After Dark

by Wilkie Collins

  "Affair of Trudaine. Minutes continued. Citizen Agent Magloire havingbeen appointed to continue the surveillance of Trudaine, reports thediscovery of additional facts of importance. (1.) Appearances make itprobable that Trudaine meditates a third secret visit to the housein the Rue de Clery. The proper measures are taken for observing himclosely, and the result is the implication of another person discoveredto be connected with the supposed conspiracy. This person is the sisterof Trudaine, and the wife of Citizen Superintendent Danville."

  "Poor, lost creature! ah, poor, lost creature!" muttered Lomaque tohimself, sighing again, and shifting uneasily from side to side, in hismangy old leathern armchair. Apparently, Magloire was not accustomedto sighs, interruptions, and expressions of regret from the usuallyimperturbable chief agent. He looked up from his papers with a stareof wonder. "Go on, Magloire!" cried Lomaque, with a sudden outburst ofirritability. "Why the devil don't you go on?"--"All ready, citizen,"returned Magloire, submissively, and proceeded:

  "(2.) It is at Trudaine's house that the woman Danville's connectionwith her brother's secret designs is ascertained, through the vigilanceof the before-mentioned patriot citizen. The interview of the twosuspected persons is private; their conversation is carried on inwhispers. Little can be overheard; but that little suffices to provethat Trudaine's sister is perfectly aware of his intention to proceedfor the third time to the house in the Rue de Clery. It is furtherdiscovered that she awaits his return, and that she then goes backprivately to her own house. (3.) Meanwhile, the strictest measures aretaken for watching the house in the Rue de Clery. It is discovered thatTrudaine's visits are paid to a man and woman known to the landlordand lodgers by the name of Dubois. They live on the fourth floor. It isimpossible, at the time of the discovery, to enter this room, or tosee the citizen and citoyenne Dubois, without producing an undesirabledisturbance in the house and neighborhood. A police agent is left towatch the place, while search and arrest orders are applied for. Thegranting of these is accidentally delayed. When they are ultimatelyobtained, it is discovered that the man and the woman are both missing.They have not hitherto been traced. (4.) The landlord of the house isimmediately arrested, as well as the police agent appointed to watch thepremises. The landlord protests that he knows nothing of his tenants.It is suspected, however, that he has been tampered with, as also thatTrudaine's papers, delivered to the citizen and citoyenne Dubois, areforged passports. With these and with money, it may not be impossiblethat they have already succeeded in escaping from France. The propermeasures have been taken for stopping them, if they have not yet passedthe frontiers. No further report in relation to them has yet beenreceived (5.) Trudaine and his sister are under perpetual surveillance,and the undersigned holds himself ready for further orders.--Signed,MAGLOIRE. Countersigned, LOMAQUE."

  Having finished reading his notes, Magloire placed them on thewriting-table. He was evidently a favored man in the office, and hepresumed upon his position; for he ventured to make a remark, instead ofleaving the room in silence, like his predecessor Picard.

  "When Citizen Danville returns to Paris," he began, "he will be ratherastonished to find that in denouncing his wife's brother he had alsounconsciously denounced his wife."

  Lomaque looked up quickly, with that old weakness in his eyes whichaffected them in such a strangely irregular manner on certain occasions.Magloire knew what this symptom meant, and would have become confused ifhe had not been a police agent. As it was, he quietly backed a step ortwo from the table, and held his tongue.

  "Friend Magloire," said Lomaque, winking mildly, "your last remark looksto me like a question in disguise. I put questions constantly to others;I never answer questions myself. You want to know, citizen, what oursuperintendent's secret motive is for denouncing his wife's brother?Suppose you try and find that out for yourself. It will be famouspractice for you, friend Magloire--famous practice after office hours."

  "Any further orders?" inquired Magloire, sulkily.

  "None in relation to the reports," returned Lomaque. "I find nothing toalter or add on a revised hearing. But I shall have a little note readyfor you immediately. Sit down at the other desk, friend Magloire; I amvery fond of you when you are not inquisitive; pray sit down."

  While addressing this polite invitation to the agent in his softestvoice, Lomaque produced his pocketbook, and drew from it a little note,which he opened and read through attentively. It was headed: "PrivateInstructions relative to Superintendent Danville," and proceeded thus:

  "The undersigned can confidently assert, from long domestic experiencein Danville's household that his motive for denouncing his wife'sbrother is purely a personal one, and is not in the most remote degreeconnected with politics. Briefly, the facts are these: Louis Trudaine,from the first, opposed his sister's marriage with Danville, distrustingthe latter's temper and disposition. The marriage, however, took place,and the brother resigned himself to await results--taking the precautionof living in the same neighborhood as his sister, to interpose, if needbe, between the crimes which the husband might commit and the sufferingswhich the wife might endure. The results soon exceeded his worstanticipations, and called for the interposition for which he hadprepared himself. He is a man of inflexible firmness, patience, andintegrity, and he makes the protection and consolation of his sister thebusiness of his life. He gives his brother-in-law no pretext for openlyquarreling with him. He is neither to be deceived, irritated, nor tiredout, and he is Danville's superior every way--in conduct, temper, andcapacity. Under these circumstances, it is unnecessary to say that hisbrother-in-law's enmity toward him is of the most implacable kind,and equally unnecessary to hint at the perfectly plain motive of thedenunciation.

  "As to the suspicious circumstances affecting not Trudaine only, buthis sister as well, the undersigned regrets his inability, thus far, tooffer either explanation or suggestion. At this preliminary stage, theaffair seems involved in impenetrable mystery."

  Lomaque read these lines through, down to his own signature at the end.They were the duplicate Secret Instructions demanded from him in thepaper which he had been looking over before the entrance of the twopolice agents. Slowly, and, as it seemed, unwillingly, he folded thenote up in a fresh sheet of paper, and was preparing to seal it when atap at the door stopped him. "Come in," he cried, irritably; and a manin traveling costume, covered with dust, entered, quietly whispereda word or two in his ear, and then went out. Lomaque started at thewhisper, and, opening his note again, hastily wrote under his signature:"I have just heard that Danville has hastened his return to Paris, andmay be expected back to-night." Having traced these lines, he closed,sealed, and directed the letter, and gave it to Magloire. The policeagent looked at the address as he left the room; it was "To CitizenRobespierre, Rue Saint-Honore."

  Left alone again, Lomaque rose, and walked restlessly backward andforward, biting his nails.

  "Danville comes back to-night," he said to himself, "and the crisiscomes with him. Trudaine a conspirator! Bah! conspiracy can hardly bethe answer to the riddle this time. What is?"

  He took a turn or two in silence--then stopped at the open window,looking out on what little glimpse the street afforded him of the sunsetsky. "This time five years," he said, "Trudaine was talking to me onthat bench overlooking the river; and Sister Rose was keeping poorhatchet-faced old Lomaque's cup of coffee hot for him! Now I amofficially bound to suspect them both; perhaps to arrest them;perhaps--I wish this job had fallen into other hands. I don't want it--Idon't want it at any price!"

  He returned to the writing-table and sat down to his papers, with thedogged air of a man determined to drive away vexing thoughts by dintof sheer hard work. For more than an hour he labored on resolutely,munching a bit of dry bread from time to time. Then he paused a little,and began to think again. Gradually the summer twilight faded, and theroom grew dark.

  "Perhaps we shall tide over to-night, after all--who knows?" saidLomaque, ringing his handbell for lights. They were brought in, and withthe
m ominously returned the police agent Magloire with a small sealedpacket. It contained an arrest-order and a tiny three-cornered note,looking more like a love-letter, or a lady's invitation to a party,than anything else. Lomaque opened the note eagerly and read these linesneatly written, and signed with Robespierre's initials--M. R.--formedelegantly in cipher:

  "Arrest Trudaine and his sister to-night. On second thoughts, I am notsure, if Danville comes back in time to be present, that it may notbe all the better. He is unprepared for his wife's arrest. Watch himclosely when it takes place, and report privately to me. I am afraid heis a vicious man; and of all things I abhor Vice."

  "Any more work for me to-night?" asked Magloire, with a yawn.

  "Only an arrest," replied Lomaque. "Collect our men; and when you'reready get a coach at the door."

  "We were just going to supper," grumbled Magloire to himself, as he wentout. "The devil seize the Aristocrats! They're all in such a hurry toget to the guillotine that they won't even give a man time to eat hisvictuals in peace!"

  "There's no choice now," muttered Lomaque, angrily thrusting thearrest-order and the three-cornered note into his pocket. "His fatherwas the saving of me; he himself welcomed me like an equal; his sistertreated me like a gentleman, as the phrase went in those days; andnow--"

  He stopped and wiped his forehead--then unlocked his desk, produced abottle of brandy, and poured himself out a glass of the liquor, which hedrank by sips, slowly.

  "I wonder whether other men get softer-hearted as they grow older!" hesaid. "I seem to do so, at any rate. Courage! courage! what must be,must. If I risked my head to do it, I couldn't stop this arrest. Not aman in the office but would be ready to execute it, if I wasn't."

  Here the rumble of carriage-wheels sounded outside.

  "There's the coach!" exclaimed Lomaque, locking up the brandy-bottle,and taking his hat. "After all, as this arrest is to be made, it's aswell for them that I should make it."

  Consoling himself as he best could with this reflection, Chief PoliceAgent Lomaque blew out the candles, and quitted the room.