“The progress is slow, but uninterrupted,” he said “In a few hours it will be over our heads.”
“But this is terrible, chief, it’s horrible!” moaned Gourel.
“Oh, look here, don’t come boring me with your lamentations, do you understand? Cry, if it amuses you, but don’t let me hear you!”
“It’s the hunger that weakens me, chief; my brain’s going round.”
“Bite your fist!”
As Gourel said, the position was terrible; and, if M. Lenormand had had less energy, he would have abandoned the vain struggle. What was to be done? It was no use hoping that Ribeira would have the charity to let them out. It was no use either hoping that the brothers Doudeville would rescue them, for the inspectors did not know of the existence of the tunnel. So no hope remained . . . no hope but that of an impossible miracle. . . .
“Come, come,” said M. Lenormand, “this is too silly. We’re not going to kick the bucket here! Hang it all, there must be something! . . . Show me a light, Gourel.”
Flattening himself against the second door, he examined it from top to bottom, in every corner. There was an enormous bolt on that side, just as there probably was on the other. He unfastened the screws with the blade of his knife; and the bolt came off in his hand.
“And what next?” asked Gourel.
“What next?” he echoed. “Well, this bolt is made of iron, pretty long and very nearly pointed. Certainly, it’s not as good as a pick-axe, but it’s better than nothing and . . .”
Without finishing his sentence, he drove the implement into the side-wall of the tunnel, a little in front of the pillar of masonry that supported the hinges of the door. As he expected, once he had passed the first layer of cement and stones, he found soft earth:
“To work!” he cried.
“Certainly, chief, but would you explain . . . ?”
“It’s quite simple. I want to dig round this pillar a passage, three or four yards long, which will join the tunnel on the other side of the door and allow us to escape.”
“But it will take us hours; and meanwhile, the water is rising.”
“Show me a light, Gourel.”
“In twenty minutes, or half an hour at most, it will have reached our feet.”
“Show me a light, Gourel.”
M. Lenormand’s idea was correct and, with some little exertion, by pulling the earth, which he first loosened with his implement, towards him and making it fall into the tunnel, he was not long in digging a hole large enough to slip into.
“It’s my turn, chief!” said Gourel.
“Aha, you’re returning to life, I see! Well, fire away! . . . You have only to follow the shape of the pillar.”
At that moment, the water was up to their ankles. Would they have time to complete the work begun?
It became more difficult as they went on, for the earth which they disturbed was in their way; and, lying flat on their stomachs in the passage, they were obliged at every instant to remove the rubbish that obstructed them.
After two hours, the work was perhaps three-quarters through, but the water now covered their legs. Another hour and it would reach the opening of the hole which they were digging. And that would mean the end!
Gourel, who was exhausted by the want of food and who was too stout to move with any freedom in that ever-narrower passage, had had to give up. He no longer stirred, trembling with anguish at feeling that icy water which was gradually swallowing him up.
As for M. Lenormand, he worked on with indefatigable ardor. It was a terrible job, this ants’ work performed in the stifling darkness. His hands were bleeding. He was fainting with hunger. The insufficiency of the air hampered his breathing; and, from time to time, Gourel’s sighs reminded him of the awful danger that threatened him at the bottom of his hole.
But nothing could discourage him, for now he again found opposite him those cemented stones which formed the side-wall of the gallery. It was the most difficult part, but the end was at hand.
“It’s rising,” cried Gourel, in a choking voice, “it’s rising!”
M. Lenormand redoubled his efforts. Suddenly the stem of the bolt which he was using leapt out into space. The passage was dug. He had now only to widen it, which became much easier once he was able to shoot the materials in front of him.
Gourel, mad with terror, was howling like a dying beast. M. Lenormand paid no attention to him. Safety was at hand.
Nevertheless, he had a few seconds of anxiety when he perceived, by the sound of the materials falling, that this part of the tunnel was also under water, which was natural, as the door did not form a sufficiently tight-fitting barrier. But what did it matter! The outlet was free. One last effort . . . he passed through.
“Come, Gourel,” he cried, returning to fetch his companion.
He dragged him, half dead, by the wrists:
“Come along, booby, pull yourself together! We are saved.”
“Do you really think so, chief? . . . The water’s up to our chests. . . .”
“Never mind, as long as it’s not over our mouths. . . . Where’s your lantern?”
“It’s not working.”
“No matter.” He gave an exclamation of delight. “One step . . . two steps! . . . A staircase. . . . At last!”
They emerged from the water, that accursed water which had almost swallowed them up; and it was a delicious sensation, a release that sent up their spirits.
“Stop!” said M. Lenormand.
His head had knocked against something. With arms outstretched, he pushed against the obstacle, which yielded at once. It was the flap of a trap-door; and, when this trap-door was opened, he found himself in a cellar into which the light of a fine night filtered through an air-hole.
He threw back the flap and climbed the last treads.
Then a veil fell over his eyes. Arms seized upon him. He felt himself as it were wrapped in a sheet, in a sort of sack, and then fastened with cords.
“Now for the other one!” said a voice.
The same operation must have been performed on Gourel; and the same voice said:
“If they call out, kill them at once. Have you your dagger?”
“Yes.”
“Come along. You two, take this one . . . you two, that one. . . . No light . . . and no noise either. . . . It would be a serious matter. They’ve been searching the garden next door since this morning . . . there are ten or fifteen of them knocking about. . . . Go back to the house, Gertrude, and, if the least thing happens, telephone to me in Paris.”
M. Lenormand felt that he was being lifted up and carried and, a moment after, that he was in the open air.
“Bring the cart nearer,” said a voice.
M. Lenormand heard the sound of a horse and cart.
He was laid out on some boards. Gourel was hoisted up beside him. The horse started at a trot.
The drive lasted about half an hour.
“Halt!” commanded the voice. “Lift them out. Here, driver, turn the cart so that the tail touches the parapet of the bridge. . . . Good. . . . No boats on the river? Sure? Then let’s waste no time. . . . Oh, have you fastened some stones to them?”
“Yes, paving-stones.”
“Right away, then! Commend your soul to God, M. Lenormand, and pray for me, Parbury-Ribeira, better known by the name of Baron Altenheim. Are you ready? All right? Well, here’s wishing you a pleasant journey, M. Lenormand!”
M. Lenormand was placed on the parapet. Someone gave him a push. He felt himself falling into space and he still heard the voice chuckling:
“A pleasant journey!”
Ten seconds later it was Sergeant Gourel’s turn.
CHAPTER VII. PARBURY-RIBEIRA-ALTENHEIM
THE GIRLS WERE playing in the garden, under the supervision of Mlle. Charlotte, Geneviève’s new assistant. Mme. Ernemont came out, distributed some cakes among them and then went back to the room which served as a drawing-room and parlor in one, sat down before a writing-desk a
nd began to arrange her papers and account-books.
Suddenly, she felt the presence of a stranger in the room. She turned round in alarm:
“You!” she cried. “Where have you come from? How did you get in?”
“Hush!” said Prince Sernine. “Listen to me and do not let us waste a minute: Geneviève?”
“Calling on Mrs. Kesselbach.”
“When will she be here?”
“Not before an hour.”
“Then I will let the brothers Doudeville come. I have an appointment with them. How is Geneviève?”
“Very well.”
“How often has she seen Pierre Leduc since I went away, ten days ago?”
“Three times; and she is to meet him to-day at Mrs. Kesselbach’s, to whom she introduced him, as you said she must. Only, I may as well tell you that I don’t think much of this Pierre Leduc of yours. Geneviève would do better to find some good fellow in her own class of life. For instance, there’s the schoolmaster.”
“You’re mad! Geneviève marry a schoolmaster!”
“Oh, if you considered Geneviève’s happiness first. . . .”
“Shut up, Victoire. You’re boring me with your cackle. I have no time to waste on sentiment. I’m playing a game of chess; and I move my men without troubling about what they think. When I have won the game, I will go into the question whether the knight, Pierre Leduc, and the queen, Geneviève, have a heart or not.”
She interrupted him:
“Did you hear? A whistle. . . .”
“It’s the two Doudevilles. Go and bring them in; and then leave us.”
As soon as the two brothers were in the room, he questioned them with his usual precision:
“I know what the newspapers have said about the disappearance of Lenormand and Gourel. Do you know any more?”
“No. The deputy-chief, M. Weber, has taken the case in hand. We have been searching the garden of the House of Retreat for the past week; and nobody is able to explain how they can have disappeared. The whole force is in a flutter. . . . No one has ever seen the like . . . a chief of the detective-service disappearing, without leaving a trace behind him!”
“The two maids?”
“Gertrude has gone. She is being looked for.”
“Her sister Suzanne?”
“M. Weber and M. Formerie have questioned her. There is nothing against her.”
“Is that all you have to tell me?”
“Oh, no, there are other things, all the things which we did not tell the papers.”
They then described the incidents that had marked M. Lenormand’s last two days: the night visit of the two ruffians to Pierre Leduc’s villa; next day, Ribeira’s attempt to kidnap Geneviève and the chase through the Saint-Cucufa woods; old Steinweg’s arrival, his examination at the detective-office in Mrs. Kesselbach’s presence, his escape from the Palais. . . .
“And no one knows these details except yourselves?”
“Dieuzy knows about the Steinweg incident: he told us of it.”
“And they still trust you at the Prefecture of Police?”
“So much so that they employ us openly. M. Weber swears by us.”
“Come,” said the prince, “all is not lost. If M. Lenormand has committed an imprudence that has cost him his life, as I suppose he did, at any rate he performed some good work first; and we have only to continue it. The enemy has the start of us, but we will catch him up.”
“It won’t be an easy job, governor.”
“Why not? It is only a matter of finding old Steinweg again, for the answer to the riddle is in his hands.”
“Yes, but where has Ribeira got old Steinweg tucked away?”
“At his own place, of course.”
“Then we should have to know where Ribeira hangs out.”
“Well, of course!”
He dismissed them and went to the House of Retreat. Motor-cars were awaiting outside the door and two men were walking up and down, as though mounting guard.
In the garden, near Mrs. Kesselbach’s house, he saw Geneviève sitting on a bench with Pierre Leduc and a thick-set gentleman wearing a single eye-glass. The three were talking and none of them saw him. But several people came out of the house: M. Formerie, M. Weber, a magistrate’s clerk, and two inspectors. Geneviève went indoors and the gentleman with the eye-glass went up and spoke to the examining-magistrate and the deputy-chief of the detective-service and walked away with them slowly.
Sernine came beside the bench where Pierre Leduc was sitting and whispered:
“Don’t move, Pierre Leduc; it’s I.”
“You! . . . you! . . .”
It was the third time that the young man saw Sernine since the awful night at Versailles; and each time it upset him.
“Tell me . . . who is the fellow with the eye-glass?”
Pierre Leduc turned pale and jabbered. Sernine pinched his arm:
“Answer me, confound it! Who is he?”
“Baron Altenheim.”
“Where does he come from?”
“He was a friend of Mr. Kesselbach’s. He arrived from Austria, six days ago, and placed himself at Mrs. Kesselbach’s disposal.”
The police authorities had, meanwhile, gone out of the garden; Baron Altenheim also.
The prince rose and, turning towards the Pavillon de l’Impératrice, continued:
“Has the baron asked you many questions?”
“Yes, a great many. He is interested in my case. He wants to help me find my family. He appealed to my childhood memories.”
“And what did you say?”
“Nothing, because I know nothing. What memories have I? You put me in another’s place and I don’t even know who that other is.”
“No more do I!” chuckled the prince. “And that’s just what makes your case so quaint.”
“Oh, it’s all very well for you to laugh . . . you’re always laughing! . . . But I’m beginning to have enough of it. . . . I’m mixed up in a heap of nasty matters . . . to say nothing of the danger which I run in pretending to be somebody that I am not.”
“What do you mean . . . that you are not? You’re quite as much a duke as I am a prince . . . perhaps even more so. . . . Besides, if you’re not a duke, hurry up and become one, hang it all! Geneviève can’t marry any one but a duke! Look at her: isn’t she worth selling your soul for?”
He did not even look at Leduc, not caring what he thought. They had reached the house by this time; and Geneviève appeared at the foot of the steps, comely and smiling:
“So you have returned?” she said to the prince. “Ah, that’s a good thing! I am so glad. . . . Do you want to see Dolores?”
After a moment, she showed him into Mrs. Kesselbach’s room. The prince was taken aback. Dolores was paler still and thinner than on the day when he saw her last. Lying on a sofa, wrapped up in white stuffs, she looked like one of those sick people who have ceased to struggle against death. As for her, she had ceased to struggle against life, against the fate that was overwhelming her with its blows.
Sernine gazed at her with deep pity and with an emotion which he did not strive to conceal. She thanked him for the sympathy which he showed her. She also spoke of Baron Altenheim, in friendly terms.
“Did you know him before?” he asked.
“Yes, by name, and through his intimacy with my husband.”
“I have met an Altenheim who lives in the Rue de Rivoli. Do you think it’s the same?”
“Oh, no, this one lives in . . . As a matter of fact, I don’t quite know; he gave me his address, but I can’t say that I remember it. . . .”
After a few minutes’ conversation, Sernine took his leave. Geneviève was waiting for him in the hall:
“I want to speak to you,” she said eagerly, “on a serious matter. . . . Did you see him?”
“Whom?”
“Baron Altenheim. . . . But that’s not his name . . . or, at least, he has another. . . . I recognized him . . . he does not know it.”
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She dragged him out of doors and walked on in great excitement.
“Calm yourself, Geneviève. . . .”
“He’s the man who tried to carry me off. . . . But for that poor M. Lenormand, I should have been done for. . . . Come, you must know, for you know everything. . . .”
“Then his real name is . . .”
“Ribeira.”
“Are you sure?”
“It was no use his changing his appearance, his accent, his manner: I knew him at once, by the horror with which he inspires me. But I said nothing . . . until you returned.”
“You said nothing to Mrs. Kesselbach either?”
“No. She seemed so happy at meeting a friend of her husband’s. But you will speak to her about it, will you not? You will protect her. . . . I don’t know what he is preparing against her, against myself. . . . Now that M. Lenormand is no longer there, he has nothing to fear, he does as he pleases. Who can unmask him?”
“I can. I will be responsible for everything. But not a word to anybody.”
They had reached the porter’s lodge. The gate was opened. The prince said:
“Good-bye, Geneviève, and be quite easy in your mind. I am there.”
He shut the gate, turned round and gave a slight start. Opposite him stood the man with the eye-glass, Baron Altenheim, with his head held well up, his broad shoulders, his powerful frame.
They looked at each other for two or three seconds, in silence. The baron smiled.
Then the baron said:
“I was waiting for you, Lupin.”
For all his self-mastery, Sernine felt a thrill pass over him. He had come to unmask his adversary; and his adversary had unmasked him at the first onset. And, at the same time, the adversary was accepting the contest boldly, brazenly, as though he felt sure of victory. It was a swaggering thing to do and gave evidence of no small amount of pluck.
The two men, violently hostile one to the other, took each other’s measure with their eyes.
“And what then?” asked Sernine.
“What then? Don’t you think we have occasion for a meeting?”
“Why?”
“I want to talk to you.”
Delphi Collected Works of Maurice Leblanc (Illustrated) (Delphi Series Nine Book 17) Page 96
