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diff --git a/28093-8.txt b/28093-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d595b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/28093-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9757 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONFESSIONS OF ARSÈNE LUPIN *** + +***** This file should be named 28093-8.txt or 28093-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/0/9/28093/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Meredith Bach, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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