.
+
+The two men quickly carried her to her room and laid her on the bed:
+
+"She ought to have an emetic," said Lupin.
+
+"Open the cupboard," said the doctor. "You'll see a medicine-case....
+Have you got it?... Take out one of those little tubes.... Yes, that
+one.... And now some hot water.... You'll find some on the tea-tray in
+the other room."
+
+Jeanne's own maid came running up in answer to the bell. Lupin told her
+that Mlle. Darcieux had been taken unwell, for some unknown reason.
+
+He next returned to the little dining-room, inspected the sideboard and
+the cupboards, went down to the kitchen and pretended that the doctor
+had sent him to ask about M. Darcieux's diet. Without appearing to do
+so, he catechized the cook, the butler, and Baptiste, the lodge-keeper,
+who had his meals at the manor-house with the servants. Then he went
+back to the doctor:
+
+"Well?"
+
+"She's asleep."
+
+"Any danger?"
+
+"No. Fortunately, she had only taken two or three sips. But this is the
+second time to-day that you have saved her life, as the analysis of this
+bottle will show."
+
+"Quite superfluous to make an analysis, doctor. There is no doubt about
+the fact that there has been an attempt at poisoning."
+
+"By whom?"
+
+"I can't say. But the demon who is engineering all this business clearly
+knows the ways of the house. He comes and goes as he pleases, walks
+about in the park, files the dog's chain, mixes poison with the food
+and, in short, moves and acts precisely as though he were living the
+very life of her--or rather of those--whom he wants to put away."
+
+"Ah! You really believe that M. Darcieux is threatened with the same
+danger?"
+
+"I have not a doubt of it."
+
+"Then it must be one of the servants? But that is most unlikely! Do you
+think ...?"
+
+"I think nothing, doctor. I know nothing. All I can say is that the
+situation is most tragic and that we must be prepared for the worst.
+Death is here, doctor, shadowing the people in this house; and it will
+soon strike at those whom it is pursuing."
+
+"What's to be done?"
+
+"Watch, doctor. Let us pretend that we are alarmed about M. Darcieux's
+health and spend the night in here. The bedrooms of both the father and
+daughter are close by. If anything happens, we are sure to hear."
+
+There was an easy-chair in the room. They arranged to sleep in it turn
+and turn about.
+
+In reality, Lupin slept for only two or three hours. In the middle of
+the night he left the room, without disturbing his companion, carefully
+looked round the whole of the house and walked out through the principal
+gate.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He reached Paris on his motor-cycle at nine o'clock in the morning. Two
+of his friends, to whom he telephoned on the road, met him there. They
+all three spent the day in making searches which Lupin had planned out
+beforehand.
+
+He set out again hurriedly at six o'clock; and never, perhaps, as he
+told me subsequently, did he risk his life with greater temerity than in
+his breakneck ride, at a mad rate of speed, on a foggy December evening,
+with the light of his lamp hardly able to pierce through the darkness.
+
+He sprang from his bicycle outside the gate, which was still open, ran
+to the house and reached the first floor in a few bounds.
+
+There was no one in the little dining-room.
+
+Without hesitating, without knocking, he walked into Jeanne's bedroom:
+
+"Ah, here you are!" he said, with a sigh of relief, seeing Jeanne and
+the doctor sitting side by side, talking.
+
+"What? Any news?" asked the doctor, alarmed at seeing such a state of
+agitation in a man whose coolness he had had occasion to observe.
+
+"No," said Lupin. "No news. And here?"
+
+"None here, either. We have just left M. Darcieux. He has had an
+excellent day and he ate his dinner with a good appetite. As for Jeanne,
+you can see for yourself, she has all her pretty colour back again."
+
+"Then she must go."
+
+"Go? But it's out of the question!" protested the girl.
+
+"You must go, you must!" cried Lupin, with real violence, stamping his
+foot on the floor.
+
+He at once mastered himself, spoke a few words of apology and then, for
+three or four minutes, preserved a complete silence, which the doctor
+and Jeanne were careful not to disturb.
+
+At last, he said to the young girl:
+
+"You shall go to-morrow morning, mademoiselle. It will be only for one
+or two weeks. I will take you to your friend at Versailles, the one to
+whom you were writing. I entreat you to get everything ready to-night
+... without concealment of any kind. Let the servants know that you are
+going.... On the other hand, the doctor will be good enough to tell M.
+Darcieux and give him to understand, with every possible precaution,
+that this journey is essential to your safety. Besides, he can join you
+as soon as his strength permits.... That's settled, is it not?"
+
+"Yes," she said, absolutely dominated by Lupin's gentle and imperious
+voice.
+
+"In that case," he said, "be as quick as you can ... and do not stir
+from your room...."
+
+"But," said the girl, with a shudder, "am I to stay alone to-night?"
+
+"Fear nothing. Should there be the least danger, the doctor and I will
+come back. Do not open your door unless you hear three very light taps."
+
+Jeanne at once rang for her maid. The doctor went to M. Darcieux, while
+Lupin had some supper brought to him in the little dining-room.
+
+"That's done," said the doctor, returning to him in twenty minutes'
+time. "M. Darcieux did not raise any great difficulty. As a matter of
+fact, he himself thinks it just as well that we should send Jeanne
+away."
+
+They then went downstairs together and left the house.
+
+On reaching the lodge, Lupin called the keeper.
+
+"You can shut the gate, my man. If M. Darcieux should want us, send for
+us at once."
+
+The clock of Maupertuis church struck ten. The sky was overcast with
+black clouds, through which the moon broke at moments.
+
+The two men walked on for sixty or seventy yards.
+
+They were nearing the village, when Lupin gripped his companion by the
+arm:
+
+"Stop!"
+
+"What on earth's the matter?" exclaimed the doctor.
+
+"The matter is this," Lupin jerked out, "that, if my calculations turn
+out right, if I have not misjudged the business from start to finish,
+Mlle. Darcieux will be murdered before the night is out."
+
+"Eh? What's that?" gasped the doctor, in dismay. "But then why did we
+go?"
+
+"With the precise object that the miscreant, who is watching all our
+movements in the dark, may not postpone his crime and may perpetrate it,
+not at the hour chosen by himself, but at the hour which I have decided
+upon."
+
+"Then we are returning to the manor-house?"
+
+"Yes, of course we are, but separately."
+
+"In that case, let us go at once."
+
+"Listen to me, doctor," said Lupin, in a steady voice, "and let us
+waste no time in useless words. Above all, we must defeat any attempt to
+watch us. You will therefore go straight home and not come out again
+until you are quite certain that you have not been followed. You will
+then make for the walls of the property, keeping to the left, till you
+come to the little door of the kitchen-garden. Here is the key. When the
+church clock strikes eleven, open the door very gently and walk right up
+to the terrace at the back of the house. The fifth window is badly
+fastened. You have only to climb over the balcony. As soon as you are
+inside Mlle. Darcieux's room, bolt the door and don't budge. You quite
+understand, don't budge, either of you, whatever happens. I have noticed
+that Mlle. Darcieux leaves her dressing-room window ajar, isn't that
+so?"
+
+"Yes, it's a habit which I taught her."
+
+"That's the way they'll come."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"That's the way I shall come also."
+
+"And do you know who the villain is?"
+
+Lupin hesitated and then replied:
+
+"No, I don't know.... And that is just how we shall find out. But, I
+implore you, keep cool. Not a word, not a movement, _whatever happens_!"
+
+"I promise you."
+
+"I want more than that, doctor. You must give me your word of honour."
+
+"I give you my word of honour."
+
+The doctor went away. Lupin at once climbed a neighbouring mound from
+which he could see the windows of the first and second floor. Several of
+them were lighted.
+
+He waited for some little time. The lights went out one by one. Then,
+taking a direction opposite to that in which the doctor had gone, he
+branched off to the right and skirted the wall until he came to the
+clump of trees near which he had hidden his motor-cycle on the day
+before.
+
+Eleven o'clock struck. He calculated the time which it would take the
+doctor to cross the kitchen-garden and make his way into the house.
+
+"That's one point scored!" he muttered. "Everything's all right on that
+side. And now, Lupin to the rescue? The enemy won't be long before he
+plays his last trump ... and, by all the gods, I must be there!..."
+
+He went through the same performance as on the first occasion, pulled
+down the branch and hoisted himself to the top of the wall, from which
+he was able to reach the bigger boughs of the tree.
+
+Just then he pricked up his ears. He seemed to hear a rustling of dead
+leaves. And he actually perceived a dark form moving on the level thirty
+yards away:
+
+"Hang it all!" he said to himself. "I'm done: the scoundrel has smelt a
+rat."
+
+A moonbeam pierced through the clouds. Lupin distinctly saw the man take
+aim. He tried to jump to the ground and turned his head. But he felt
+something hit him in the chest, heard the sound of a report, uttered an
+angry oath and came crashing down from branch to branch, like a corpse.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile, Doctor Gueroult, following Arsene Lupin's instructions, had
+climbed the ledge of the fifth window and groped his way to the first
+floor. On reaching Jeanne's room, he tapped lightly, three times, at the
+door and, immediately on entering, pushed the bolt:
+
+"Lie down at once," he whispered to the girl, who had not taken off her
+things. "You must appear to have gone to bed. Brrrr, it's cold in here!
+Is the window open in your dressing-room?"
+
+"Yes ... would you like me to ...?"
+
+"No, leave it as it is. They are coming."
+
+"They are coming!" spluttered Jeanne, in affright.
+
+"Yes, beyond a doubt."
+
+"But who? Do you suspect any one?"
+
+"I don't know who.... I expect that there is some one hidden in the
+house ... or in the park."
+
+"Oh, I feel so frightened!"
+
+"Don't be frightened. The sportsman who's looking after you seems jolly
+clever and makes a point of playing a safe game. I expect he's on the
+look-out in the court."
+
+The doctor put out the night-light, went to the window and raised the
+blind. A narrow cornice, running along the first story, prevented him
+from seeing more than a distant part of the courtyard; and he came back
+and sat down by the bed.
+
+Some very painful minutes passed, minutes that appeared to them
+interminably long. The clock in the village struck; but, taken up as
+they were with all the little noises of the night, they hardly noticed
+the sound. They listened, listened, with all their nerves on edge:
+
+"Did you hear?" whispered the doctor.
+
+"Yes ... yes," said Jeanne, sitting up in bed.
+
+"Lie down ... lie down," he said, presently. "There's some one coming."
+
+There was a little tapping sound outside, against the cornice. Next came
+a series of indistinct noises, the nature of which they could not make
+out for certain. But they had a feeling that the window in the
+dressing-room was being opened wider, for they were buffeted by gusts of
+cold air.
+
+Suddenly, it became quite clear: there was some one next door.
+
+The doctor, whose hand was trembling a little, seized his revolver.
+Nevertheless, he did not move, remembering the formal orders which he
+had received and fearing to act against them.
+
+The room was in absolute darkness; and they were unable to see where the
+adversary was. But they felt his presence.
+
+They followed his invisible movements, the sound of his footsteps
+deadened by the carpet; and they did not doubt but that he had already
+crossed the threshold of the room.
+
+And the adversary stopped. Of that they were certain. He was standing
+six steps away from the bed, motionless, undecided perhaps, seeking to
+pierce the darkness with his keen eyes.
+
+Jeanne's hand, icy-cold and clammy, trembled in the doctor's grasp.
+
+With his other hand, the doctor clutched his revolver, with his finger
+on the trigger. In spite of his pledged word, he did not hesitate. If
+the adversary touched the end of the bed, the shot would be fired at a
+venture.
+
+The adversary took another step and then stopped again. And there was
+something awful about that silence, that impassive silence, that
+darkness in which those human beings were peering at one another,
+wildly.
+
+Who was it looming in the murky darkness? Who was the man? What horrible
+enmity was it that turned his hand against the girl and what abominable
+aim was he pursuing?
+
+Terrified though they were, Jeanne and the doctor thought only of that
+one thing: to see, to learn the truth, to gaze upon the adversary's
+face.
+
+He took one more step and did not move again. It seemed to them that his
+figure stood out, darker, against the dark space and that his arm rose
+slowly, slowly....
+
+A minute passed and then another minute....
+
+And, suddenly, beyond the man, on the right a sharp click.... A bright
+light flashed, was flung upon the man, lit him full in the face,
+remorselessly.
+
+Jeanne gave a cry of affright. She had seen--standing over her, with a
+dagger in his hand--she had seen ... her father!
+
+Almost at the same time, though the light was already turned off, there
+came a report: the doctor had fired.
+
+"Dash it all, don't shoot!" roared Lupin.
+
+He threw his arms round the doctor, who choked out:
+
+"Didn't you see?... Didn't you see?... Listen!... He's escaping!..."
+
+"Let him escape: it's the best thing that could happen."
+
+He pressed the spring of his electric lantern again, ran to the
+dressing-room, made certain that the man had disappeared and, returning
+quietly to the table, lit the lamp.
+
+Jeanne lay on her bed, pallid, in a dead faint.
+
+The doctor, huddled in his chair, emitted inarticulate sounds.
+
+"Come," said Lupin, laughing, "pull yourself together. There is nothing
+to excite ourselves about: it's all over."
+
+"Her father!... Her father!" moaned the old doctor.
+
+"If you please, doctor, Mlle. Darcieux is ill. Look after her."
+
+Without more words, Lupin went back to the dressing-room and stepped out
+on the window-ledge. A ladder stood against the ledge. He ran down it.
+Skirting the wall of the house, twenty steps farther, he tripped over
+the rungs of a rope-ladder, which he climbed and found himself in M.
+Darcieux's bedroom. The room was empty.
+
+"Just so," he said. "My gentleman did not like the position and has
+cleared out. Here's wishing him a good journey.... And, of course, the
+door is bolted?... Exactly!... That is how our sick man, tricking his
+worthy medical attendant, used to get up at night in full security,
+fasten his rope-ladder to the balcony and prepare his little games. He's
+no fool, is friend Darcieux!"
+
+He drew the bolts and returned to Jeanne's room. The doctor, who was
+just coming out of the doorway, drew him to the little dining-room:
+
+"She's asleep, don't let us disturb her. She has had a bad shock and
+will take some time to recover."
+
+Lupin poured himself out a glass of water and drank it down. Then he
+took a chair and, calmly:
+
+"Pooh! She'll be all right by to-morrow."
+
+"What do you say?"
+
+"I say that she'll be all right by to-morrow."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"In the first place, because it did not strike me that Mlle. Darcieux
+felt any very great affection for her father."
+
+"Never mind! Think of it: a father who tries to kill his daughter! A
+father who, for months on end, repeats his monstrous attempt four, five,
+six times over again!... Well, isn't that enough to blight a less
+sensitive soul than Jeanne's for good and all? What a hateful memory!"
+
+"She will forget."
+
+"One does not forget such a thing as that."
+
+"She will forget, doctor, and for a very simple reason...."
+
+"Explain yourself!"
+
+"She is not M. Darcieux's daughter!"
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"I repeat, she is not that villain's daughter."
+
+"What do you mean? M. Darcieux...."
+
+"M. Darcieux is only her step-father. She had just been born when her
+father, her real father, died. Jeanne's mother then married a cousin of
+her husband's, a man bearing the same name, and she died within a year
+of her second wedding. She left Jeanne in M. Darcieux's charge. He first
+took her abroad and then bought this country-house; and, as nobody knew
+him in the neighbourhood, he represented the child as being his
+daughter. She herself did not know the truth about her birth."
+
+The doctor sat confounded. He asked:
+
+"Are you sure of your facts?"
+
+"I spent my day in the town-halls of the Paris municipalities. I
+searched the registers, I interviewed two solicitors, I have seen all
+the documents. There is no doubt possible."
+
+"But that does not explain the crime, or rather the series of crimes."
+
+"Yes, it does," declared Lupin. "And, from the start, from the first
+hour when I meddled in this business, some words which Mlle. Darcieux
+used made me suspect that direction which my investigations must take.
+'I was not quite five years old when my mother died,' she said. 'That
+was sixteen years ago.' Mlle. Darcieux, therefore, was nearly
+twenty-one, that is to say, she was on the verge of attaining her
+majority. I at once saw that this was an important detail. The day on
+which you reach your majority is the day on which your accounts are
+rendered. What was the financial position of Mlle. Darcieux, who was her
+mother's natural heiress? Of course, I did not think of the father for a
+second. To begin with, one can't imagine a thing like that; and then the
+farce which M. Darcieux was playing ... helpless, bedridden, ill...."
+
+"Really ill," interrupted the doctor.
+
+"All this diverted suspicion from him ... the more so as I believe that
+he himself was exposed to criminal attacks. But was there not in the
+family some person who would be interested in their removal? My journey
+to Paris revealed the truth to me: Mlle. Darcieux inherits a large
+fortune from her mother, of which her step-father draws the income. The
+solicitor was to have called a meeting of the family in Paris next
+month. The truth would have been out. It meant ruin to M. Darcieux."
+
+"Then he had put no money by?"
+
+"Yes, but he had lost a great deal as the result of unfortunate
+speculations."
+
+"But, after all, Jeanne would not have taken the management of her
+fortune out of his hands!"
+
+"There is one detail which you do not know, doctor, and which I learnt
+from reading the torn letter. Mlle. Darcieux is in love with the brother
+of Marceline, her Versailles friend; M. Darcieux was opposed to the
+marriage; and--you now see the reason--she was waiting until she came of
+age to be married."
+
+"You're right," said the doctor, "you're right.... It meant his ruin."
+
+"His absolute ruin. One chance of saving himself remained, the death of
+his step-daughter, of whom he is the next heir."
+
+"Certainly, but on condition that no one suspected him."
+
+"Of course; and that is why he contrived the series of accidents, so
+that the death might appear to be due to misadventure. And that is why
+I, on my side, wishing to bring things to a head, asked you to tell him
+of Mlle. Darcieux's impending departure. From that moment, it was no
+longer enough for the would-be sick man to wander about the grounds and
+the passages, in the dark, and execute some leisurely thought-out plan.
+No, he had to act, to act at once, without preparation, violently,
+dagger in hand. I had no doubt that he would decide to do it. And he
+did."
+
+"Then he had no suspicions?"
+
+"Of me, yes. He felt that I would return to-night, and he kept a watch
+at the place where I had already climbed the wall."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well," said Lupin, laughing, "I received a bullet full in the chest
+... or rather my pocket-book received a bullet.... Here, you can see the
+hole.... So I tumbled from the tree, like a dead man. Thinking that he
+was rid of his only adversary, he went back to the house. I saw him
+prowl about for two hours. Then, making up his mind, he went to the
+coach-house, took a ladder and set it against the window. I had only to
+follow him."
+
+The doctor reflected and said:
+
+"You could have collared him earlier. Why did you let him come up? It
+was a sore trial for Jeanne ... and unnecessary."
+
+"On the contrary, it was indispensable! Mlle. Darcieux would never have
+accepted the truth. It was essential that she should see the murderer's
+very face. You must tell her all the circumstances when she wakes. She
+will soon be well again."
+
+"But ... M. Darcieux?"
+
+"You can explain his disappearance as you think best ... a sudden
+journey ... a fit of madness.... There will be a few inquiries.... And
+you may be sure that he will never be heard of again."
+
+The doctor nodded his head:
+
+"Yes ... that is so ... that is so ... you are right. You have managed
+all this business with extraordinary skill; and Jeanne owes you her
+life. She will thank you in person.... But now, can I be of use to you
+in any way? You told me that you were connected with the
+detective-service.... Will you allow me to write and praise your
+conduct, your courage?"
+
+Lupin began to laugh:
+
+"Certainly! A letter of that kind will do me a world of good. You might
+write to my immediate superior, Chief-inspector Ganimard. He will be
+glad to hear that his favourite officer, Paul Daubreuil, of the Rue de
+Surene, has once again distinguished himself by a brilliant action. As
+it happens, I have an appointment to meet him about a case of which you
+may have heard: the case of the red scarf.... How pleased my dear M.
+Ganimard will be!"
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+A TRAGEDY IN THE FOREST OF MORGUES
+
+
+The village was terror-stricken.
+
+It was on a Sunday morning. The peasants of Saint-Nicolas and the
+neighbourhood were coming out of church and spreading across the square,
+when, suddenly, the women who were walking ahead and who had already
+turned into the high-road fell back with loud cries of dismay.
+
+At the same moment, an enormous motor-car, looking like some appalling
+monster, came tearing into sight at a headlong rate of speed. Amid the
+shouts of the madly scattering people, it made straight for the church,
+swerved, just as it seemed about to dash itself to pieces against the
+steps, grazed the wall of the presbytery, regained the continuation of
+the national road, dashed along, turned the corner and disappeared,
+without, by some incomprehensible miracle, having so much as brushed
+against any of the persons crowding the square.
+
+But they had seen! They had seen a man in the driver's seat, wrapped in
+a goat-skin coat, with a fur cap on his head and his face disguised in a
+pair of large goggles, and, with him, on the front of that seat, flung
+back, bent in two, a woman whose head, all covered with blood, hung down
+over the bonnet....
+
+And they had heard! They had heard the woman's screams, screams of
+horror, screams of agony....
+
+And it was all such a vision of hell and carnage that the people stood,
+for some seconds, motionless, stupefied.
+
+"Blood!" roared somebody.
+
+There was blood everywhere, on the cobblestones of the square, on the
+ground hardened by the first frosts of autumn; and, when a number of men
+and boys rushed off in pursuit of the motor, they had but to take those
+sinister marks for their guide.
+
+The marks, on their part, followed the high-road, but in a very strange
+manner, going from one side to the other and leaving a zigzag track, in
+the wake of the tires, that made those who saw it shudder. How was it
+that the car had not bumped against that tree? How had it been righted,
+instead of smashing into that bank? What novice, what madman, what
+drunkard, what frightened criminal was driving that motor-car with such
+astounding bounds and swerves?
+
+One of the peasants declared:
+
+"They will never do the turn in the forest."
+
+And another said:
+
+"Of course they won't! She's bound to upset!"
+
+The Forest of Morgues began at half a mile beyond Saint-Nicolas; and the
+road, which was straight up to that point, except for a slight bend
+where it left the village, started climbing, immediately after entering
+the forest, and made an abrupt turn among the rocks and trees. No
+motor-car was able to take this turn without first slackening speed.
+There were posts to give notice of the danger.
+
+The breathless peasants reached the quincunx of beeches that formed the
+edge of the forest. And one of them at once cried:
+
+"There you are!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Upset!"
+
+The car, a limousine, had turned turtle and lay smashed, twisted and
+shapeless. Beside it, the woman's dead body. But the most horrible,
+sordid, stupefying thing was the woman's head, crushed, flattened,
+invisible under a block of stone, a huge block of stone lodged there by
+some unknown and prodigious agency. As for the man in the goat-skin
+coat he was nowhere to be found.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He was not found on the scene of the accident. He was not found either
+in the neighbourhood. Moreover, some workmen coming down the Cote de
+Morgues declared that they had not seen anybody.
+
+The man, therefore, had taken refuge in the woods.
+
+The gendarmes, who were at once sent for, made a minute search, assisted
+by the peasants, but discovered nothing. In the same way, the
+examining-magistrates, after a close inquiry lasting for several days,
+found no clue capable of throwing the least light upon this inscrutable
+tragedy. On the contrary, the investigations only led to further
+mysteries and further improbabilities.
+
+Thus it was ascertained that the block of stone came from where there
+had been a landslip, at least forty yards away. And the murderer, in a
+few minutes, had carried it all that distance and flung it on his
+victim's head.
+
+On the other hand, the murderer, who was most certainly not hiding in
+the forest--for, if so, he must inevitably have been discovered, the
+forest being of limited extent--had the audacity, eight days after the
+crime, to come back to the turn on the hill and leave his goat-skin coat
+there. Why? With what object? There was nothing in the pockets of the
+coat, except a corkscrew and a napkin. What did it all mean?
+
+Inquiries were made of the builder of the motor-car, who recognized the
+limousine as one which he had sold, three years ago, to a Russian. The
+said Russian, declared the manufacturer, had sold it again at once. To
+whom? No one knew. The car bore no number.
+
+Then again, it was impossible to identify the dead woman's body. Her
+clothes and underclothing were not marked in any way. And the face was
+quite unknown.
+
+Meanwhile, detectives were going along the national road in the
+direction opposite to that taken by the actors in this mysterious
+tragedy. But who was to prove that the car had followed that particular
+road on the previous night?
+
+They examined every yard of the ground, they questioned everybody. At
+last, they succeeded in learning that, on the Saturday evening, a
+limousine had stopped outside a grocer's shop in a small town situated
+about two hundred miles from Saint-Nicolas, on a highway branching out
+of the national road. The driver had first filled his tank, bought some
+spare cans of petrol and lastly taken away a small stock of provisions:
+a ham, fruit, biscuits, wine and a half-bottle of Three Star brandy.
+
+There was a lady on the driver's seat. She did not get down. The blinds
+of the limousine were drawn. One of these blinds was seen to move
+several times. The shopman was positive that there was somebody inside.
+
+Presuming the shopman's evidence to be correct, then the problem became
+even more complicated, for, so far, no clue had revealed the presence of
+a third person.
+
+Meanwhile, as the travellers had supplied themselves with provisions, it
+remained to be discovered what they had done with them and what had
+become of the remains.
+
+The detectives retraced their steps. It was not until they came to the
+fork of the two roads, at a spot eleven or twelve miles from
+Saint-Nicolas, that they met a shepherd who, in answer to their
+questions, directed them to a neighbouring field, hidden from view
+behind the screen of bushes, where he had seen an empty bottle and other
+things.
+
+The detectives were convinced at the first examination. The motor-car
+had stopped there; and the unknown travellers, probably after a night's
+rest in their car, had breakfasted and resumed their journey in the
+course of the morning.
+
+One unmistakable proof was the half-bottle of Three Star brandy sold by
+the grocer. This bottle had its neck broken clean off with a stone. The
+stone employed for the purpose was picked up, as was the neck of the
+bottle, with its cork, covered with a tin-foil seal. The seal showed
+marks of attempts that had been made to uncork the bottle in the
+ordinary manner.
+
+The detectives continued their search and followed a ditch that ran
+along the field at right angles to the road. It ended in a little
+spring, hidden under brambles, which seemed to emit an offensive smell.
+On lifting the brambles, they perceived a corpse, the corpse of a man
+whose head had been smashed in, so that it formed little more than a
+sort of pulp, swarming with vermin. The body was dressed in jacket and
+trousers of dark-brown leather. The pockets were empty: no papers, no
+pocket-book, no watch.
+
+The grocer and his shopman were summoned and, two days later, formally
+identified, by his dress and figure, the traveller who had bought the
+petrol and provisions on the Saturday evening.
+
+The whole case, therefore, had to be reopened on a fresh basis. The
+authorities were confronted with a tragedy no longer enacted by two
+persons, a man and a woman, of whom one had killed the other, but by
+three persons, including two victims, of whom one was the very man who
+was accused of killing his companion.
+
+As to the murderer, there was no doubt: he was the person who travelled
+inside the motor-car and who took the precaution to remain concealed
+behind the curtains. He had first got rid of the driver and rifled his
+pockets and then, after wounding the woman, carried her off in a mad
+dash for death.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Given a fresh case, unexpected discoveries, unforeseen evidence, one
+might have hoped that the mystery would be cleared up, or, at least,
+that the inquiry would point a few steps along the road to the truth.
+But not at all. The corpse was simply placed beside the first corpse.
+New problems were added to the old. The accusation of murder was shifted
+from the one to the other. And there it ended. Outside those tangible,
+obvious facts there was nothing but darkness. The name of the woman, the
+name of the man, the name of the murderer were so many riddles. And then
+what had become of the murderer? If he had disappeared from one moment
+to the other, that in itself would have been a tolerably curious
+phenomenon. But the phenomenon was actually something very like a
+miracle, inasmuch as the murderer had not absolutely disappeared. He was
+there! He made a practice of returning to the scene of the catastrophe!
+In addition to the goat-skin coat, a fur cap was picked up one day; and,
+by way of an unparalleled prodigy, one morning, after a whole night
+spent on guard in the rock, beside the famous turning, the detectives
+found, on the grass of the turning itself, a pair of motor-goggles,
+broken, rusty, dirty, done for. How had the murderer managed to bring
+back those goggles unseen by the detectives? And, above all, why had he
+brought them back?
+
+Men's brains reeled in the presence of such abnormalities. They were
+almost afraid to pursue the ambiguous adventure. They received the
+impression of a heavy, stifling, breathless atmosphere, which dimmed the
+eyes and baffled the most clear-sighted.
+
+The magistrate in charge of the case fell ill. Four days later, his
+successor confessed that the matter was beyond him.
+
+Two tramps were arrested and at once released. Another was pursued, but
+not caught; moreover, there was no evidence of any sort or kind against
+him. In short, it was nothing but one helpless muddle of mist and
+contradiction.
+
+An accident, the merest accident led to the solution, or rather produced
+a series of circumstances that ended by leading to the solution. A
+reporter on the staff of an important Paris paper, who had been sent to
+make investigations on the spot, concluded his article with the
+following words:
+
+"I repeat, therefore, that we must wait for fresh events, fresh facts;
+we must wait for some lucky accident. As things stand, we are simply
+wasting our time. The elements of truth are not even sufficient to
+suggest a plausible theory. We are in the midst of the most absolute,
+painful, impenetrable darkness. There is nothing to be done. All the
+Sherlock Holmeses in the world would not know what to make of the
+mystery, and Arsene Lupin himself, if he will allow me to say so, would
+have to pay forfeit here."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the day after the appearance of that article, the newspaper in
+question printed this telegram:
+
+
+    "Have sometimes paid forfeit, but never over such a silly thing as
+    this. The Saint-Nicolas tragedy is a mystery for babies.
+
+                                                      "ARSENE LUPIN."
+
+
+And the editor added:
+
+
+    "We insert this telegram as a matter of curiosity, for it is
+    obviously the work of a wag. Arsene Lupin, past-master though he be
+    in the art of practical joking, would be the last man to display
+    such childish flippancy."
+
+
+Two days elapsed; and then the paper published the famous letter, so
+precise and categorical in its conclusions, in which Arsene Lupin
+furnished the solution of the problem. I quote it in full:
+
+
+    "Sir:
+
+    "You have taken me on my weak side by defying me. You challenge me,
+    and I accept the challenge. And I will begin by declaring once more
+    that the Saint-Nicolas tragedy is a mystery for babies. I know
+    nothing so simple, so natural; and the proof of the simplicity
+    shall lie in the succinctness of my demonstration. It is contained
+    in these few words: when a crime seems to go beyond the ordinary
+    scope of things, when it seems unusual and stupid, then there are
+    many chances that its explanation is to be found in superordinary,
+    supernatural, superhuman motives.
+
+    "I say that there are many chances, for we must always allow for
+    the part played by absurdity in the most logical and commonplace
+    events. But, of course, it is impossible to see things as they are
+    and not to take account of the absurd and the disproportionate.
+
+    "I was struck from the very beginning by that very evident
+    character of unusualness. We have, first of all, the awkward,
+    zigzag course of the motor-car, which would give one the impression
+    that the car was driven by a novice. People have spoken of a
+    drunkard or a madman, a justifiable supposition in itself. But
+    neither madness nor drunkenness would account for the incredible
+    strength required to transport, especially in so short a space of
+    time, the stone with which the unfortunate woman's head was
+    crushed. That proceeding called for a muscular power so great that
+    I do not hesitate to look upon it as a second sign of the
+    unusualness that marks the whole tragedy. And why move that
+    enormous stone, to finish off the victim, when a mere pebble would
+    have done the work? Why again was the murderer not killed, or at
+    least reduced to a temporary state of helplessness, in the terrible
+    somersault turned by the car? How did he disappear? And why, having
+    disappeared, did he return to the scene of the accident? Why did he
+    throw his fur coat there; then, on another day, his cap; then, on
+    another day, his goggles?
+
+    "Unusual, useless, stupid acts.
+
+    "Why, besides, convey that wounded, dying woman on the driver's
+    seat of the car, where everybody could see her? Why do that,
+    instead of putting her inside, or flinging her into some corner,
+    dead, just as the man was flung under the brambles in the ditch?
+
+    "Unusualness, stupidity.
+
+    "Everything in the whole story is absurd. Everything points to
+    hesitation, incoherency, awkwardness, the silliness of a child or
+    rather of a mad, blundering savage, of a brute.
+
+    "Look at the bottle of brandy. There was a corkscrew: it was found
+    in the pocket of the great coat. Did the murderer use it? Yes, the
+    marks of the corkscrew can be seen on the seal. But the operation
+    was too complicated for him. He broke the neck with a stone. Always
+    stones: observe that detail. They are the only weapon, the only
+    implement which the creature employs. It is his customary weapon,
+    his familiar implement. He kills the man with a stone, he kills the
+    woman with a stone and he opens bottles with a stone!
+
+    "A brute, I repeat, a savage; disordered, unhinged, suddenly driven
+    mad. By what? Why, of course, by that same brandy, which he
+    swallowed at a draught while the driver and his companion were
+    having breakfast in the field. He got out of the limousine, in
+    which he was travelling, in his goat-skin coat and his fur cap,
+    took the bottle, broke off the neck and drank. There is the whole
+    story. Having drunk, he went raving mad and hit out at random,
+    without reason. Then, seized with instinctive fear, dreading the
+    inevitable punishment, he hid the body of the man. Then, like an
+    idiot, he took up the wounded woman and ran away. He ran away in
+    that motor-car which he did not know how to work, but which to him
+    represented safety, escape from capture.
+
+    "But the money, you will ask, the stolen pocket-book? Why, who says
+    that he was the thief? Who says that it was not some passing tramp,
+    some labourer, guided by the stench of the corpse?
+
+    "Very well, you object, but the brute would have been found, as he
+    is hiding somewhere near the turn, and as, after all, he must eat
+    and drink.
+
+    "Well, well, I see that you have not yet understood. The simplest
+    way, I suppose, to have done and to answer your objections is to
+    make straight for the mark. Then let the gentlemen of the police
+    and the gendarmerie themselves make straight for the mark. Let them
+    take firearms. Let them explore the forest within a radius of two
+    or three hundred yards from the turn, no more. But, instead of
+    exploring with their heads down and their eyes fixed on the ground,
+    let them look up into the air, yes, into the air, among the leaves
+    and branches of the tallest oaks and the most unlikely beeches.
+    And, believe me, they will see him. For he is there. He is there,
+    bewildered, piteously at a loss, seeking for the man and woman whom
+    he has killed, looking for them and waiting for them and not daring
+    to go away and quite unable to understand.
+
+    "I myself am exceedingly sorry that I am kept in town by urgent
+    private affairs and by some complicated matters of business which I
+    have to set going, for I should much have liked to see the end of
+    this rather curious adventure.
+
+    "Pray, therefore excuse me to my kind friends in the police and
+    permit me to be, sir,
+
+                             "Your obedient servant,
+
+                                        "ARSENE LUPIN."
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The upshot will be remembered. The "gentlemen of the police and the
+gendarmerie" shrugged their shoulders and paid no attention to this
+lucubration. But four of the local country gentry took their rifles and
+went shooting, with their eyes fixed skyward, as though they meant to
+pot a few rooks. In half an hour they had caught sight of the murderer.
+Two shots, and he came tumbling from bough to bough. He was only
+wounded, and they took him alive.
+
+That evening, a Paris paper, which did not yet know of the capture,
+printed the following paragraphs:
+
+
+    "Enquiries are being made after a M. and Mme. Bragoff, who landed
+    at Marseilles six weeks ago and there hired a motor-car. They had
+    been living in Australia for many years, during which time they had
+    not visited Europe; and they wrote to the director of the Jardin
+    d'Acclimatation, with whom they were in the habit of corresponding,
+    that they were bringing with them a curious creature, of an
+    entirely unknown species, of which it was difficult to say whether
+    it was a man or a monkey.
+
+    "According to M. Bragoff, who is an eminent archaeologist, the
+    specimen in question is the anthropoid ape, or rather the ape-man,
+    the existence of which had not hitherto been definitely proved. The
+    structure is said to be exactly similar to that of _Pithecanthropus
+    erectus_, discovered by Dr. Dubois in Java in 1891.
+
+    "This curious, intelligent and observant animal acted as its
+    owner's servant on their property in Australia and used to clean
+    their motor-car and even attempt to drive it.
+
+    "The question that is being asked is where are M. and Mme. Bragoff?
+    Where is the strange primate that landed with them at Marseilles?"
+
+
+The answer to this question was now made easy. Thanks to the hints
+supplied by Arsene Lupin, all the elements of the tragedy were known.
+Thanks to him, the culprit was in the hands of the law.
+
+You can see him at the Jardin d'Acclimatation, where he is locked up
+under the name of "Three Stars." He is, in point of fact, a monkey; but
+he is also a man. He has the gentleness and the wisdom of the domestic
+animals and the sadness which they feel when their master dies. But he
+has many other qualities that bring him much closer to humanity: he is
+treacherous, cruel, idle, greedy and quarrelsome; and, above all, he is
+immoderately fond of brandy.
+
+Apart from that, he is a monkey. Unless indeed ...!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few days after Three Stars' arrest, I saw Arsene Lupin standing in
+front of his cage. Lupin was manifestly trying to solve this interesting
+problem for himself. I at once said, for I had set my heart upon having
+the matter out with him:
+
+"You know, Lupin, that intervention of yours, your argument, your
+letter, in short, did not surprise me so much as you might think!"
+
+"Oh, really?" he said, calmly. "And why?"
+
+"Why? Because the incident has occurred before, seventy or eighty years
+ago. Edgar Allan Poe made it the subject of one of his finest tales. In
+those circumstances, the key to the riddle was easy enough to find."
+
+Arsene Lupin took my arm, and walking away with me, said:
+
+"When did you guess it, yourself?"
+
+"On reading your letter," I confessed.
+
+"And at what part of my letter?"
+
+"At the end."
+
+"At the end, eh? After I had dotted all the i's. So here is a crime
+which accident causes to be repeated, under quite different conditions,
+it is true, but still with the same sort of hero; and your eyes had to
+be opened, as well as other people's. It needed the assistance of my
+letter, the letter in which I amused myself--apart from the exigencies
+of the facts--by employing the argument and sometimes the identical
+words used by the American poet in a story which everybody has read. So
+you see that my letter was not absolutely useless and that one may
+safely venture to repeat to people things which they have learnt only to
+forget them."
+
+Wherewith Lupin turned on his heel and burst out laughing in the face of
+an old monkey, who sat with the air of a philosopher, gravely
+meditating.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+LUPIN'S MARRIAGE
+
+
+    "Monsieur Arsene Lupin has the honour to inform you of his
+    approaching marriage with Mademoiselle Angelique de
+    Sarzeau-Vendome, Princesse de Bourbon-Conde, and to request the
+    pleasure of your company at the wedding, which will take place at
+    the church of Sainte-Clotilde...."
+
+    "The Duc de Sarzeau-Vendome has the honour to inform you of the
+    approaching marriage of his daughter Angelique, Princesse de
+    Bourbon-Conde, with Monsieur Arsene Lupin, and to request...."
+
+
+Jean Duc de Sarzeau-Vendome could not finish reading the invitations
+which he held in his trembling hand. Pale with anger, his long, lean
+body shaking with tremors:
+
+"There!" he gasped, handing the two communications to his daughter.
+"This is what our friends have received! This has been the talk of Paris
+since yesterday! What do you say to that dastardly insult, Angelique?
+What would your poor mother say to it, if she were alive?"
+
+Angelique was tall and thin like her father, skinny and angular like
+him. She was thirty-three years of age, always dressed in black stuff,
+shy and retiring in manner, with a head too small in proportion to her
+height and narrowed on either side until the nose seemed to jut forth in
+protest against such parsimony. And yet it would be impossible to say
+that she was ugly, for her eyes were extremely beautiful, soft and
+grave, proud and a little sad: pathetic eyes which to see once was to
+remember.
+
+She flushed with shame at hearing her father's words, which told her the
+scandal of which she was the victim. But, as she loved him,
+notwithstanding his harshness to her, his injustice and despotism, she
+said:
+
+"Oh, I think it must be meant for a joke, father, to which we need pay
+no attention!"
+
+"A joke? Why, every one is gossiping about it! A dozen papers have
+printed the confounded notice this morning, with satirical comments.
+They quote our pedigree, our ancestors, our illustrious dead. They
+pretend to take the thing seriously...."
+
+"Still, no one could believe...."
+
+"Of course not. But that doesn't prevent us from being the by-word of
+Paris."
+
+"It will all be forgotten by to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow, my girl, people will remember that the name of Angelique de
+Sarzeau-Vendome has been bandied about as it should not be. Oh, if I
+could find out the name of the scoundrel who has dared...."
+
+At that moment, Hyacinthe, the duke's valet, came in and said that
+monsieur le duc was wanted on the telephone. Still fuming, he took down
+the receiver and growled:
+
+"Well? Who is it? Yes, it's the Duc de Sarzeau-Vendome speaking."
+
+A voice replied:
+
+"I want to apologize to you, monsieur le duc, and to Mlle. Angelique.
+It's my secretary's fault."
+
+"Your secretary?"
+
+"Yes, the invitations were only a rough draft which I meant to submit to
+you. Unfortunately my secretary thought...."
+
+"But, tell me, monsieur, who are you?"
+
+"What, monsieur le duc, don't you know my voice? The voice of your
+future son-in-law?"
+
+"What!"
+
+"Arsene Lupin."
+
+The duke dropped into a chair. His face was livid.
+
+"Arsene Lupin ... it's he ... Arsene Lupin...."
+
+Angelique gave a smile:
+
+"You see, father, it's only a joke, a hoax."
+
+But the duke's rage broke out afresh and he began to walk up and down,
+moving his arms:
+
+"I shall go to the police!... The fellow can't be allowed to make a fool
+of me in this way!... If there's any law left in the land, it must be
+stopped!"
+
+Hyacinthe entered the room again. He brought two visiting-cards.
+
+"Chotois? Lepetit? Don't know them."
+
+"They are both journalists, monsieur le duc."
+
+"What do they want?"
+
+"They would like to speak to monsieur le duc with regard to ... the
+marriage...."
+
+"Turn them out!" exclaimed the duke. "Kick them out! And tell the porter
+not to admit scum of that sort to my house in future."
+
+"Please, father ..." Angelique ventured to say.
+
+"As for you, shut up! If you had consented to marry one of your cousins
+when I wanted you to this wouldn't have happened."
+
+The same evening, one of the two reporters printed, on the front page of
+his paper, a somewhat fanciful story of his expedition to the family
+mansion of the Sarzeau-Vendomes, in the Rue de Varennes, and expatiated
+pleasantly upon the old nobleman's wrathful protests.
+
+The next morning, another newspaper published an interview with Arsene
+Lupin which was supposed to have taken place in a lobby at the Opera.
+Arsene Lupin retorted in a letter to the editor:
+
+
+    "I share my prospective father-in-law's indignation to the full.
+    The sending out of the invitations was a gross breach of etiquette
+    for which I am not responsible, but for which I wish to make a
+    public apology. Why, sir, the date of the marriage is not yet
+    fixed. My bride's father suggests early in May. She and I think
+    that six weeks is really too long to wait!..."
+
+
+That which gave a special piquancy to the affair and added immensely to
+the enjoyment of the friends of the family was the duke's well-known
+character: his pride and the uncompromising nature of his ideas and
+principles. Duc Jean was the last descendant of the Barons de Sarzeau,
+the most ancient family in Brittany; he was the lineal descendant of
+that Sarzeau who, upon marrying a Vendome, refused to bear the new title
+which Louis XV forced upon him until after he had been imprisoned for
+ten years in the Bastille; and he had abandoned none of the prejudices
+of the old regime. In his youth, he followed the Comte de Chambord into
+exile. In his old age, he refused a seat in the Chamber on the pretext
+that a Sarzeau could only sit with his peers.
+
+The incident stung him to the quick. Nothing could pacify him. He cursed
+Lupin in good round terms, threatened him with every sort of punishment
+and rounded on his daughter:
+
+"There, if you had only married!... After all you had plenty of chances.
+Your three cousins, Mussy, d'Emboise and Caorches, are noblemen of good
+descent, allied to the best families, fairly well-off; and they are
+still anxious to marry you. Why do you refuse them? Ah, because miss is
+a dreamer, a sentimentalist; and because her cousins are too fat, or too
+thin, or too coarse for her...."
+
+She was, in fact, a dreamer. Left to her own devices from childhood, she
+had read all the books of chivalry, all the colourless romances of
+olden-time that littered the ancestral presses; and she looked upon life
+as a fairy-tale in which the beauteous maidens are always happy, while
+the others wait till death for the bridegroom who does not come. Why
+should she marry one of her cousins when they were only after her money,
+the millions which she had inherited from her mother? She might as well
+remain an old maid and go on dreaming....
+
+She answered, gently:
+
+"You will end by making yourself ill, father. Forget this silly
+business."
+
+But how could he forget it? Every morning, some pin-prick renewed his
+wound. Three days running, Angelique received a wonderful sheaf of
+flowers, with Arsene Lupin's card peeping from it. The duke could not go
+to his club but a friend accosted him:
+
+"That was a good one to-day!"
+
+"What was?"
+
+"Why, your son-in-law's latest! Haven't you seen it? Here, read it for
+yourself: 'M. Arsene Lupin is petitioning the Council of State for
+permission to add his wife's name to his own and to be known henceforth
+as Lupin de Sarzeau-Vendome.'"
+
+And, the next day, he read:
+
+
+    "As the young bride, by virtue of an unrepealed decree of Charles
+    X, bears the title and arms of the Bourbon-Condes, of whom she is
+    the heiress-of-line, the eldest son of the Lupins de
+    Sarzeau-Vendome will be styled Prince de Bourbon-Conde."
+
+
+And, the day after, an advertisement.
+
+
+    "Exhibition of Mlle. de Sarzeau-Vendome's trousseau at Messrs.
+    ----'s Great Linen Warehouse. Each article marked with initials L.
+    S. V."
+
+
+Then an illustrated paper published a photographic scene: the duke, his
+daughter and his son-in-law sitting at a table playing three-handed
+auction-bridge.
+
+And the date also was announced with a great flourish of trumpets: the
+4th of May.
+
+And particulars were given of the marriage-settlement. Lupin showed
+himself wonderfully disinterested. He was prepared to sign, the
+newspapers said, with his eyes closed, without knowing the figure of the
+dowry.
+
+All these things drove the old duke crazy. His hatred of Lupin assumed
+morbid proportions. Much as it went against the grain, he called on the
+prefect of police, who advised him to be on his guard:
+
+"We know the gentleman's ways; he is employing one of his favourite
+dodges. Forgive the expression, monsieur le duc, but he is 'nursing'
+you. Don't fall into the trap."
+
+"What dodge? What trap?" asked the duke, anxiously.
+
+"He is trying to make you lose your head and to lead you, by
+intimidation, to do something which you would refuse to do in cold
+blood."
+
+"Still, M. Arsene Lupin can hardly hope that I will offer him my
+daughter's hand!"
+
+"No, but he hopes that you will commit, to put it mildly, a blunder."
+
+"What blunder?"
+
+"Exactly that blunder which he wants you to commit."
+
+"Then you think, monsieur le prefet ...?"
+
+"I think the best thing you can do, monsieur le duc, is to go home, or,
+if all this excitement worries you, to run down to the country and stay
+there quietly, without upsetting yourself."
+
+This conversation only increased the old duke's fears. Lupin appeared to
+him in the light of a terrible person, who employed diabolical methods
+and kept accomplices in every sphere of society. Prudence was the
+watchword.
+
+And life, from that moment, became intolerable. The duke grew more
+crabbed and silent than ever and denied his door to all his old friends
+and even to Angelique's three suitors, her Cousins de Mussy, d'Emboise
+and de Caorches, who were none of them on speaking terms with the
+others, in consequence of their rivalry, and who were in the habit of
+calling, turn and turn about, every week.
+
+For no earthly reason, he dismissed his butler and his coachman. But he
+dared not fill their places, for fear of engaging creatures of Arsene
+Lupin's; and his own man, Hyacinthe, in whom he had every confidence,
+having had him in his service for over forty years, had to take upon
+himself the laborious duties of the stables and the pantry.
+
+"Come, father," said Angelique, trying to make him listen to
+common-sense. "I really can't see what you are afraid of. No one can
+force me into this ridiculous marriage."
+
+"Well, of course, that's not what I'm afraid of."
+
+"What then, father?"
+
+"How can I tell? An abduction! A burglary! An act of violence! There is
+no doubt that the villain is scheming something; and there is also no
+doubt that we are surrounded by spies."
+
+One afternoon, he received a newspaper in which the following paragraph
+was marked in red pencil:
+
+
+    "The signing of the marriage-contract is fixed for this evening, at
+    the Sarzeau-Vendome town-house. It will be quite a private ceremony
+    and only a few privileged friends will be present to congratulate
+    the happy pair. The witnesses to the contract on behalf of Mlle. de
+    Sarzeau-Vendome, the Prince de la Rochefoucauld-Limours and the
+    Comte de Chartres, will be introduced by M. Arsene Lupin to the two
+    gentlemen who have claimed the honour of acting as his groomsmen,
+    namely, the prefect of police and the governor of the Sante
+    Prison."
+
+
+Ten minutes later, the duke sent his servant Hyacinthe to the post with
+three express messages. At four o'clock, in Angelique's presence, he saw
+the three cousins: Mussy, fat, heavy, pasty-faced; d'Emboise, slender,
+fresh-coloured and shy: Caorches, short, thin and unhealthy-looking: all
+three, old bachelors by this time, lacking distinction in dress or
+appearance.
+
+The meeting was a short one. The duke had worked out his whole plan of
+campaign, a defensive campaign, of which he set forth the first stage in
+explicit terms:
+
+"Angelique and I will leave Paris to-night for our place in Brittany. I
+rely on you, my three nephews, to help us get away. You, d'Emboise, will
+come and fetch us in your car, with the hood up. You, Mussy, will bring
+your big motor and kindly see to the luggage with Hyacinthe, my man.
+You, Caorches, will go to the Gare d'Orleans and book our berths in the
+sleeping-car for Vannes by the 10.40 train. Is that settled?"
+
+The rest of the day passed without incident. The duke, to avoid any
+accidental indiscretion, waited until after dinner to tell Hyacinthe to
+pack a trunk and a portmanteau. Hyacinthe was to accompany them, as well
+as Angelique's maid.
+
+At nine o'clock, all the other servants went to bed, by their master's
+order. At ten minutes to ten, the duke, who was completing his
+preparations, heard the sound of a motor-horn. The porter opened the
+gates of the courtyard. The duke, standing at the window, recognized
+d'Emboise's landaulette:
+
+"Tell him I shall be down presently," he said to Hyacinthe, "and let
+mademoiselle know."
+
+In a few minutes, as Hyacinthe did not return, he left his room. But he
+was attacked on the landing by two masked men, who gagged and bound him
+before he could utter a cry. And one of the men said to him, in a low
+voice:
+
+"Take this as a first warning, monsieur le duc. If you persist in
+leaving Paris and refusing your consent, it will be a more serious
+matter."
+
+And the same man said to his companion:
+
+"Keep an eye on him. I will see to the young lady."
+
+By that time, two other confederates had secured the lady's maid; and
+Angelique, herself gagged, lay fainting on a couch in her boudoir.
+
+She came to almost immediately, under the stimulus of a bottle of salts
+held to her nostrils; and, when she opened her eyes, she saw bending
+over her a young man, in evening-clothes, with a smiling and friendly
+face, who said:
+
+"I implore your forgiveness, mademoiselle. All these happenings are a
+trifle sudden and this behaviour rather out of the way. But
+circumstances often compel us to deeds of which our conscience does not
+approve. Pray pardon me."
+
+He took her hand very gently and slipped a broad gold ring on the girl's
+finger, saying:
+
+"There, now we are engaged. Never forget the man who gave you this ring.
+He entreats you not to run away from him ... and to stay in Paris and
+await the proofs of his devotion. Have faith in him."
+
+He said all this in so serious and respectful a voice, with so much
+authority and deference, that she had not the strength to resist. Their
+eyes met. He whispered:
+
+"The exquisite purity of your eyes! It would be heavenly to live with
+those eyes upon one. Now close them...."
+
+He withdrew. His accomplices followed suit. The car drove off, and the
+house in the Rue de Varennes remained still and silent until the moment
+when Angelique, regaining complete consciousness, called out for the
+servants.
+
+They found the duke, Hyacinthe, the lady's maid and the porter and his
+wife all tightly bound. A few priceless ornaments had disappeared, as
+well as the duke's pocket-book and all his jewellery; tie pins, pearl
+studs, watch and so on.
+
+The police were advised without delay. In the morning it appeared that,
+on the evening before, d'Emboise, when leaving his house in the
+motor-car, was stabbed by his own chauffeur and thrown, half-dead, into
+a deserted street. Mussy and Caorches had each received a
+telephone-message, purporting to come from the duke, countermanding
+their attendance.
+
+Next week, without troubling further about the police investigation,
+without obeying the summons of the examining-magistrate, without even
+reading Arsene Lupin's letters to the papers on "the Varennes Flight,"
+the duke, his daughter and his valet stealthily took a slow train for
+Vannes and arrived one evening, at the old feudal castle that towers
+over the headland of Sarzeau. The duke at once organized a defence with
+the aid of the Breton peasants, true mediaeval vassals to a man. On the
+fourth day, Mussy arrived; on the fifth, Caorches; and, on the seventh,
+d'Emboise, whose wound was not as severe as had been feared.
+
+The duke waited two days longer before communicating to those about him
+what, now that his escape had succeeded in spite of Lupin, he called the
+second part of his plan. He did so, in the presence of the three
+cousins, by a dictatorial order to Angelique, expressed in these
+peremptory terms:
+
+"All this bother is upsetting me terribly. I have entered on a struggle
+with this man whose daring you have seen for yourself; and the struggle
+is killing me. I want to end it at all costs. There is only one way of
+doing so, Angelique, and that is for you to release me from all
+responsibility by accepting the hand of one of your cousins. Before a
+month is out, you must be the wife of Mussy, Caorches or d'Emboise. You
+have a free choice. Make your decision."
+
+For four whole days Angelique wept and entreated her father, but in
+vain. She felt that he would be inflexible and that she must end by
+submitting to his wishes. She accepted:
+
+"Whichever you please, father. I love none of them. So I may as well be
+unhappy with one as with the other."
+
+Thereupon a fresh discussion ensued, as the duke wanted to compel her to
+make her own choice. She stood firm. Reluctantly and for financial
+considerations, he named d'Emboise.
+
+The banns were published without delay.
+
+From that moment, the watch in and around the castle was increased
+twofold, all the more inasmuch as Lupin's silence and the sudden
+cessation of the campaign which he had been conducting in the press
+could not but alarm the Duc de Sarzeau-Vendome. It was obvious that the
+enemy was getting ready to strike and would endeavour to oppose the
+marriage by one of his characteristic moves.
+
+Nevertheless, nothing happened: nothing two days before the ceremony,
+nothing on the day before, nothing on the morning itself. The marriage
+took place in the mayor's office, followed by the religious celebration
+in church; and the thing was done.
+
+Then and not till then, the duke breathed freely. Notwithstanding his
+daughter's sadness, notwithstanding the embarrassed silence of his
+son-in-law, who found the situation a little trying, he rubbed his hands
+with an air of pleasure, as though he had achieved a brilliant victory:
+
+"Tell them to lower the drawbridge," he said to Hyacinthe, "and to admit
+everybody. We have nothing more to fear from that scoundrel."
+
+After the wedding-breakfast, he had wine served out to the peasants and
+clinked glasses with them. They danced and sang.
+
+At three o'clock, he returned to the ground-floor rooms. It was the hour
+for his afternoon nap. He walked to the guard-room at the end of the
+suite. But he had no sooner placed his foot on the threshold than he
+stopped suddenly and exclaimed:
+
+"What are you doing here, d'Emboise? Is this a joke?"
+
+D'Emboise was standing before him, dressed as a Breton fisherman, in a
+dirty jacket and breeches, torn, patched and many sizes too large for
+him.
+
+The duke seemed dumbfounded. He stared with eyes of amazement at that
+face which he knew and which, at the same time, roused memories of a
+very distant past within his brain. Then he strode abruptly to one of
+the windows overlooking the castle-terrace and called:
+
+"Angelique!"
+
+"What is it, father?" she asked, coming forward.
+
+"Where's your husband?"
+
+"Over there, father," said Angelique, pointing to d'Emboise, who was
+smoking a cigarette and reading, some way off.
+
+The duke stumbled and fell into a chair, with a great shudder of fright:
+
+"Oh, I shall go mad!"
+
+But the man in the fisherman's garb knelt down before him and said:
+
+"Look at me, uncle. You know me, don't you? I'm your nephew, the one who
+used to play here in the old days, the one whom you called Jacquot....
+Just think a minute.... Here, look at this scar...."
+
+"Yes, yes," stammered the duke, "I recognize you. It's Jacques. But the
+other one...."
+
+He put his hands to his head:
+
+"And yet, no, it can't be ... Explain yourself.... I don't
+understand.... I don't want to understand...."
+
+There was a pause, during which the newcomer shut the window and closed
+the door leading to the next room. Then he came up to the old duke,
+touched him gently on the shoulder, to wake him from his torpor, and
+without further preface, as though to cut short any explanation that was
+not absolutely necessary, spoke as follows:
+
+"Four years ago, that is to say, in the eleventh year of my voluntary
+exile, when I settled in the extreme south of Algeria, I made the
+acquaintance, in the course of a hunting-expedition arranged by a big
+Arab chief, of a man whose geniality, whose charm of manner, whose
+consummate prowess, whose indomitable pluck, whose combined humour and
+depth of mind fascinated me in the highest degree. The Comte d'Andresy
+spent six weeks as my guest. After he left, we kept up a correspondence
+at regular intervals. I also often saw his name in the papers, in the
+society and sporting columns. He was to come back and I was preparing to
+receive him, three months ago, when, one evening as I was out riding, my
+two Arab attendants flung themselves upon me, bound me, blindfolded me
+and took me, travelling day and night, for a week, along deserted roads,
+to a bay on the coast, where five men awaited them. I was at once
+carried on board a small steam-yacht, which weighed anchor without
+delay. There was nothing to tell me who the men were nor what their
+object was in kidnapping me. They had locked me into a narrow cabin,
+secured by a massive door and lighted by a port-hole protected by two
+iron cross-bars. Every morning, a hand was inserted through a hatch
+between the next cabin and my own and placed on my bunk two or three
+pounds of bread, a good helping of food and a flagon of wine and removed
+the remains of yesterday's meals, which I put there for the purpose.
+From time to time, at night, the yacht stopped and I heard the sound of
+the boat rowing to some harbour and then returning, doubtless with
+provisions. Then we set out once more, without hurrying, as though on a
+cruise of people of our class, who travel for pleasure and are not
+pressed for time. Sometimes, standing on a chair, I would see the
+coastline, through my port-hole, too indistinctly, however, to locate
+it. And this lasted for weeks. One morning, in the ninth week, I
+perceived that the hatch had been left unfastened and I pushed it open.
+The cabin was empty at the time. With an effort, I was able to take a
+nail-file from a dressing-table. Two weeks after that, by dint of
+patient perseverance, I had succeeded in filing through the bars of my
+port-hole and I could have escaped that way, only, though I am a good
+swimmer, I soon grow tired. I had therefore to choose a moment when the
+yacht was not too far from the land. It was not until yesterday that,
+perched on my chair, I caught sight of the coast; and, in the evening,
+at sunset, I recognized, to my astonishment, the outlines of the
+Chateau de Sarzeau, with its pointed turrets and its square keep. I
+wondered if this was the goal of my mysterious voyage. All night long,
+we cruised in the offing. The same all day yesterday. At last, this
+morning, we put in at a distance which I considered favourable, all the
+more so as we were steaming through rocks under cover of which I could
+swim unobserved. But, just as I was about to make my escape, I noticed
+that the shutter of the hatch, which they thought they had closed, had
+once more opened of itself and was flapping against the partition. I
+again pushed it ajar from curiosity. Within arm's length was a little
+cupboard which I managed to open and in which my hand, groping at
+random, laid hold of a bundle of papers. This consisted of letters,
+letters containing instructions addressed to the pirates who held me
+prisoner. An hour later, when I wriggled through the port-hole and
+slipped into the sea, I knew all: the reasons for my abduction, the
+means employed, the object in view and the infamous scheme plotted
+during the last three months against the Duc de Sarzeau-Vendome and his
+daughter. Unfortunately, it was too late. I was obliged, in order not to
+be seen from the yacht, to crouch in the cleft of a rock and did not
+reach land until mid-day. By the time that I had been to a fisherman's
+cabin, exchanged my clothes for his and come on here, it was three
+o'clock. On my arrival. I learnt that Angelique's marriage was
+celebrated this morning."
+
+The old duke had not spoken a word. With his eyes riveted on the
+stranger's, he was listening in ever-increasing dismay. At times, the
+thought of the warnings given him by the prefect of police returned to
+his mind:
+
+"They're nursing you, monsieur le duc, they are nursing you."
+
+He said, in a hollow voice:
+
+"Speak on ... finish your story.... All this is ghastly.... I don't
+understand it yet ... and I feel nervous...."
+
+The stranger resumed:
+
+"I am sorry to say, the story is easily pieced together and is summed up
+in a few sentences. It is like this: the Comte d'Andresy remembered
+several things from his stay with me and from the confidences which I
+was foolish enough to make to him. First of all, I was your nephew and
+yet you had seen comparatively little of me, because I left Sarzeau when
+I was quite a child, and since then our intercourse was limited to the
+few weeks which I spent here, fifteen years ago, when I proposed for the
+hand of my Cousin Angelique; secondly, having broken with the past, I
+received no letters; lastly, there was a certain physical resemblance
+between d'Andresy and myself which could be accentuated to such an
+extent as to become striking. His scheme was built up on those three
+points. He bribed my Arab servants to give him warning in case I left
+Algeria. Then he went back to Paris, bearing my name and made up to look
+exactly like me, came to see you, was invited to your house once a
+fortnight and lived under my name, which thus became one of the many
+aliases beneath which he conceals his real identity. Three months ago,
+when 'the apple was ripe,' as he says in his letters, he began the
+attack by a series of communications to the press; and, at the same
+time, fearing no doubt that some newspaper would tell me in Algeria the
+part that was being played under my name in Paris, he had me assaulted
+by my servants and kidnapped by his confederates. I need not explain any
+more in so far as you are concerned, uncle."
+
+The Duc de Sarzeau-Vendome was shaken with a fit of nervous trembling.
+The awful truth to which he refused to open his eyes appeared to him in
+its nakedness and assumed the hateful countenance of the enemy. He
+clutched his nephew's hands and said to him, fiercely, despairingly:
+
+"It's Lupin, is it not?"
+
+"Yes, uncle."
+
+"And it's to him ... it's to him that I have given my daughter!"
+
+"Yes, uncle, to him, who has stolen my name of Jacques d'Emboise from me
+and stolen your daughter from you. Angelique is the wedded wife of
+Arsene Lupin; and that in accordance with your orders. This letter in
+his handwriting bears witness to it. He has upset your whole life,
+thrown you off your balance, besieging your hours of waking and your
+nights of dreaming, rifling your town-house, until the moment when,
+seized with terror, you took refuge here, where, thinking that you would
+escape his artifices and his rapacity, you told your daughter to choose
+one of her three cousins, Mussy, d'Emboise or Caorches, as her husband.
+
+"But why did she select that one rather than the others?"
+
+"It was you who selected him, uncle."
+
+"At random ... because he had the biggest income...."
+
+"No, not at random, but on the insidious, persistent and very clever
+advice of your servant Hyacinthe."
+
+The duke gave a start:
+
+"What! Is Hyacinthe an accomplice?"
+
+"No, not of Arsene Lupin, but of the man whom he believes to be
+d'Emboise and who promised to give him a hundred thousand francs within
+a week after the marriage."
+
+"Oh, the villain!... He planned everything, foresaw everything...."
+
+"Foresaw everything, uncle, down to shamming an attempt upon his life so
+as to avert suspicion, down to shamming a wound received in your
+service."
+
+"But with what object? Why all these dastardly tricks?"
+
+"Angelique has a fortune of eleven million francs. Your solicitor in
+Paris was to hand the securities next week to the counterfeit d'Emboise,
+who had only to realize them forthwith and disappear. But, this very
+morning, you yourself were to hand your son-in-law, as a personal
+wedding-present, five hundred thousand francs' worth of bearer-stock,
+which he has arranged to deliver to one of his accomplices at nine
+o'clock this evening, outside the castle, near the Great Oak, so that
+they may be negotiated to-morrow morning in Brussels."
+
+The Duc de Sarzeau-Vendome had risen from his seat and was stamping
+furiously up and down the room:
+
+"At nine o'clock this evening?" he said. "We'll see about that.... We'll
+see about that.... I'll have the gendarmes here before then...."
+
+"Arsene Lupin laughs at gendarmes."
+
+"Let's telegraph to Paris."
+
+"Yes, but how about the five hundred thousand francs?... And, still
+worse, uncle, the scandal?... Think of this: your daughter, Angelique de
+Sarzeau-Vendome, married to that swindler, that thief.... No, no, it
+would never do...."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"What?..."
+
+The nephew now rose and, stepping to a gun-rack, took down a rifle and
+laid it on the table, in front of the duke:
+
+"Away in Algeria, uncle, on the verge of the desert, when we find
+ourselves face to face with a wild beast, we do not send for the
+gendarmes. We take our rifle and we shoot the wild beast. Otherwise, the
+beast would tear us to pieces with its claws."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that, over there, I acquired the habit of dispensing with the
+gendarmes. It is a rather summary way of doing justice, but it is the
+best way, believe me, and to-day, in the present case, it is the only
+way. Once the beast is killed, you and I will bury it in some corner,
+unseen and unknown."
+
+"And Angelique?"
+
+"We will tell her later."
+
+"What will become of her?"
+
+"She will be my wife, the wife of the real d'Emboise. I desert her
+to-morrow and return to Algeria. The divorce will be granted in two
+months' time."
+
+The duke listened, pale and staring, with set jaws. He whispered:
+
+"Are you sure that his accomplices on the yacht will not inform him of
+your escape?"
+
+"Not before to-morrow."
+
+"So that ...?"
+
+"So that inevitably, at nine o'clock this evening, Arsene Lupin, on his
+way to the Great Oak, will take the patrol-path that follows the old
+ramparts and skirts the ruins of the chapel. I shall be there, in the
+ruins."
+
+"I shall be there too," said the Duc de Sarzeau-Vendome, quietly, taking
+down a gun.
+
+It was now five o'clock. The duke talked some time longer to his nephew,
+examined the weapons, loaded them with fresh cartridges. Then, when
+night came, he took d'Emboise through the dark passages to his bedroom
+and hid him in an adjoining closet.
+
+Nothing further happened until dinner. The duke forced himself to keep
+calm during the meal. From time to time, he stole a glance at his
+son-in-law and was surprised at the likeness between him and the real
+d'Emboise. It was the same complexion, the same cast of features, the
+same cut of hair. Nevertheless, the look of the eye was different,
+keener in this case and brighter; and gradually the duke discovered
+minor details which had passed unperceived till then and which proved
+the fellow's imposture.
+
+The party broke up after dinner. It was eight o'clock. The duke went to
+his room and released his nephew. Ten minutes later, under cover of the
+darkness, they slipped into the ruins, gun in hand.
+
+Meanwhile, Angelique, accompanied by her husband, had gone to the suite
+of rooms which she occupied on the ground-floor of a tower that flanked
+the left wing. Her husband stopped at the entrance to the rooms and
+said:
+
+"I am going for a short stroll, Angelique. May I come to you here, when
+I return?"
+
+"Yes," she replied.
+
+He left her and went up to the first floor, which had been assigned to
+him as his quarters. The moment he was alone, he locked the door,
+noiselessly opened a window that looked over the landscape and leant
+out. He saw a shadow at the foot of the tower, some hundred feet or more
+below him. He whistled and received a faint whistle in reply.
+
+He then took from a cupboard a thick leather satchel, crammed with
+papers, wrapped it in a piece of black cloth and tied it up. Then he
+sat down at the table and wrote:
+
+
+    "Glad you got my message, for I think it unsafe to walk out of the
+    castle with that large bundle of securities. Here they are. You
+    will be in Paris, on your motor-cycle, in time to catch the morning
+    train to Brussels, where you will hand over the bonds to Z.; and he
+    will negotiate them at once.
+
+                                                                 "A. L.
+
+    "P. S.--As you pass by the Great Oak, tell our chaps that I'm
+    coming. I have some instructions to give them. But everything is
+    going well. No one here has the least suspicion."
+
+
+He fastened the letter to the parcel and lowered both through the window
+with a length of string:
+
+"Good," he said. "That's all right. It's a weight off my mind."
+
+He waited a few minutes longer, stalking up and down the room and
+smiling at the portraits of two gallant gentlemen hanging on the wall:
+
+"Horace de Sarzeau-Vendome, marshal of France.... And you, the Great
+Conde ... I salute you, my ancestors both. Lupin de Sarzeau-Vendome will
+show himself worthy of you."
+
+At last, when the time came, he took his hat and went down. But, when he
+reached the ground-floor, Angelique burst from her rooms and exclaimed,
+with a distraught air:
+
+"I say ... if you don't mind ... I think you had better...."
+
+And then, without saying more, she went in again, leaving a vision of
+irresponsible terror in her husband's mind.
+
+"She's out of sorts," he said to himself. "Marriage doesn't suit her."
+
+He lit a cigarette and went out, without attaching importance to an
+incident that ought to have impressed him:
+
+"Poor Angelique! This will all end in a divorce...."
+
+The night outside was dark, with a cloudy sky.
+
+The servants were closing the shutters of the castle. There was no light
+in the windows, it being the duke's habit to go to bed soon after
+dinner.
+
+Lupin passed the gate-keeper's lodge and, as he put his foot on the
+drawbridge, said:
+
+"Leave the gate open. I am going for a breath of air; I shall be back
+soon."
+
+The patrol-path was on the right and ran along one of the old ramparts,
+which used to surround the castle with a second and much larger
+enclosure, until it ended at an almost demolished postern-gate. The
+park, which skirted a hillock and afterward followed the side of a deep
+valley, was bordered on the left by thick coppices.
+
+"What a wonderful place for an ambush!" he said. "A regular cut-throat
+spot!"
+
+He stopped, thinking that he heard a noise. But no, it was a rustling of
+the leaves. And yet a stone went rattling down the slopes, bounding
+against the rugged projections of the rock. But, strange to say, nothing
+seemed to disquiet him. The crisp sea-breeze came blowing over the
+plains of the headland; and he eagerly filled his lungs with it:
+
+"What a thing it is to be alive!" he thought. "Still young, a member of
+the old nobility, a multi-millionaire: what could a man want more?"
+
+At a short distance, he saw against the darkness the yet darker outline
+of the chapel, the ruins of which towered above the path. A few drops of
+rain began to fall; and he heard a clock strike nine. He quickened his
+pace. There was a short descent; then the path rose again. And suddenly,
+he stopped once more.
+
+A hand had seized his.
+
+He drew back, tried to release himself.
+
+But some one stepped from the clump of trees against which he was
+brushing; and a voice said; "Ssh!... Not a word!..."
+
+He recognized his wife, Angelique:
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked.
+
+She whispered, so low that he could hardly catch the words:
+
+"They are lying in wait for you ... they are in there, in the ruins,
+with their guns...."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Keep quiet.... Listen...."
+
+They stood for a moment without stirring; then she said:
+
+"They are not moving.... Perhaps they never heard me.... Let's go
+back...."
+
+"But...."
+
+"Come with me."
+
+Her accent was so imperious that he obeyed without further question. But
+suddenly she took fright:
+
+"Run!... They are coming!... I am sure of it!..."
+
+True enough, they heard a sound of footsteps.
+
+Then, swiftly, still holding him by the hand, she dragged him, with
+irresistible energy, along a shortcut, following its turns without
+hesitation in spite of the darkness and the brambles. And they very soon
+arrived at the drawbridge.
+
+She put her arm in his. The gate-keeper touched his cap. They crossed
+the courtyard and entered the castle; and she led him to the corner
+tower in which both of them had their apartments:
+
+"Come in here," she said.
+
+"To your rooms?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Two maids were sitting up for her. Their mistress ordered them to retire
+to their bedrooms, on the third floor.
+
+Almost immediately after, there was a knock at the door of the outer
+room; and a voice called:
+
+"Angelique!"
+
+"Is that you, father?" she asked, suppressing her agitation.
+
+"Yes. Is your husband here?"
+
+"We have just come in."
+
+"Tell him I want to speak to him. Ask him to come to my room. It's
+important."
+
+"Very well, father, I'll send him to you."
+
+She listened for a few seconds, then returned to the boudoir where her
+husband was and said:
+
+"I am sure my father is still there."
+
+He moved as though to go out:
+
+"In that case, if he wants to speak to me...."
+
+"My father is not alone," she said, quickly, blocking his way.
+
+"Who is with him?"
+
+"His nephew, Jacques d'Emboise."
+
+There was a moment's silence. He looked at her with a certain
+astonishment, failing quite to understand his wife's attitude. But,
+without pausing to go into the matter:
+
+"Ah, so that dear old d'Emboise is there?" he chuckled. "Then the fat's
+in the fire? Unless, indeed...."
+
+"My father knows everything," she said. "I overheard a conversation
+between them just now. His nephew has read certain letters.... I
+hesitated at first about telling you.... Then I thought that my
+duty...."
+
+He studied her afresh. But, at once conquered by the queerness of the
+situation, he burst out laughing:
+
+"What? Don't my friends on board ship burn my letters? And they have let
+their prisoner escape? The idiots! Oh, when you don't see to everything
+yourself!... No matter, its distinctly humorous.... D'Emboise versus
+d'Emboise.... Oh, but suppose I were no longer recognized? Suppose
+d'Emboise himself were to confuse me with himself?"
+
+He turned to a wash-hand-stand, took a towel, dipped it in the basin and
+soaped it and, in the twinkling of an eye, wiped the make-up from his
+face and altered the set of his hair:
+
+"That's it," he said, showing himself to Angelique under the aspect in
+which she had seen him on the night of the burglary in Paris. "I feel
+more comfortable like this for a discussion with my father-in-law."
+
+"Where are you going?" she cried, flinging herself in front of the door.
+
+"Why, to join the gentlemen."
+
+"You shall not pass!"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Suppose they kill you?"
+
+"Kill me?"
+
+"That's what they mean to do, to kill you ... to hide your body
+somewhere.... Who would know of it?"
+
+"Very well," he said, "from their point of view, they are quite right.
+But, if I don't go to them, they will come here. That door won't stop
+them.... Nor you, I'm thinking. Therefore, it's better to have done with
+it."
+
+"Follow me," commanded Angelique.
+
+She took up the lamp that lit the room, went into her bedroom, pushed
+aside the wardrobe, which slid easily on hidden castors, pulled back an
+old tapestry-hanging, and said:
+
+"Here is a door that has not been used for years. My father believes the
+key to be lost. I have it here. Unlock the door with it. A staircase in
+the wall will take you to the bottom of the tower. You need only draw
+the bolts of another door and you will be free."
+
+He could hardly believe his ears. Suddenly, he grasped the meaning of
+Angelique's whole behaviour. In front of that sad, plain, but
+wonderfully gentle face, he stood for a moment discountenanced, almost
+abashed. He no longer thought of laughing. A feeling of respect, mingled
+with remorse and kindness, overcame him.
+
+"Why are you saving me?" he whispered.
+
+"You are my husband."
+
+He protested:
+
+"No, no ... I have stolen that title. The law will never recognize my
+marriage."
+
+"My father does not want a scandal," she said.
+
+"Just so," he replied, sharply, "just so. I foresaw that; and that was
+why I had your cousin d'Emboise near at hand. Once I disappear, he
+becomes your husband. He is the man you have married in the eyes of
+men."
+
+"You are the man I have married in the eyes of the Church."
+
+"The Church! The Church! There are means of arranging matters with the
+Church.... Your marriage can be annulled."
+
+"On what pretext that we can admit?"
+
+He remained silent, thinking over all those points which he had not
+considered, all those points which were trivial and absurd for him, but
+which were serious for her, and he repeated several times:
+
+"This is terrible ... this is terrible.... I should have
+anticipated...."
+
+And, suddenly, seized with an idea, he clapped his hands and cried:
+
+"There, I have it! I'm hand in glove with one of the chief figures at
+the Vatican. The Pope never refuses me anything. I shall obtain an
+audience and I have no doubt that the Holy Father, moved by my
+entreaties...."
+
+His plan was so humorous and his delight so artless that Angelique could
+not help smiling; and she said:
+
+"I am your wife in the eyes of God."
+
+She gave him a look that showed neither scorn nor animosity, nor even
+anger; and he realized that she omitted to see in him the outlaw and the
+evil-doer and remembered only the man who was her husband and to whom
+the priest had bound her until the hour of death.
+
+He took a step toward her and observed her more attentively. She did not
+lower her eyes at first. But she blushed. And never had he seen so
+pathetic a face, marked with such modesty and such dignity. He said to
+her, as on that first evening in Paris:
+
+"Oh, your eyes ... the calm and sadness of your eyes ... the beauty of
+your eyes!"
+
+She dropped her head and stammered:
+
+"Go away ... go ..."
+
+In the presence of her confusion, he received a quick intuition of the
+deeper feelings that stirred her, unknown to herself. To that spinster
+soul, of which he recognized the romantic power of imagination, the
+unsatisfied yearnings, the poring over old-world books, he suddenly
+represented, in that exceptional moment and in consequence of the
+unconventional circumstances of their meetings, somebody special, a
+Byronic hero, a chivalrous brigand of romance. One evening, in spite of
+all obstacles, he, the world-famed adventurer, already ennobled in song
+and story and exalted by his own audacity, had come to her and slipped
+the magic ring upon her finger: a mystic and passionate betrothal, as in
+the days of the _Corsair_ and _Hernani_.... Greatly moved and touched,
+he was on the verge of giving way to an enthusiastic impulse and
+exclaiming:
+
+"Let us go away together!... Let us fly!... You are my bride ... my
+wife.... Share my dangers, my sorrows and my joys.... It will be a
+strange and vigorous, a proud and magnificent life...."
+
+But Angelique's eyes were raised to his again; and they were so pure and
+so noble that he blushed in his turn. This was not the woman to whom
+such words could be addressed.
+
+He whispered:
+
+"Forgive me.... I am a contemptible wretch.... I have wrecked your
+life...."
+
+"No," she replied, softly. "On the contrary, you have shown me where my
+real life lies."
+
+He was about to ask her to explain. But she had opened the door and was
+pointing the way to him. Nothing more could be spoken between them. He
+went out without a word, bowing very low as he passed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A month later, Angelique de Sarzeau-Vendome, Princesse de Bourbon-Conde,
+lawful wife of Arsene Lupin, took the veil and, under the name of Sister
+Marie-Auguste, buried herself within the walls of the Visitation
+Convent.
+
+On the day of the ceremony, the mother superior of the convent received
+a heavy sealed envelope containing a letter with the following words:
+
+
+    "For Sister Marie-Auguste's poor."
+
+
+Enclosed with the letter were five hundred bank-notes of a thousand
+francs each.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE INVISIBLE PRISONER
+
+
+One day, at about four o'clock, as evening was drawing in, Farmer
+Goussot, with his four sons, returned from a day's shooting. They were
+stalwart men, all five of them, long of limb, broad-chested, with faces
+tanned by sun and wind. And all five displayed, planted on an enormous
+neck and shoulders, the same small head with the low forehead, thin
+lips, beaked nose and hard and repellent cast of countenance. They were
+feared and disliked by all around them. They were a money-grubbing,
+crafty family; and their word was not to be trusted.
+
+On reaching the old barbican-wall that surrounds the Heberville
+property, the farmer opened a narrow, massive door, putting the big key
+back in his pocket after his sons had passed in. And he walked behind
+them, along the path that led through the orchards. Here and there stood
+great trees, stripped by the autumn winds, and clumps of pines, the last
+survivors of the ancient park now covered by old Goussot's farm.
+
+One of the sons said:
+
+"I hope mother has lit a log or two."
+
+"There's smoke coming from the chimney," said the father.
+
+The outhouses and the homestead showed at the end of a lawn; and, above
+them, the village church, whose steeple seemed to prick the clouds that
+trailed along the sky.
+
+"All the guns unloaded?" asked old Goussot.
+
+"Mine isn't," said the eldest. "I slipped in a bullet to blow a
+kestrel's head off...."
+
+He was the one who was proudest of his skill. And he said to his
+brothers:
+
+"Look at that bough, at the top of the cherry tree. See me snap it off."
+
+On the bough sat a scarecrow, which had been there since spring and
+which protected the leafless branches with its idiot arms.
+
+He raised his gun and fired.
+
+The figure came tumbling down with large, comic gestures, and was caught
+on a big, lower branch, where it remained lying stiff on its stomach,
+with a great top hat on its head of rags and its hay-stuffed legs
+swaying from right to left above some water that flowed past the cherry
+tree through a wooden trough.
+
+They all laughed. The father approved:
+
+"A fine shot, my lad. Besides, the old boy was beginning to annoy me. I
+couldn't take my eyes from my plate at meals without catching sight of
+that oaf...."
+
+They went a few steps farther. They were not more than thirty yards from
+the house, when the father stopped suddenly and said:
+
+"Hullo! What's up?"
+
+The sons also had stopped and stood listening. One of them said, under
+his breath:
+
+"It comes from the house ... from the linen-room...."
+
+And another spluttered:
+
+"Sounds like moans.... And mother's alone!"
+
+Suddenly, a frightful scream rang out. All five rushed forward. Another
+scream, followed by cries of despair.
+
+"We're here! We're coming!" shouted the eldest, who was leading.
+
+And, as it was a roundabout way to the door, he smashed in a window with
+his fist and sprang into the old people's bedroom. The room next to it
+was the linen-room, in which Mother Goussot spent most of her time.
+
+"Damnation!" he said, seeing her lying on the floor, with blood all over
+her face. "Dad! Dad!"
+
+"What? Where is she?" roared old Goussot, appearing on the scene. "Good
+lord, what's this?... What have they done to your mother?"
+
+She pulled herself together and, with outstretched arm, stammered:
+
+"Run after him!... This way!... This way!... I'm all right ... only a
+scratch or two.... But run, you! He's taken the money."
+
+The father and sons gave a bound:
+
+"He's taken the money!" bellowed old Goussot, rushing to the door to
+which his wife was pointing. "He's taken the money! Stop thief!"
+
+But a sound of several voices rose at the end of the passage through
+which the other three sons were coming:
+
+"I saw him! I saw him!"
+
+"So did I! He ran up the stairs."
+
+"No, there he is, he's coming down again!"
+
+A mad steeplechase shook every floor in the house. Farmer Goussot, on
+reaching the end of the passage, caught sight of a man standing by the
+front door trying to open it. If he succeeded, it meant safety, escape
+through the market square and the back lanes of the village.
+
+Interrupted as he was fumbling at the bolts, the man turning stupid,
+lost his head, charged at old Goussot and sent him spinning, dodged the
+eldest brother and, pursued by the four sons, doubled back down the long
+passage, ran into the old couple's bedroom, flung his legs through the
+broken window and disappeared.
+
+The sons rushed after him across the lawns and orchards, now darkened by
+the falling night.
+
+"The villain's done for," chuckled old Goussot. "There's no way out for
+him. The walls are too high. He's done for, the scoundrel!"
+
+The two farm-hands returned, at that moment, from the village; and he
+told them what had happened and gave each of them a gun:
+
+"If the swine shows his nose anywhere near the house," he said, "let fly
+at him. Give him no mercy!"
+
+He told them where to stand, went to make sure that the farm-gates,
+which were only used for the carts, were locked, and, not till then,
+remembered that his wife might perhaps be in need of aid:
+
+"Well, mother, how goes it?"
+
+"Where is he? Have you got him?" she asked, in a breath.
+
+"Yes, we're after him. The lads must have collared him by now."
+
+The news quite restored her; and a nip of rum gave her the strength to
+drag herself to the bed, with old Goussot's assistance, and to tell her
+story. For that matter, there was not much to tell. She had just lit the
+fire in the living-hall; and she was knitting quietly at her bedroom
+window, waiting for the men to return, when she thought that she heard
+a slight grating sound in the linen-room next door:
+
+"I must have left the cat in there," she thought to herself.
+
+She went in, suspecting nothing, and was astonished to see the two doors
+of one of the linen-cupboards, the one in which they hid their money,
+wide open. She walked up to it, still without suspicion. There was a man
+there, hiding, with his back to the shelves.
+
+"But how did he get in?" asked old Goussot.
+
+"Through the passage, I suppose. We never keep the back door shut."
+
+"And then did he go for you?"
+
+"No, I went for him. He tried to get away."
+
+"You should have let him."
+
+"And what about the money?"
+
+"Had he taken it by then?"
+
+"Had he taken it! I saw the bundle of bank-notes in his hands, the
+sweep! I would have let him kill me sooner.... Oh, we had a sharp
+tussle, I give you my word!"
+
+"Then he had no weapon?'
+
+"No more than I did. We had our fingers, our nails and our teeth. Look
+here, where he bit me. And I yelled and screamed! Only, I'm an old woman
+you see.... I had to let go of him...."
+
+"Do you know the man?"
+
+"I'm pretty sure it was old Trainard."
+
+"The tramp? Why, of course it's old Trainard!" cried the farmer. "I
+thought I knew him too.... Besides, he's been hanging round the house
+these last three days. The old vagabond must have smelt the money. Aha,
+Trainard, my man, we shall see some fun! A number-one hiding in the
+first place; and then the police.... I say, mother, you can get up now,
+can't you? Then go and fetch the neighbours.... Ask them to run for the
+gendarmes.... By the by, the attorney's youngster has a bicycle.... How
+that damned old Trainard scooted! He's got good legs for his age, he
+has. He can run like a hare!"
+
+Goussot was holding his sides, revelling in the occurrence. He risked
+nothing by waiting. No power on earth could help the tramp escape or
+keep him from the sound thrashing which he had earned and from being
+conveyed, under safe escort, to the town gaol.
+
+The farmer took a gun and went out to his two labourers:
+
+"Anything fresh?"
+
+"No, Farmer Goussot, not yet."
+
+"We sha'n't have long to wait. Unless old Nick carries him over the
+walls...."
+
+From time to time, they heard the four brothers hailing one another in
+the distance. The old bird was evidently making a fight for it, was
+more active than they would have thought. Still, with sturdy fellows
+like the Goussot brothers....
+
+However, one of them returned, looking rather crestfallen, and made no
+secret of his opinion:
+
+"It's no use keeping on at it for the present. It's pitch dark. The old
+chap must have crept into some hole. We'll hunt him out to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow! Why, lad, you're off your chump!" protested the farmer.
+
+The eldest son now appeared, quite out of breath, and was of the same
+opinion as his brother. Why not wait till next day, seeing that the
+ruffian was as safe within the demesne as between the walls of a prison?
+
+"Well, I'll go myself," cried old Goussot. "Light me a lantern,
+somebody!"
+
+But, at that moment, three gendarmes arrived; and a number of village
+lads also came up to hear the latest.
+
+The sergeant of gendarmes was a man of method. He first insisted on
+hearing the whole story, in full detail; then he stopped to think; then
+he questioned the four brothers, separately, and took his time for
+reflection after each deposition. When he had learnt from them that the
+tramp had fled toward the back of the estate, that he had been lost
+sight of repeatedly and that he had finally disappeared near a place
+known as the Crows' Knoll, he meditated once more and announced his
+conclusion:
+
+"Better wait. Old Trainard might slip through our hands, amidst all the
+confusion of a pursuit in the dark, and then good-night, everybody!"
+
+The farmer shrugged his shoulders and, cursing under his breath, yielded
+to the sergeant's arguments. That worthy organized a strict watch,
+distributed the brothers Goussot and the lads from the village under his
+men's eyes, made sure that the ladders were locked away and established
+his headquarters in the dining-room, where he and Farmer Goussot sat and
+nodded over a decanter of old brandy.
+
+The night passed quietly. Every two hours, the sergeant went his rounds
+and inspected the posts. There were no alarms. Old Trainard did not
+budge from his hole.
+
+The battle began at break of day.
+
+It lasted four hours.
+
+In those four hours, the thirteen acres of land within the walls were
+searched, explored, gone over in every direction by a score of men who
+beat the bushes with sticks, trampled over the tall grass, rummaged in
+the hollows of the trees and scattered the heaps of dry leaves. And old
+Trainard remained invisible.
+
+"Well, this is a bit thick!" growled Goussot.
+
+"Beats me altogether," retorted the sergeant.
+
+And indeed there was no explaining the phenomenon. For, after all, apart
+from a few old clumps of laurels and spindle-trees, which were
+thoroughly beaten, all the trees were bare. There was no building, no
+shed, no stack, nothing, in short, that could serve as a hiding-place.
+
+As for the wall, a careful inspection convinced even the sergeant that
+it was physically impossible to scale it.
+
+In the afternoon, the investigations were begun all over again in the
+presence of the examining-magistrate and the public-prosecutor's deputy.
+The results were no more successful. Nay, worse, the officials looked
+upon the matter as so suspicious that they could not restrain their
+ill-humour and asked:
+
+"Are you quite sure, Farmer Goussot, that you and your sons haven't been
+seeing double?"
+
+"And what about my wife?" retorted the farmer, red with anger. "Did she
+see double when the scamp had her by the throat? Go and look at the
+marks, if you doubt me!"
+
+"Very well. But then where is the scamp?"
+
+"Here, between those four walls."
+
+"Very well. Then ferret him out. We give it up. It's quite clear, that
+if a man were hidden within the precincts of this farm, we should have
+found him by now."
+
+"I swear I'll lay hands on him, true as I stand here!" shouted Farmer
+Goussot. "It shall not be said that I've been robbed of six thousand
+francs. Yes, six thousand! There were three cows I sold; and then the
+wheat-crop; and then the apples. Six thousand-franc notes, which I was
+just going to take to the bank. Well, I swear to Heaven that the money's
+as good as in my pocket!"
+
+"That's all right and I wish you luck," said the examining-magistrate,
+as he went away, followed by the deputy and the gendarmes.
+
+The neighbours also walked off in a more or less facetious mood. And, by
+the end of the afternoon, none remained but the Goussots and the two
+farm-labourers.
+
+Old Goussot at once explained his plan. By day, they were to search. At
+night, they were to keep an incessant watch. It would last as long as it
+had to. Hang it, old Trainard was a man like other men; and men have to
+eat and drink! Old Trainard must needs, therefore, come out of his earth
+to eat and drink.
+
+"At most," said Goussot, "he can have a few crusts of bread in his
+pocket, or even pull up a root or two at night. But, as far as drink's
+concerned, no go. There's only the spring. And he'll be a clever dog if
+he gets near that."
+
+He himself, that evening, took up his stand near the spring. Three
+hours later, his eldest son relieved him. The other brothers and the
+farm-hands slept in the house, each taking his turn of the watch and
+keeping all the lamps and candles lit, so that there might be no
+surprise.
+
+So it went on for fourteen consecutive nights. And for fourteen days,
+while two of the men and Mother Goussot remained on guard, the five
+others explored the Heberville ground.
+
+At the end of that fortnight, not a sign.
+
+The farmer never ceased storming. He sent for a retired
+detective-inspector who lived in the neighbouring town. The inspector
+stayed with him for a whole week. He found neither old Trainard nor the
+least clue that could give them any hope of finding old Trainard.
+
+"It's a bit thick!" repeated Farmer Goussot. "For he's there, the
+rascal! As far as being anywhere goes, he's there. So...."
+
+Planting himself on the threshold, he railed at the enemy at the top of
+his voice:
+
+"You blithering idiot, would you rather croak in your hole than fork out
+the money? Then croak, you pig!"
+
+And Mother Goussot, in her turn, yelped, in her shrill voice:
+
+"Is it prison you're afraid of? Hand over the notes and you can hook
+it!"
+
+But old Trainard did not breathe a word; and the husband and wife tired
+their lungs in vain.
+
+Shocking days passed. Farmer Goussot could no longer sleep, lay
+shivering with fever. The sons became morose and quarrelsome and never
+let their guns out of their hands, having no other idea but to shoot the
+tramp.
+
+It was the one topic of conversation in the village; and the Goussot
+story, from being local at first, soon went the round of the press.
+Newspaper-reporters came from the assize-town, from Paris itself, and
+were rudely shown the door by Farmer Goussot.
+
+"Each man his own house," he said. "You mind your business. I mind mine.
+It's nothing to do with any one."
+
+"Still, Farmer Goussot...."
+
+"Go to blazes!"
+
+And he slammed the door in their face.
+
+Old Trainard had now been hidden within the walls of Heberville for
+something like four weeks. The Goussots continued their search as
+doggedly and confidently as ever, but with daily decreasing hope, as
+though they were confronted with one of those mysterious obstacles which
+discourage human effort. And the idea that they would never see their
+money again began to take root in them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One fine morning, at about ten o'clock, a motor-car, crossing the
+village square at full speed, broke down and came to a dead stop.
+
+The driver, after a careful inspection, declared that the repairs would
+take some little time, whereupon the owner of the car resolved to wait
+at the inn and lunch. He was a gentleman on the right side of forty,
+with close-cropped side-whiskers and a pleasant expression of face; and
+he soon made himself at home with the people at the inn.
+
+Of course, they told him the story of the Goussots. He had not heard it
+before, as he had been abroad; but it seemed to interest him greatly. He
+made them give him all the details, raised objections, discussed various
+theories with a number of people who were eating at the same table and
+ended by exclaiming:
+
+"Nonsense! It can't be so intricate as all that. I have had some
+experience of this sort of thing. And, if I were on the premises...."
+
+"That's easily arranged," said the inn-keeper. "I know Farmer
+Goussot.... He won't object...."
+
+The request was soon made and granted. Old Goussot was in one of those
+frames of mind when we are less disposed to protest against outside
+interference. His wife, at any rate, was very firm:
+
+"Let the gentleman come, if he wants to."
+
+The gentleman paid his bill and instructed his driver to try the car on
+the high-road as soon as the repairs were finished:
+
+"I shall want an hour," he said, "no more. Be ready in an hour's time."
+
+Then he went to Farmer Goussot's.
+
+He did not say much at the farm. Old Goussot, hoping against hope, was
+lavish with information, took his visitor along the walls down to the
+little door opening on the fields, produced the key and gave minute
+details of all the searches that had been made so far.
+
+Oddly enough, the stranger, who hardly spoke, seemed not to listen
+either. He merely looked, with a rather vacant gaze. When they had been
+round the estate, old Goussot asked, anxiously:
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well what?"
+
+"Do you think you know?"
+
+The visitor stood for a moment without answering. Then he said:
+
+"No, nothing."
+
+"Why, of course not!" cried the farmer, throwing up his arms. "How
+should you know! It's all hanky-panky. Shall I tell you what I think?
+Well, that old Trainard has been so jolly clever that he's lying dead in
+his hole ... and the bank-notes are rotting with him. Do you hear? You
+can take my word for it."
+
+The gentleman said, very calmly:
+
+"There's only one thing that interests me. The tramp, all said and done,
+was free at night and able to feed on what he could pick up. But how
+about drinking?"
+
+"Out of the question!" shouted the farmer. "Quite out of the question!
+There's no water except this; and we have kept watch beside it every
+night."
+
+"It's a spring. Where does it rise?"
+
+"Here, where we stand."
+
+"Is there enough pressure to bring it into the pool of itself?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And where does the water go when it runs out of the pool?"
+
+"Into this pipe here, which goes under ground and carries it to the
+house, for use in the kitchen. So there's no way of drinking, seeing
+that we were there and that the spring is twenty yards from the house."
+
+"Hasn't it rained during the last four weeks?"
+
+"Not once: I've told you that already."
+
+The stranger went to the spring and examined it. The trough was formed
+of a few boards of wood joined together just above the ground; and the
+water ran through it, slow and clear.
+
+"The water's not more than a foot deep, is it?" he asked.
+
+In order to measure it, he picked up from the grass a straw which he
+dipped into the pool. But, as he was stooping, he suddenly broke off and
+looked around him.
+
+"Oh, how funny!" he said, bursting into a peal of laughter.
+
+"Why, what's the matter?" spluttered old Goussot, rushing toward the
+pool, as though a man could have lain hidden between those narrow
+boards.
+
+And Mother Goussot clasped her hands.
+
+"What is it? Have you seen him? Where is he?"
+
+"Neither in it nor under it," replied the stranger, who was still
+laughing.
+
+He made for the house, eagerly followed by the farmer, the old woman and
+the four sons. The inn-keeper was there also, as were the people from
+the inn who had been watching the stranger's movements. And there was a
+dead silence, while they waited for the extraordinary disclosure.
+
+"It's as I thought," he said, with an amused expression. "The old chap
+had to quench his thirst somewhere; and, as there was only the
+spring...."
+
+"Oh, but look here," growled Farmer Goussot, "we should have seen him!"
+
+"It was at night."
+
+"We should have heard him ... and seen him too, as we were close by."
+
+"So was he."
+
+"And he drank the water from the pool?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How?"
+
+"From a little way off."
+
+"With what?"
+
+"With this."
+
+And the stranger showed the straw which he had picked up:
+
+"There, here's the straw for the customer's long drink. You will see,
+there's more of it than usual: in fact, it is made of three straws stuck
+into one another. That was the first thing I noticed: those three straws
+fastened together. The proof is conclusive."
+
+"But, hang it all, the proof of what?" cried Farmer Goussot, irritably.
+
+The stranger took a shotgun from the rack.
+
+"Is it loaded?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," said the youngest of the brothers. "I use it to kill the sparrows
+with, for fun. It's small shot."
+
+"Capital! A peppering where it won't hurt him will do the trick."
+
+His face suddenly assumed a masterful look. He gripped the farmer by the
+arm and rapped out, in an imperious tone:
+
+"Listen to me, Farmer Goussot. I'm not here to do policeman's work; and
+I won't have the poor beggar locked up at any price. Four weeks of
+starvation and fright is good enough for anybody. So you've got to swear
+to me, you and your sons, that you'll let him off without hurting him."
+
+"He must hand over the money!"
+
+"Well, of course. Do you swear?"
+
+"I swear."
+
+The gentleman walked back to the door-sill, at the entrance to the
+orchard. He took a quick aim, pointing his gun a little in the air, in
+the direction of the cherry tree which overhung the spring. He fired. A
+hoarse cry rang from the tree; and the scarecrow which had been
+straddling the main branch for a month past came tumbling to the ground,
+only to jump up at once and make off as fast as its legs could carry it.
+
+There was a moment's amazement, followed by outcries. The sons darted in
+pursuit and were not long in coming up with the runaway, hampered as he
+was by his rags and weakened by privation. But the stranger was already
+protecting him against their wrath:
+
+"Hands off there! This man belongs to me. I won't have him touched.... I
+hope I haven't stung you up too much, Trainard?"
+
+Standing on his straw legs wrapped round with strips of tattered cloth,
+with his arms and his whole body clad in the same materials, his head
+swathed in linen, tightly packed like a sausage, the old chap still had
+the stiff appearance of a lay-figure. And the whole effect was so
+ludicrous and so unexpected that the onlookers screamed with laughter.
+
+The stranger unbound his head; and they saw a veiled mask of tangled
+grey beard encroaching on every side upon a skeleton face lit up by two
+eyes burning with fever.
+
+The laughter was louder than ever.
+
+"The money! The six notes!" roared the farmer.
+
+The stranger kept him at a distance:
+
+"One moment ... we'll give you that back, sha'n't we, Trainard?"
+
+And, taking his knife and cutting away the straw and cloth, he jested,
+cheerily:
+
+"You poor old beggar, what a guy you look! But how on earth did you
+manage to pull off that trick? You must be confoundedly clever, or else
+you had the devil's own luck.... So, on the first night, you used the
+breathing-time they left you to rig yourself in these togs! Not a bad
+idea. Who could ever suspect a scarecrow?... They were so accustomed to
+seeing it stuck up in its tree! But, poor old daddy, how uncomfortable
+you must have felt, lying flat up there on your stomach, with your arms
+and legs dangling down! All day long, like that! The deuce of an
+attitude! And how you must have been put to it, when you ventured to
+move a limb, eh? And how you must have funked going to sleep!... And
+then you had to eat! And drink! And you heard the sentry and felt the
+barrel of his gun within a yard of your nose! Brrrr!... But the
+trickiest of all, you know, was your bit of straw!... Upon my word, when
+I think that, without a sound, without a movement so to speak, you had
+to fish out lengths of straw from your toggery, fix them end to end, let
+your apparatus down to the water and suck up the heavenly moisture drop
+by drop.... Upon my word, one could scream with admiration.... Well
+done, Trainard...." And he added, between his teeth, "Only you're in a
+very unappetizing state, my man. Haven't you washed yourself all this
+month, you old pig? After all, you had as much water as you wanted!...
+Here, you people, I hand him over to you. I'm going to wash my hands,
+that's what I'm going to do."
+
+Farmer Goussot and his four sons grabbed at the prey which he was
+abandoning to them:
+
+"Now then, come along, fork out the money."
+
+Dazed as he was, the tramp still managed to simulate astonishment.
+
+"Don't put on that idiot look," growled the farmer. "Come on. Out with
+the six notes...."
+
+"What?... What do you want of me?" stammered old Trainard.
+
+"The money ... on the nail...."
+
+"What money?"
+
+"The bank-notes."
+
+"The bank-notes?"
+
+"Oh, I'm getting sick of you! Here, lads...."
+
+They laid the old fellow flat, tore off the rags that composed his
+clothes, felt and searched him all over.
+
+There was nothing on him.
+
+"You thief and you robber!" yelled old Goussot. "What have you done with
+it?"
+
+The old beggar seemed more dazed than ever. Too cunning to confess, he
+kept on whining:
+
+"What do you want of me?... Money? I haven't three sous to call my
+own...."
+
+But his eyes, wide with wonder, remained fixed upon his clothes; and he
+himself seemed not to understand.
+
+The Goussots' rage could no longer be restrained. They rained blows upon
+him, which did not improve matters. But the farmer was convinced that
+Trainard had hidden the money before turning himself into the scarecrow:
+
+"Where have you put it, you scum? Out with it! In what part of the
+orchard have you hidden it?"
+
+"The money?" repeated the tramp with a stupid look.
+
+"Yes, the money! The money which you've buried somewhere.... Oh, if we
+don't find it, your goose is cooked!... We have witnesses, haven't
+we?... All of you, friends, eh? And then the gentleman...."
+
+He turned, with the intention of addressing the stranger, in the
+direction of the spring, which was thirty or forty steps to the left.
+And he was quite surprised not to see him washing his hands there:
+
+"Has he gone?" he asked.
+
+Some one answered:
+
+"No, he lit a cigarette and went for a stroll in the orchard."
+
+"Oh, that's all right!" said the farmer. "He's the sort to find the
+notes for us, just as he found the man."
+
+"Unless ..." said a voice.
+
+"Unless what?" echoed the farmer. "What do you mean? Have you something
+in your head? Out with it, then! What is it?"
+
+But he interrupted himself suddenly, seized with a doubt; and there was
+a moment's silence. The same idea dawned on all the country-folk. The
+stranger's arrival at Heberville, the breakdown of his motor, his
+manner of questioning the people at the inn and of gaining admission to
+the farm: were not all these part and parcel of a put-up job, the trick
+of a cracksman who had learnt the story from the papers and who had come
+to try his luck on the spot?...
+
+"Jolly smart of him!" said the inn-keeper. "He must have taken the money
+from old Trainard's pocket, before our eyes, while he was searching
+him."
+
+"Impossible!" spluttered Farmer Goussot. "He would have been seen going
+out that way ... by the house ... whereas he's strolling in the
+orchard."
+
+Mother Goussot, all of a heap, suggested:
+
+"The little door at the end, down there?..."
+
+"The key never leaves me."
+
+"But you showed it to him."
+
+"Yes; and I took it back again.... Look, here it is."
+
+He clapped his hand to his pocket and uttered a cry:
+
+"Oh, dash it all, it's gone!... He's sneaked it!..."
+
+He at once rushed away, followed and escorted by his sons and a number
+of the villagers.
+
+When they were halfway down the orchard, they heard the throb of a
+motor-car, obviously the one belonging to the stranger, who had given
+orders to his chauffeur to wait for him at that lower entrance.
+
+When the Goussots reached the door, they saw scrawled with a brick, on
+the worm-eaten panel, the two words:
+
+
+                          "ARSENE LUPIN."
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Stick to it as the angry Goussots might, they found it impossible to
+prove that old Trainard had stolen any money. Twenty persons had to bear
+witness that, when all was said, nothing was discovered on his person.
+He escaped with a few months' imprisonment for the assault.
+
+He did not regret them. As soon as he was released, he was secretly
+informed that, every quarter, on a given date, at a given hour, under a
+given milestone on a given road, he would find three gold louis.
+
+To a man like old Trainard that means wealth.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+EDITH SWAN-NECK
+
+
+"Arsene Lupin, what's your real opinion of Inspector Ganimard?"
+
+"A very high one, my dear fellow."
+
+"A very high one? Then why do you never miss a chance of turning him
+into ridicule?"
+
+"It's a bad habit; and I'm sorry for it. But what can I say? It's the
+way of the world. Here's a decent detective-chap, here's a whole pack of
+decent men, who stand for law and order, who protect us against the
+apaches, who risk their lives for honest people like you and me; and we
+have nothing to give them in return but flouts and gibes. It's
+preposterous!"
+
+"Bravo, Lupin! you're talking like a respectable ratepayer!"
+
+"What else am I? I may have peculiar views about other people's
+property; but I assure you that it's very different when my own's at
+stake. By Jove, it doesn't do to lay hands on what belongs to me! Then
+I'm out for blood! Aha! It's _my_ pocket, _my_ money, _my_ watch ...
+hands off! I have the soul of a conservative, my dear fellow, the
+instincts of a retired tradesman and a due respect for every sort of
+tradition and authority. And that is why Ganimard inspires me with no
+little gratitude and esteem."
+
+"But not much admiration?"
+
+"Plenty of admiration too. Over and above the dauntless courage which
+comes natural to all those gentry at the Criminal Investigation
+Department, Ganimard possesses very sterling qualities: decision,
+insight and judgment. I have watched him at work. He's somebody, when
+all's said. Do you know the Edith Swan-neck story, as it was called?"
+
+"I know as much as everybody knows."
+
+"That means that you don't know it at all. Well, that job was, I
+daresay, the one which I thought out most cleverly, with the utmost care
+and the utmost precaution, the one which I shrouded in the greatest
+darkness and mystery, the one which it took the biggest generalship to
+carry through. It was a regular game of chess, played according to
+strict scientific and mathematical rules. And yet Ganimard ended by
+unravelling the knot. Thanks to him, they know the truth to-day on the
+Quai des Orfevres. And it is a truth quite out of the common, I assure
+you."
+
+"May I hope to hear it?"
+
+"Certainly ... one of these days ... when I have time.... But the
+Brunelli is dancing at the Opera to-night; and, if she were not to see
+me in my stall ...!"
+
+I do not meet Lupin often. He confesses with difficulty, when it suits
+him. It was only gradually, by snatches, by odds and ends of
+confidences, that I was able to obtain the different incidents and to
+piece the story together in all its details.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The main features are well known and I will merely mention the facts.
+
+Three years ago, when the train from Brest arrived at Rennes, the door
+of one of the luggage vans was found smashed in. This van had been
+booked by Colonel Sparmiento, a rich Brazilian, who was travelling with
+his wife in the same train. It contained a complete set of
+tapestry-hangings. The case in which one of these was packed had been
+broken open and the tapestry had disappeared.
+
+Colonel Sparmiento started proceedings against the railway-company,
+claiming heavy damages, not only for the stolen tapestry, but also for
+the loss in value which the whole collection suffered in consequence of
+the theft.
+
+The police instituted inquiries. The company offered a large reward. A
+fortnight later, a letter which had come undone in the post was opened
+by the authorities and revealed the fact that the theft had been
+carried out under the direction of Arsene Lupin and that a package was
+to leave next day for the United States. That same evening, the tapestry
+was discovered in a trunk deposited in the cloak-room at the Gare
+Saint-Lazare.
+
+The scheme, therefore, had miscarried. Lupin felt the disappointment so
+much that he vented his ill-humour in a communication to Colonel
+Sparmiento, ending with the following words, which were clear enough for
+anybody:
+
+
+    "It was very considerate of me to take only one. Next time, I shall
+    take the twelve. _Verbum sap._
+
+                                                 "A. L."
+
+
+Colonel Sparmiento had been living for some months in a house standing
+at the end of a small garden at the corner of the Rue de la Faisanderie
+and the Rue Dufresnoy. He was a rather thick-set, broad-shouldered man,
+with black hair and a swarthy skin, always well and quietly dressed. He
+was married to an extremely pretty but delicate Englishwoman, who was
+much upset by the business of the tapestries. From the first she
+implored her husband to sell them for what they would fetch. The Colonel
+had much too forcible and dogged a nature to yield to what he had every
+right to describe as a woman's fancies. He sold nothing, but he
+redoubled his precautions and adopted every measure that was likely to
+make an attempt at burglary impossible.
+
+To begin with, so that he might confine his watch to the garden-front,
+he walled up all the windows on the ground-floor and the first floor
+overlooking the Rue Dufresnoy. Next, he enlisted the services of a firm
+which made a speciality of protecting private houses against robberies.
+Every window of the gallery in which the tapestries were hung was fitted
+with invisible burglar alarms, the position of which was known, to none
+but himself. These, at the least touch, switched on all the electric
+lights and set a whole system of bells and gongs ringing.
+
+In addition to this, the insurance companies to which he applied refused
+to grant policies to any considerable amount unless he consented to let
+three men, supplied by the companies and paid by himself, occupy the
+ground-floor of his house every night. They selected for the purpose
+three ex-detectives, tried and trustworthy men, all of whom hated Lupin
+like poison. As for the servants, the colonel had known them for years
+and was ready to vouch for them.
+
+After taking these steps and organizing the defence of the house as
+though it were a fortress, the colonel gave a great house-warming, a
+sort of private view, to which he invited the members of both his
+clubs, as well as a certain number of ladies, journalists, art-patrons
+and critics.
+
+They felt, as they passed through the garden-gate, much as if they were
+walking into a prison. The three private detectives, posted at the foot
+of the stairs, asked for each visitor's invitation card and eyed him up
+and down suspiciously, making him feel as though they were going to
+search his pockets or take his finger-prints.
+
+The colonel, who received his guests on the first floor, made laughing
+apologies and seemed delighted at the opportunity of explaining the
+arrangements which he had invented to secure the safety of his hangings.
+His wife stood by him, looking charmingly young and pretty, fair-haired,
+pale and sinuous, with a sad and gentle expression, the expression of
+resignation often worn by those who are threatened by fate.
+
+When all the guests had come, the garden-gates and the hall-doors were
+closed. Then everybody filed into the middle gallery, which was reached
+through two steel doors, while its windows, with their huge shutters,
+were protected by iron bars. This was where the twelve tapestries were
+kept.
+
+They were matchless works of art and, taking their inspiration from the
+famous Bayeux Tapestry, attributed to Queen Matilda, they represented
+the story of the Norman Conquest. They had been ordered in the
+fourteenth century by the descendant of a man-at-arms in William the
+Conqueror's train; were executed by Jehan Gosset, a famous Arras weaver;
+and were discovered, five hundred years later, in an old Breton
+manor-house. On hearing of this, the colonel had struck a bargain for
+fifty thousand francs. They were worth ten times the money.
+
+But the finest of the twelve hangings composing the set, the most
+uncommon because the subject had not been treated by Queen Matilda, was
+the one which Arsene Lupin had stolen and which had been so fortunately
+recovered. It portrayed Edith Swan-neck on the battlefield of Hastings,
+seeking among the dead for the body of her sweetheart Harold, last of
+the Saxon kings.
+
+The guests were lost in enthusiasm over this tapestry, over the
+unsophisticated beauty of the design, over the faded colours, over the
+life-like grouping of the figures and the pitiful sadness of the scene.
+Poor Edith Swan-neck stood drooping like an overweighted lily. Her white
+gown revealed the lines of her languid figure. Her long, tapering hands
+were outstretched in a gesture of terror and entreaty. And nothing could
+be more mournful than her profile, over which flickered the most
+dejected and despairing of smiles.
+
+"A harrowing smile," remarked one of the critics, to whom the others
+listened with deference. "A very charming smile, besides; and it reminds
+me, Colonel, of the smile of Mme. Sparmiento."
+
+And seeing that the observation seemed to meet with approval, he
+enlarged upon his idea:
+
+"There are other points of resemblance that struck me at once, such as
+the very graceful curve of the neck and the delicacy of the hands ...
+and also something about the figure, about the general attitude...."
+
+"What you say is so true," said the colonel, "that I confess that it was
+this likeness that decided me to buy the hangings. And there was another
+reason, which was that, by a really curious chance, my wife's name
+happens to be Edith. I have called her Edith Swan-neck ever since." And
+the colonel added, with a laugh, "I hope that the coincidence will stop
+at this and that my dear Edith will never have to go in search of her
+true-love's body, like her prototype."
+
+He laughed as he uttered these words, but his laugh met with no echo;
+and we find the same impression of awkward silence in all the accounts
+of the evening that appeared during the next few days. The people
+standing near him did not know what to say. One of them tried to jest:
+
+"Your name isn't Harold, Colonel?"
+
+"No, thank you," he declared, with continued merriment. "No, that's not
+my name; nor am I in the least like the Saxon king."
+
+All have since agreed in stating that, at that moment, as the colonel
+finished speaking, the first alarm rang from the windows--the right or
+the middle window: opinions differ on this point--rang short and shrill
+on a single note. The peal of the alarm-bell was followed by an
+exclamation of terror uttered by Mme. Sparmiento, who caught hold of her
+husband's arm. He cried:
+
+"What's the matter? What does this mean?"
+
+The guests stood motionless, with their eyes staring at the windows. The
+colonel repeated:
+
+"What does it mean? I don't understand. No one but myself knows where
+that bell is fixed...."
+
+And, at that moment--here again the evidence is unanimous--at that
+moment came sudden, absolute darkness, followed immediately by the
+maddening din of all the bells and all the gongs, from top to bottom of
+the house, in every room and at every window.
+
+For a few seconds, a stupid disorder, an insane terror, reigned. The
+women screamed. The men banged with their fists on the closed doors.
+They hustled and fought. People fell to the floor and were trampled
+under foot. It was like a panic-stricken crowd, scared by threatening
+flames or by a bursting shell. And, above the uproar, rose the colonel's
+voice, shouting:
+
+"Silence!... Don't move!... It's all right!... The switch is over there,
+in the corner.... Wait a bit.... Here!"
+
+He had pushed his way through his guests and reached a corner of the
+gallery; and, all at once, the electric light blazed up again, while the
+pandemonium of bells stopped.
+
+Then, in the sudden light, a strange sight met the eyes. Two ladies had
+fainted. Mme. Sparmiento, hanging to her husband's arm, with her knees
+dragging on the floor, and livid in the face, appeared half dead. The
+men, pale, with their neckties awry, looked as if they had all been in
+the wars.
+
+"The tapestries are there!" cried some one.
+
+There was a great surprise, as though the disappearance of those
+hangings ought to have been the natural result and the only plausible
+explanation of the incident. But nothing had been moved. A few valuable
+pictures, hanging on the walls, were there still. And, though the same
+din had reverberated all over the house, though all the rooms had been
+thrown into darkness, the detectives had seen no one entering or trying
+to enter.
+
+"Besides," said the colonel, "it's only the windows of the gallery that
+have alarms. Nobody but myself understands how they work; and I had not
+set them yet."
+
+People laughed loudly at the way in which they had been frightened, but
+they laughed without conviction and in a more or less shamefaced
+fashion, for each of them was keenly alive to the absurdity of his
+conduct. And they had but one thought--to get out of that house where,
+say what you would, the atmosphere was one of agonizing anxiety.
+
+Two journalists stayed behind, however; and the colonel joined them,
+after attending to Edith and handing her over to her maids. The three of
+them, together with the detectives, made a search that did not lead to
+the discovery of anything of the least interest. Then the colonel sent
+for some champagne; and the result was that it was not until a late
+hour--to be exact, a quarter to three in the morning--that the
+journalists took their leave, the colonel retired to his quarters, and
+the detectives withdrew to the room which had been set aside for them on
+the ground-floor.
+
+They took the watch by turns, a watch consisting, in the first place, in
+keeping awake and, next, in looking round the garden and visiting the
+gallery at intervals.
+
+These orders were scrupulously carried out, except between five and
+seven in the morning, when sleep gained the mastery and the men ceased
+to go their rounds. But it was broad daylight out of doors. Besides, if
+there had been the least sound of bells, would they not have woke up?
+
+Nevertheless, when one of them, at twenty minutes past seven, opened the
+door of the gallery and flung back the shutters, he saw that the twelve
+tapestries were gone.
+
+This man and the others were blamed afterward for not giving the alarm
+at once and for starting their own investigations before informing the
+colonel and telephoning to the local commissary. Yet this very excusable
+delay can hardly be said to have hampered the action of the police. In
+any case, the colonel was not told until half-past eight. He was dressed
+and ready to go out. The news did not seem to upset him beyond measure,
+or, at least, he managed to control his emotion. But the effort must
+have been too much for him, for he suddenly dropped into a chair and,
+for some moments, gave way to a regular fit of despair and anguish, most
+painful to behold in a man of his resolute appearance.
+
+Recovering and mastering himself, he went to the gallery, stared at the
+bare walls and then sat down at a table and hastily scribbled a letter,
+which he put into an envelope and sealed.
+
+"There," he said. "I'm in a hurry.... I have an important engagement....
+Here is a letter for the commissary of police." And, seeing the
+detectives' eyes upon him, he added, "I am giving the commissary my
+views ... telling him of a suspicion that occurs to me.... He must
+follow it up.... I will do what I can...."
+
+He left the house at a run, with excited gestures which the detectives
+were subsequently to remember.
+
+A few minutes later, the commissary of police arrived. He was handed the
+letter, which contained the following words:
+
+
+    "I am at the end of my tether. The theft of those tapestries
+    completes the crash which I have been trying to conceal for the
+    past year. I bought them as a speculation and was hoping to get a
+    million francs for them, thanks to the fuss that was made about
+    them. As it was, an American offered me six hundred thousand. It
+    meant my salvation. This means utter destruction.
+
+    "I hope that my dear wife will forgive the sorrow which I am
+    bringing upon her. Her name will be on my lips at the last moment."
+
+
+Mme. Sparmiento was informed. She remained aghast with horror, while
+inquiries were instituted and attempts made to trace the colonel's
+movements.
+
+Late in the afternoon, a telephone-message came from Ville d'Avray. A
+gang of railway-men had found a man's body lying at the entrance to a
+tunnel after a train had passed. The body was hideously mutilated; the
+face had lost all resemblance to anything human. There were no papers in
+the pockets. But the description answered to that of the colonel.
+
+Mme. Sparmiento arrived at Ville d'Avray, by motor-car, at seven o'clock
+in the evening. She was taken to a room at the railway-station. When the
+sheet that covered it was removed, Edith, Edith Swan-neck, recognized
+her husband's body.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In these circumstances, Lupin did not receive his usual good notices in
+the press:
+
+
+    "Let him look to himself," jeered one leader-writer, summing up the
+    general opinion. "It would not take many exploits of this kind for
+    him to forfeit the popularity which has not been grudged him
+    hitherto. We have no use for Lupin, except when his rogueries are
+    perpetrated at the expense of shady company-promoters, foreign
+    adventurers, German barons, banks and financial companies. And,
+    above all, no murders! A burglar we can put up with; but a
+    murderer, no! If he is not directly guilty, he is at least
+    responsible for this death. There is blood upon his hands; the
+    arms on his escutcheon are stained gules...."
+
+
+The public anger and disgust were increased by the pity which Edith's
+pale face aroused. The guests of the night before gave their version of
+what had happened, omitting none of the impressive details; and a legend
+formed straightway around the fair-haired Englishwoman, a legend that
+assumed a really tragic character, owing to the popular story of the
+swan-necked heroine.
+
+And yet the public could not withhold its admiration of the
+extraordinary skill with which the theft had been effected. The police
+explained it, after a fashion. The detectives had noticed from the first
+and subsequently stated that one of the three windows of the gallery was
+wide open. There could be no doubt that Lupin and his confederates had
+entered through this window. It seemed a very plausible suggestion.
+Still, in that case, how were they able, first, to climb the garden
+railings, in coming and going, without being seen; secondly, to cross
+the garden and put up a ladder on the flower-border, without leaving the
+least trace behind; thirdly, to open the shutters and the window,
+without starting the bells and switching on the lights in the house?
+
+The police accused the three detectives of complicity. The magistrate
+in charge of the case examined them at length, made minute inquiries
+into their private lives and stated formally that they were above all
+suspicion. As for the tapestries, there seemed to be no hope that they
+would be recovered.
+
+It was at this moment that Chief-inspector Ganimard returned from India,
+where he had been hunting for Lupin on the strength of a number of most
+convincing proofs supplied by former confederates of Lupin himself.
+Feeling that he had once more been tricked by his everlasting adversary,
+fully believing that Lupin had dispatched him on this wild-goose chase
+so as to be rid of him during the business of the tapestries, he asked
+for a fortnight's leave of absence, called on Mme. Sparmiento and
+promised to avenge her husband.
+
+Edith had reached the point at which not even the thought of vengeance
+relieves the sufferer's pain. She had dismissed the three detectives on
+the day of the funeral and engaged just one man and an old
+cook-housekeeper to take the place of the large staff of servants the
+sight of whom reminded her too cruelly of the past. Not caring what
+happened, she kept her room and left Ganimard free to act as he pleased.
+
+He took up his quarters on the ground-floor and at once instituted a
+series of the most minute investigations. He started the inquiry
+afresh, questioned the people in the neighbourhood, studied the
+distribution of the rooms and set each of the burglar-alarms going
+thirty and forty times over.
+
+At the end of the fortnight, he asked for an extension of leave. The
+chief of the detective-service, who was at that time M. Dudouis, came to
+see him and found him perched on the top of a ladder, in the gallery.
+That day, the chief-inspector admitted that all his searches had proved
+useless.
+
+Two days later, however, M. Dudouis called again and discovered Ganimard
+in a very thoughtful frame of mind. A bundle of newspapers lay spread in
+front of him. At last, in reply to his superior's urgent questions, the
+chief-inspector muttered:
+
+"I know nothing, chief, absolutely nothing; but there's a confounded
+notion worrying me.... Only it seems so absurd.... And then it doesn't
+explain things.... On the contrary, it confuses them rather...."
+
+"Then ...?"
+
+"Then I implore you, chief, to have a little patience ... to let me go
+my own way. But if I telephone to you, some day or other, suddenly, you
+must jump into a taxi, without losing a minute. It will mean that I have
+discovered the secret."
+
+Forty-eight hours passed. Then, one morning, M. Dudouis received a
+telegram:
+
+
+"Going to Lille.
+
+                     "GANIMARD."
+
+
+"What the dickens can he want to go to Lille for?" wondered the
+chief-detective.
+
+The day passed without news, followed by another day. But M. Dudouis had
+every confidence in Ganimard. He knew his man, knew that the old
+detective was not one of those people who excite themselves for nothing.
+When Ganimard "got a move on him," it meant that he had sound reasons
+for doing so.
+
+As a matter of fact, on the evening of that second day, M. Dudouis was
+called to the telephone.
+
+"Is that you, chief?"
+
+"Is it Ganimard speaking?"
+
+Cautious men both, they began by making sure of each other's identity.
+As soon as his mind was eased on this point, Ganimard continued,
+hurriedly:
+
+"Ten men, chief, at once. And please come yourself."
+
+"Where are you?"
+
+"In the house, on the ground-floor. But I will wait for you just inside
+the garden-gate."
+
+"I'll come at once. In a taxi, of course?"
+
+"Yes, chief. Stop the taxi fifty yards from the house. I'll let you in
+when you whistle."
+
+Things took place as Ganimard had arranged. Shortly after midnight, when
+all the lights were out on the upper floors, he slipped into the street
+and went to meet M. Dudouis. There was a hurried consultation. The
+officers distributed themselves as Ganimard ordered. Then the chief and
+the chief-inspector walked back together, noiselessly crossed the garden
+and closeted themselves with every precaution:
+
+"Well, what's it all about?" asked M. Dudouis. "What does all this mean?
+Upon my word, we look like a pair of conspirators!"
+
+But Ganimard was not laughing. His chief had never seen him in such a
+state of perturbation, nor heard him speak in a voice denoting such
+excitement:
+
+"Any news, Ganimard?"
+
+"Yes, chief, and ... this time ...! But I can hardly believe it
+myself.... And yet I'm not mistaken: I know the real truth.... It may be
+as unlikely as you please, but it is the truth, the whole truth and
+nothing but the truth."
+
+He wiped away the drops of perspiration that trickled down his forehead
+and, after a further question from M. Dudouis, pulled himself together,
+swallowed a glass of water and began:
+
+"Lupin has often got the better of me...."
+
+"Look here, Ganimard," said M. Dudouis, interrupting him. "Why can't you
+come straight to the point? Tell me, in two words, what's happened."
+
+"No, chief," retorted the chief-inspector, "it is essential that you
+should know the different stages which I have passed through. Excuse me,
+but I consider it indispensable." And he repeated: "I was saying, chief,
+that Lupin has often got the better of me and led me many a dance. But,
+in this contest in which I have always come out worst ... so far ... I
+have at least gained experience of his manner of play and learnt to know
+his tactics. Now, in the matter of the tapestries, it occurred to me
+almost from the start to set myself two problems. In the first place,
+Lupin, who never makes a move without knowing what he is after, was
+obviously aware that Colonel Sparmiento had come to the end of his money
+and that the loss of the tapestries might drive him to suicide.
+Nevertheless, Lupin, who hates the very thought of bloodshed, stole the
+tapestries."
+
+"There was the inducement," said M. Dudouis, "of the five or six hundred
+thousand francs which they are worth."
+
+"No, chief, I tell you once more, whatever the occasion might be, Lupin
+would not take life, nor be the cause of another person's death, for
+anything in this world, for millions and millions. That's the first
+point. In the second place, what was the object of all that disturbance,
+in the evening, during the house-warming party? Obviously, don't you
+think, to surround the business with an atmosphere of anxiety and
+terror, in the shortest possible time, and also to divert suspicion from
+the truth, which, otherwise, might easily have been suspected?... You
+seem not to understand, chief?"
+
+"Upon my word, I do not!"
+
+"As a matter of fact," said Ganimard, "as a matter of fact, it is not
+particularly plain. And I myself, when I put the problem before my mind
+in those same words, did not understand it very clearly.... And yet I
+felt that I was on the right track.... Yes, there was no doubt about it
+that Lupin wanted to divert suspicions ... to divert them to himself,
+Lupin, mark you ... so that the real person who was working the business
+might remain unknown...."
+
+"A confederate," suggested M. Dudouis. "A confederate, moving among the
+visitors, who set the alarms going ... and who managed to hide in the
+house after the party had broken up."
+
+"You're getting warm, chief, you're getting warm! It is certain that the
+tapestries, as they cannot have been stolen by any one making his way
+surreptitiously into the house, were stolen by somebody who remained in
+the house; and it is equally certain that, by taking the list of the
+people invited and inquiring into the antecedents of each of them, one
+might...."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, chief, there's a 'but,' namely, that the three detectives had
+this list in their hands when the guests arrived and that they still had
+it when the guests left. Now sixty-three came in and sixty-three went
+away. So you see...."
+
+"Then do you suppose a servant?..."
+
+"No."
+
+"The detectives?"
+
+"No."
+
+"But, still ... but, still," said the chief, impatiently, "if the
+robbery was committed from the inside...."
+
+"That is beyond dispute," declared the inspector, whose excitement
+seemed to be nearing fever-point. "There is no question about it. All my
+investigations led to the same certainty. And my conviction gradually
+became so positive that I ended, one day, by drawing up this startling
+axiom: in theory and in fact, the robbery can only have been committed
+with the assistance of an accomplice staying in the house. Whereas there
+was no accomplice!"
+
+"That's absurd," said Dudouis.
+
+"Quite absurd," said Ganimard. "But, at the very moment when I uttered
+that absurd sentence, the truth flashed upon me."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"Oh, a very dim, very incomplete, but still sufficient truth! With that
+clue to guide me, I was bound to find the way. Do you follow me, chief?"
+
+M. Dudouis sat silent. The same phenomenon that had taken place in
+Ganimard was evidently taking place in him. He muttered:
+
+"If it's not one of the guests, nor the servants, nor the private
+detectives, then there's no one left...."
+
+"Yes, chief, there's one left...."
+
+M. Dudouis started as though he had received a shock; and, in a voice
+that betrayed his excitement:
+
+"But, look here, that's preposterous."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Come, think for yourself!"
+
+"Go on, chief: say what's in your mind."
+
+"Nonsense! What do you mean?"
+
+"Go on, chief."
+
+"It's impossible! How can Sparmiento have been Lupin's accomplice?"
+
+Ganimard gave a little chuckle.
+
+"Exactly, Arsene Lupin's accomplice!... That explains everything. During
+the night, while the three detectives were downstairs watching, or
+sleeping rather, for Colonel Sparmiento had given them champagne to
+drink and perhaps doctored it beforehand, the said colonel took down the
+hangings and passed them out through the window of his bedroom. The room
+is on the second floor and looks out on another street, which was not
+watched, because the lower windows are walled up."
+
+M. Dudouis reflected and then shrugged his shoulders:
+
+"It's preposterous!" he repeated.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Why? Because, if the colonel had been Arsene Lupin's accomplice, he
+would not have committed suicide after achieving his success."
+
+"Who says that he committed suicide?"
+
+"Why, he was found dead on the line!"
+
+"I told you, there is no such thing as death with Lupin."
+
+"Still, this was genuine enough. Besides, Mme. Sparmiento identified the
+body."
+
+"I thought you would say that, chief. The argument worried me too. There
+was I, all of a sudden, with three people in front of me instead of one:
+first, Arsene Lupin, cracksman; secondly, Colonel Sparmiento, his
+accomplice; thirdly, a dead man. Spare us! It was too much of a good
+thing!"
+
+Ganimard took a bundle of newspapers, untied it and handed one of them
+to Mr. Dudouis:
+
+"You remember, chief, last time you were here, I was looking through the
+papers.... I wanted to see if something had not happened, at that
+period, that might bear upon the case and confirm my supposition. Please
+read this paragraph."
+
+M. Dudouis took the paper and read aloud:
+
+
+    "Our Lille correspondent informs us that a curious incident has
+    occurred in that town. A corpse has disappeared from the local
+    morgue, the corpse of a man unknown who threw himself under the
+    wheels of a steam tram-car on the day before. No one is able to
+    suggest a reason for this disappearance."
+
+
+M. Dudouis sat thinking and then asked:
+
+"So ... you believe ...?"
+
+"I have just come from Lille," replied Ganimard, "and my inquiries leave
+not a doubt in my mind. The corpse was removed on the same night on
+which Colonel Sparmiento gave his house-warming. It was taken straight
+to Ville d'Avray by motor-car; and the car remained near the
+railway-line until the evening."
+
+"Near the tunnel, therefore," said M. Dudouis.
+
+"Next to it, chief."
+
+"So that the body which was found is merely that body, dressed in
+Colonel Sparmiento's clothes."
+
+"Precisely, chief."
+
+"Then Colonel Sparmiento is not dead?"
+
+"No more dead than you or I, chief."
+
+"But then why all these complications? Why the theft of one tapestry,
+followed by its recovery, followed by the theft of the twelve? Why that
+house-warming? Why that disturbance? Why everything? Your story won't
+hold water, Ganimard."
+
+"Only because you, chief, like myself, have stopped halfway; because,
+strange as this story already sounds, we must go still farther, very
+much farther, in the direction of the improbable and the astounding. And
+why not, after all? Remember that we are dealing with Arsene Lupin. With
+him, is it not always just the improbable and the astounding that we
+must look for? Must we not always go straight for the maddest
+suppositions? And, when I say the maddest, I am using the wrong word. On
+the contrary, the whole thing is wonderfully logical and so simple that
+a child could understand it. Confederates only betray you. Why employ
+confederates, when it is so easy and so natural to act for yourself, by
+yourself, with your own hands and by the means within your own reach?"
+
+"What are you saying?... What are you saying?... What are you saying?"
+cried M. Dudouis, in a sort of sing-song voice and a tone of
+bewilderment that increased with each separate exclamation.
+
+Ganimard gave a fresh chuckle.
+
+"Takes your breath away, chief, doesn't it? So it did mine, on the day
+when you came to see me here and when the notion was beginning to grow
+upon me. I was flabbergasted with astonishment. And yet I've had
+experience of my customer. I know what he's capable of.... But this, no,
+this was really a bit too stiff!"
+
+"It's impossible! It's impossible!" said M. Dudouis, in a low voice.
+
+"On the contrary, chief, it's quite possible and quite logical and quite
+normal. It's the threefold incarnation of one and the same individual. A
+schoolboy would solve the problem in a minute, by a simple process of
+elimination. Take away the dead man: there remains Sparmiento and Lupin.
+Take away Sparmiento...."
+
+"There remains Lupin," muttered the chief-detective.
+
+"Yes, chief, Lupin simply, Lupin in five letters and two syllables,
+Lupin taken out of his Brazilian skin, Lupin revived from the dead,
+Lupin translated, for the past six months, into Colonel Sparmiento,
+travelling in Brittany, hearing of the discovery of the twelve
+tapestries, buying them, planning the theft of the best of them, so as
+to draw attention to himself, Lupin, and divert it from himself,
+Sparmiento. Next, he brings about, in full view of the gaping public, a
+noisy contest between Lupin and Sparmiento or Sparmiento and Lupin,
+plots and gives the house-warming party, terrifies his guests and, when
+everything is ready, arranges for Lupin to steal Sparmiento's tapestries
+and for Sparmiento, Lupin's victim, to disappear from sight and die
+unsuspected, unsuspectable, regretted by his friends, pitied by the
+public and leaving behind him, to pocket the profits of the swindle...."
+
+Ganimard stopped, looked the chief in the eyes and, in a voice that
+emphasized the importance of his words, concluded:
+
+"Leaving behind him a disconsolate widow."
+
+"Mme. Sparmiento! You really believe....?
+
+"Hang it all!" said the chief-inspector. "People don't work up a whole
+business of this sort, without seeing something ahead of them ... solid
+profits."
+
+"But the profits, it seems to me, lie in the sale of the tapestries
+which Lupin will effect in America or elsewhere."
+
+"First of all, yes. But Colonel Sparmiento could effect that sale just
+as well. And even better. So there's something more."
+
+"Something more?"
+
+"Come, chief, you're forgetting that Colonel Sparmiento has been the
+victim of an important robbery and that, though he may be dead, at least
+his widow remains. So it's his widow who will get the money."
+
+"What money?"
+
+"What money? Why, the money due to her! The insurance-money, of course!"
+
+M. Dudouis was staggered. The whole business suddenly became clear to
+him, with its real meaning. He muttered:
+
+"That's true!... That's true!... The colonel had insured his
+tapestries...."
+
+"Rather! And for no trifle either."
+
+"For how much?"
+
+"Eight hundred thousand francs."
+
+"Eight hundred thousand?"
+
+"Just so. In five different companies."
+
+"And has Mme. Sparmiento had the money?"
+
+"She got a hundred and fifty thousand francs yesterday and two hundred
+thousand to-day, while I was away. The remaining payments are to be made
+in the course of this week."
+
+"But this is terrible! You ought to have...."
+
+"What, chief? To begin with, they took advantage of my absence to
+settle up accounts with the companies. I only heard about it on my
+return when I ran up against an insurance-manager whom I happen to know
+and took the opportunity of drawing him out."
+
+The chief-detective was silent for some time, not knowing what to say.
+Then he mumbled:
+
+"What a fellow, though!"
+
+Ganimard nodded his head:
+
+"Yes, chief, a blackguard, but, I can't help saying, a devil of a clever
+fellow. For his plan to succeed, he must have managed in such a way
+that, for four or five weeks, no one could express or even conceive the
+least suspicion of the part played by Colonel Sparmiento. All the
+indignation and all the inquiries had to be concentrated upon Lupin
+alone. In the last resort, people had to find themselves faced simply
+with a mournful, pitiful, penniless widow, poor Edith Swan-neck, a
+beautiful and legendary vision, a creature so pathetic that the
+gentlemen of the insurance-companies were almost glad to place something
+in her hands to relieve her poverty and her grief. That's what was
+wanted and that's what happened."
+
+The two men were close together and did not take their eyes from each
+other's faces.
+
+The chief asked:
+
+"Who is that woman?"
+
+"Sonia Kritchnoff."
+
+"Sonia Kritchnoff?"
+
+"Yes, the Russian girl whom I arrested last year at the time of the
+theft of the coronet, and whom Lupin helped to escape."[E]
+
+
+  [E] _Arsene Lupin._ The Novel of the Play. By Edgar Jepson and Maurice
+  Leblanc (Mills & Boon).
+
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Absolutely. I was put off the scent, like everybody else, by Lupin's
+machinations, and had paid no particular attention to her. But, when I
+knew the part which she was playing, I remembered. She is certainly
+Sonia, metamorphosed into an Englishwoman; Sonia, the most
+innocent-looking and the trickiest of actresses; Sonia, who would not
+hesitate to face death for love of Lupin."
+
+"A good capture, Ganimard," said M. Dudouis, approvingly.
+
+"I've something better still for you, chief!"
+
+"Really? What?"
+
+"Lupin's old foster-mother."
+
+"Victoire?"[F]
+
+
+  [F] _The Hollow Needle._ By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by Alexander
+  Teixeira de Mattos (Nash). _813_ By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by
+  Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (Mills & Boon).
+
+
+"She has been here since Mme. Sparmiento began playing the widow; she's
+the cook."
+
+"Oho!" said M. Dudouis. "My congratulations, Ganimard!"
+
+"I've something for you, chief, that's even better than that!"
+
+M. Dudouis gave a start. The inspector's hand clutched his and was
+shaking with excitement.
+
+"What do you mean, Ganimard?"
+
+"Do you think, chief, that I would have brought you here, at this late
+hour, if I had had nothing more attractive to offer you than Sonia and
+Victoire? Pah! They'd have kept!"
+
+"You mean to say ...?" whispered M. Dudouis, at last, understanding the
+chief-inspector's agitation.
+
+"You've guessed it, chief!"
+
+"Is he here?"
+
+"He's here."
+
+"In hiding?"
+
+"Not a bit of it. Simply in disguise. He's the man-servant."
+
+This time, M. Dudouis did not utter a word nor make a gesture. Lupin's
+audacity confounded him.
+
+Ganimard chuckled.
+
+"It's no longer a threefold, but a fourfold incarnation. Edith Swan-neck
+might have blundered. The master's presence was necessary; and he had
+the cheek to return. For three weeks, he has been beside me during my
+inquiry, calmly following the progress made."
+
+"Did you recognize him?"
+
+"One doesn't recognize him. He has a knack of making-up his face and
+altering the proportions of his body so as to prevent any one from
+knowing him. Besides, I was miles from suspecting.... But, this evening,
+as I was watching Sonia in the shadow of the stairs, I heard Victoire
+speak to the man-servant and call him, 'Dearie.' A light flashed in upon
+me. 'Dearie!' That was what she always used to call him. And I knew
+where I was."
+
+M. Dudouis seemed flustered, in his turn, by the presence of the enemy,
+so often pursued and always so intangible:
+
+"We've got him, this time," he said, between his teeth. "We've got him;
+and he can't escape us."
+
+"No, chief, he can't: neither he nor the two women."
+
+"Where are they?"
+
+"Sonia and Victoire are on the second floor; Lupin is on the third."
+
+M. Dudouis suddenly became anxious:
+
+"Why, it was through the windows of one of those floors that the
+tapestries were passed when they disappeared!"
+
+"That's so, chief."
+
+"In that case, Lupin can get away too. The windows look out on the Rue
+Dufresnoy."
+
+"Of course they do, chief; but I have taken my precautions. The moment
+you arrived, I sent four of our men to keep watch under the windows in
+the Rue Dufresnoy. They have strict instructions to shoot, if any one
+appears at the windows and looks like coming down. Blank cartridges for
+the first shot, ball-cartridges for the next."
+
+"Good, Ganimard! You have thought of everything. We'll wait here; and,
+immediately after sunrise...."
+
+"Wait, chief? Stand on ceremony with that rascal? Bother about rules and
+regulations, legal hours and all that rot? And suppose he's not quite so
+polite to us and gives us the slip meanwhile? Suppose he plays us one of
+his Lupin tricks? No, no, we must have no nonsense! We've got him: let's
+collar him; and that without delay!"
+
+And Ganimard, all a-quiver with indignant impatience, went out, walked
+across the garden and presently returned with half-a-dozen men:
+
+"It's all right, chief. I've told them, in the Rue Dufresnoy, to get
+their revolvers out and aim at the windows. Come along."
+
+These alarums and excursions had not been effected without a certain
+amount of noise, which was bound to be heard by the inhabitants of the
+house. M. Dudouis felt that his hand was forced. He made up his mind to
+act:
+
+"Come on, then," he said.
+
+The thing did not take long. The eight of them, Browning pistols in
+hand, went up the stairs without overmuch precaution, eager to surprise
+Lupin before he had time to organize his defences.
+
+"Open the door!" roared Ganimard, rushing at the door of Mme.
+Sparmiento's bedroom.
+
+A policeman smashed it in with his shoulder.
+
+There was no one in the room; and no one in Victoire's bedroom either.
+
+"They're all upstairs!" shouted Ganimard. "They've gone up to Lupin in
+his attic. Be careful now!"
+
+All the eight ran up the third flight of stairs. To his great
+astonishment, Ganimard found the door of the attic open and the attic
+empty. And the other rooms were empty too.
+
+"Blast them!" he cursed. "What's become of them?"
+
+But the chief called him. M. Dudouis, who had gone down again to the
+second floor, noticed that one of the windows was not latched, but just
+pushed to:
+
+"There," he said, to Ganimard, "that's the road they took, the road of
+the tapestries. I told you as much: the Rue Dufresnoy...."
+
+"But our men would have fired on them," protested Ganimard, grinding his
+teeth with rage. "The street's guarded."
+
+"They must have gone before the street was guarded."
+
+"They were all three of them in their rooms when I rang you up, chief!"
+
+"They must have gone while you were waiting for me in the garden."
+
+"But why? Why? There was no reason why they should go to-day rather than
+to-morrow, or the next day, or next week, for that matter, when they had
+pocketed all the insurance-money!"
+
+Yes, there was a reason; and Ganimard knew it when he saw, on the table,
+a letter addressed to himself and opened it and read it. The letter was
+worded in the style of the testimonials which we hand to people in our
+service who have given satisfaction:
+
+
+    "I, the undersigned, Arsene Lupin, gentleman-burglar, ex-colonel,
+    ex-man-of-all-work, ex-corpse, hereby certify that the person of
+    the name of Ganimard gave proof of the most remarkable qualities
+    during his stay in this house. He was exemplary in his behaviour,
+    thoroughly devoted and attentive; and, unaided by the least clue,
+    he foiled a part of my plans and saved the insurance-companies four
+    hundred and fifty thousand francs. I congratulate him; and I am
+    quite willing to overlook his blunder in not anticipating that the
+    downstairs telephone communicates with the telephone in Sonia
+    Kritchnoff's bedroom and that, when telephoning to Mr.
+    Chief-detective, he was at the same time telephoning to me to clear
+    out as fast as I could. It was a pardonable slip, which must not be
+    allowed to dim the glamour of his services nor to detract from the
+    merits of his victory.
+
+    "Having said this, I beg him to accept the homage of my admiration
+    and of my sincere friendship.
+
+                                         "ARSENE LUPIN"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Confessions of Arsene Lupin, by Maurice Leblanc
+
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