Then at once he would take up the story again, as schoolboys do when parsing and analyzing a passage, in which each expression is carefully sifted, each period discussed, each sentence reduced to its essential value.
* * * * *
Hours and hours passed. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, he gave a start. He took out his watch. By the light of his electric lamp he saw that it was seventeen minutes to twelve.
“So at seventeen minutes to twelve at night,” he said, “I fathomed the mystery.”
He tried to control his emotion, but it was too great; and his nerves were so immensely staggered by the trial that he began to shed tears. He had caught sight of the appalling truth, all of a sudden, as when at night one half sees a landscape under a lightning-flash.
There is nothing more unnerving than this sudden illumination when we have been groping and struggling in the dark. Already exhausted by his physical efforts and by the want of food, from which he was beginning to suffer, he felt the shock so intensely that, without caring to think a moment longer, he managed to go to sleep, or, rather, to sink into sleep, as one sinks into the healing waters of a bath.
When he woke, in the small hours, alert and well despite the discomfort of his couch, he shuddered on thinking of the theory which he had accepted; and his first instinct was to doubt it. He had, so to speak, no time.
All the proofs came rushing to his mind of their own accord and at once transformed the theory into one of those certainties which it would be madness to deny. It was that and nothing else. As he had foreseen, the truth lay recorded in Sauverand’s story. And he had not been mistaken, either, in saying to Mazeroux that the manner in which the mysterious letters appeared had put him on the track of the truth.
And the truth was terrible. He felt, at the thought of it, the same fears that had maddened Inspector Vérot when, already tortured by the poison, he stammered:
“Oh, I don’t like this, I don’t like the look of this!… The whole thing has been planned in such an infernal manner!”
Infernal was the word! And Don Luis remained stupefied at the revelation of a crime which looked as if no human brain could have conceived it.
For two hours more he devoted all his mental powers to examining the situation from every point of view. He was not much disturbed about the result, because, being now in possession of the terrible secret, he had nothing more to do but make his escape and go that evening to the meeting on the Boulevard Suchet, where he would show them all how the murder was committed.
But when, wishing to try his chance of escaping, he went up through the underground passage and climbed to the top of the upper ladder — that is to say, to the level of the boudoir — he heard through the trapdoor the voices of men in the room.
“By Jove!” he said to himself, “the thing is not so simple as I thought! In order to escape the minions of the law I must first leave my prison; and here is at least one of the exits blocked. Let’s look at the other.”
He went down to Florence’s apartments and worked the mechanism, which consisted of a counterweight. The panel of the cupboard moved in the groove.
Driven by horror and hoping to find some provisions which enable him to withstand a siege without being reduced to famine, he was about to pass through the alcove, behind the curtains, when he was stopped short by a sound of footsteps. Some one had entered the room.
“Well, Mazeroux, have you spent the night here? Nothing new!”
Don Luis recognized the Prefect of Police by his voice; and the question put by the Prefect told him, first, that Mazeroux had been released from the dark closet where he had bound him up, and, secondly, that the sergeant was in the next room. Fortunately, the sliding panel had worked without the least sound; and Don Luis was able to overhear the conversation between the two men.
“No, nothing new, Monsieur le Préfet,” replied Mazeroux.
“That’s funny. The confounded fellow must be somewhere. Or can he have got away over the roof?”
“Impossible, Monsieur le Préfet,” said a third voice, which Don Luis recognized as that of Weber, the deputy chief detective. “Impossible. We made certain yesterday, that unless he has wings—”
“Then what do you think, Weber?”
“I think, Monsieur le Préfet, that he is concealed in the house. This is an old house and probably contains some safe hiding-place—”
“Of course, of course,” said M. Desmalions, whom Don Luis, peeping through the curtains, saw walking to and fro in front of the alcove. “You’re right; and we shall catch him in his burrow. Only, is it really necessary?”
“Monsieur le Préfet!”
“Well, you know my opinion on the subject, which is also the Prime Minister’s opinion. Unearthing Lupin would be a blunder which we should end by regretting. After all, he’s become an honest man, you know; he’s useful to us and he does no harm—”
“No harm, Monsieur le Préfet? Do you think so?” said Weber stiffly.
M. Desmalions burst out laughing.
“Oh, of course, yesterday’s trick, the telephone trick! You must admit it was funny. The Premier had to hold his sides when I told him of it.”
“Upon my word, I see nothing to laugh at!”
“No, but, all the same, the rascal is never at a loss. Funny or not, the trick was extraordinarily daring. To cut the telephone wire before your eyes and then blockade you behind that iron curtain! By the way, Mazeroux, you must get the telephone repaired this morning, so as to keep in touch with the office. Have you begun your search in these two rooms?”
“As you ordered, Monsieur le Préfet. The deputy chief and I have been hunting round for the last hour.”
“Yes,” said M. Desmalions, “that Florence Levasseur strikes me as a troublesome creature. She is certainly an accomplice. But what were her relations with Sauverand and what was her connection with Don Luis Perenna? That’s what I should like to know. Have you discovered nothing in her papers?”
“No, Monsieur le Préfet,” said Mazeroux. “Nothing but bills and tradesmen’s letters.”
“And you, Weber?”
“I’ve found something very interesting, Monsieur le Préfet.”
Weber spoke in a triumphant tone, and, in answer to M. Desmalions’s question, went on:
“This is a volume of Shakespeare, Monsieur le Préfet, Volume VIII. You will see that, contrary to the other volumes, the inside is empty and the binding forms a secret receptacle for hiding documents.”
“Yes. What sort of documents?”
“Here they are: sheets of paper, blank sheets, all but three. One of them gives a list of the dates on which the mysterious letters were to appear.”
“Oho!” said M. Desmalions. “That’s a crushing piece of evidence against Florence Levasseur. And also it tells us where Don Luis got his list from.”
Perenna listened with surprise: he had utterly forgotten this particular; and Gaston Sauverand had made no reference to it in his narrative. And yet it was a strange and serious detail. From whom had Florence received that list of dates?
“And what’s on the other two sheets?” asked M. Desmalions.
Don Luis pricked up his ears. Those two other sheets had escaped his attention on the day of his interview with Florence in this room.
“Here is one of them,” said Weber.
M. Desmalions took the paper and read:
“Bear in mind that the explosion is independent of the letters, and that it will take place at three o’clock in the morning.”
“Yes,” he said, “the famous explosion which Don Luis foretold and which is to accompany the fifth letter, as announced on the list of dates. Tush! We have plenty of time, as there have been only three letters and the fourth is due to-night. Besides, blowing up that house on the Boulevard Suchet would be no easy job, by Jove! Is that all?”
“Monsieur le Préfet,” said Weber, producing the third sheet, “would you mind looking at these lines drawn in pencil and enclosed in a large squar
e containing some other smaller squares and rectangles of all sizes? Wouldn’t you say that it was the plan of a house?”
“Yes, I should.”
“It is the plan of the house in which we are,” declared Weber solemnly. “Here you see the front courtyard, the main building, the porter’s lodge, and, over there, Mlle. Levasseur’s lodge. From this lodge, a dotted line, in red pencil, starts zigzagging toward the main building. The commencement of this line is marked by a little red cross which stands for the room in which we are, or, to be more correct, the alcove. You will see here something like the design of a chimney, or, rather, a cupboard — a cupboard recessed behind the bed and probably hidden by the curtains.”
“But, in that case, Weber,” said M. Desmalions, “this dotted line must represent a passage leading from this lodge to the main building. Look, there is also a little red cross at the other end of the line.”
“Yes, Monsieur le Préfet, there is another cross. We shall discover later for certain what position it marks. But, meanwhile, and acting on a mere guess, I have posted some men in a small room on the second floor where the last secret meeting between Don Luis, Florence Levasseur, and Gaston Sauverand was held yesterday. And, meanwhile, at any rate, we hold one end of the line and, through that very fact, we know Don Luis Perenna’s retreat.”
There was a pause, after which the deputy chief resumed in a more and more solemn voice:
“Monsieur le Préfet, yesterday I suffered a cruel outrage at the hands of that man. It was witnessed by our subordinates. The servants must be aware of it. The public will know of it before long. This man has brought about the escape of Florence Levasseur. He tried to bring about the escape of Gaston Sauverand. He is a ruffian of the most dangerous type. Monsieur le Préfet, I am sure that you will not refuse me leave to dig him out of his hole. Otherwise — otherwise, Monsieur le Préfet, I shall feel obliged to hand in my resignation.”
“With good reasons to back it up!” said the Prefect, laughing. “There’s no doubt about it; you can’t stomach the trick of the iron curtain. Well, go ahead! It’s Don Luis’s own lookout; he’s brought it on himself. Mazeroux, ring me up at the office as soon as the telephone is put right. And both of you meet me at the Fauvilles’ house this evening. Don’t forget it’s the night for the fourth letter.”
“There won’t be any fourth letter, Monsieur le Préfet,” said Weber.
“Why not?”
“Because between this and then Don Luis will be under lock and key.”
“Oh, so you accuse Don Luis also of—”
Don Luis did not wait to hear more. He softly retreated to the cupboard, took hold of the panel and pushed it back without a sound.
So his hiding-place was known!
“By Jingo,” he growled, “this is a bit awkward! I’m in a nice plight!”
He had run halfway along the underground passage, with the intention of reaching the other exit. But he stopped.
“It’s not worth while, as the exit’s watched. Well, let’s see; am I to let myself be collared? Wait a bit, let’s see—”
Already there came from the alcove below a noise of blows striking on the panel, the hollow sound of which had probably attracted the deputy chief’s attention. And, as Weber was not compelled to take the same precautions as Don Luis, and seemed to be breaking down the panel without delaying to look for the mechanism, the danger was close at hand.
“Oh, hang it all!” muttered Don Luis. “This is too silly. What shall I do? Have a dash at them? Ah, if I had all my strength!”
But he was exhausted by want of food. His legs shook beneath him and his brain seemed to lack its usual clearness.
The increasing violence of the blows in the alcove drove him, in spite of all, toward the upper exit; and, as he climbed the ladder, he moved his electric lantern over the stones of the wall and the wood of the trapdoor. He even tried to lift the door with his shoulder. But he again heard a sound of footsteps above his head. The men were still there.
Then, consumed with fury and helpless, he awaited the deputy’s coming.
A crash came from below; its echo spread through the tunnel, followed by a tumult of voices.
“That’s it,” he said to himself. “The handcuffs, the lockup, the cell! Good Lord, what luck — and what nonsense! And Marie Fauville, who’s sure to do away with herself. And Florence — Florence—”
Before extinguishing his lantern, he cast its light around him for the last time.
At a couple of yards’ distance from the ladder, about three quarters of the way up and set a little way back, there was a big stone missing from the inner wall, leaving a space just large enough to crouch in.
Although the recess did not form much of a hiding-place, it was just possible that they might omit to inspect it. Besides, Don Luis had no choice. At all events, after putting out the light, he leaned toward the edge of the hole, reached it, and managed to scramble in by bending himself in two.
Weber, Mazeroux, and their men were coming along. Don Luis propped himself against the back of his hiding-hole to avoid as far as possible the glare of the lanterns, of which he was beginning to see the gleams. And an amazing thing happened: the stone against which he was pushing toppled over slowly, as though moving on a pivot, and he fell backward into a second cavity situated behind it.
He quickly drew his legs after him and the stone swung back as slowly as before, not, however, without sending down a quantity of small stones, crumbling from the wall and half covering his legs.
“Well, well!” he chuckled. “Can Providence be siding with virtue and righteousness?”
He heard Mazeroux’s voice saying:
“Nobody! And here’s the end of the passage. Unless he ran away as we came — look, through the trapdoor at the top of this ladder.”
Weber replied:
“Considering the slope by which we’ve come, it’s certain that the trapdoor is on a level with the second floor. Well, the other little cross ought to mark the boudoir on the second floor, next to Don Luis’s bedroom. That’s what I supposed, and why I posted three of our men there. If he’s tried to get out on that side, he’s caught.”
“We’ve only got to knock,” said Mazeroux. “Our men will find the trapdoor and let us out. If not, we will break it down.”
More blows echoed down the passage. Fifteen or twenty minutes after, the trapdoor gave way, and other voices now mingled with Weber’s and Mazeroux’s.
During this time, Don Luis examined his domain and perceived how extremely small it was. The most that he could do was to sit in it. It was a gallery, or, rather, a sort of gut, a yard and a half long and ending in an orifice, narrower still, heaped up with bricks. The walls, besides, were formed of bricks, some of which were lacking; and the building-stones which these should have kept in place crumbled at the least touch. The ground was strewn with them.
“By Jove!” thought Lupin, “I must not wriggle about too much, or I shall risk being buried alive! A pleasant prospect!”
Not only this, but the fear of making a noise kept him motionless. As a matter of fact, he was close to two rooms occupied by the detectives, first the boudoir and then the study, for the boudoir, as he knew, was over that part of his study which included the telephone box.
The thought of this suggested another. On reflection, remembering that he used sometimes to wonder how Count Malonyi’s ancestress had managed to keep alive behind the curtain on the days when she had to hide there, he realized that there must have been a communication between the secret passage and what was now the telephone box, a communication too narrow to admit a person’s body, but serving as a ventilating shaft.
As a precaution, in case the secret passage was discovered, a stone concealed the upper aperture of this shaft. Count Malonyi must have closed up the lower end when he restored the wainscoting of the study.
So there he was, imprisoned in the thickness of the walls, with no very definite intention beyond that of escaping from the clutches
of the police. More hours passed.
Gradually, tortured with hunger and thirst, he fell into a heavy sleep, disturbed by painful nightmares which he would have given much to be able to throw off. But he slept too deeply to recover consciousness until eight o’clock in the evening.
When he woke up, feeling very tired, he saw his position in an unexpectedly hideous light and, at the same time, so accurately that, yielding to a sudden change of opinion marked by no little fear, he resolved to leave his hiding-place and give himself up. Anything was better than the torture which he was enduring and the dangers to which longer waiting exposed him.
But, on turning round to reach the entrance to his hole, he perceived first that the stone did not swing over when merely pushed, and, next, after several attempts, that he could not manage to find the mechanism which no doubt worked the stone. He persisted. His exertions were all in vain. The stone did not budge. Only, at each exertion, a few bits of stone came crumbling from the upper part of the wall and still further narrowed the space in which he was able to move.
It cost him a considerable effort to master his excitement and to say, jokingly:
“That’s capital! I shall be reduced now to calling for help. I, Arsène
Lupin! Yes, to call in the help of those gentlemen of the police.
Otherwise, the odds on my being buried alive will increase every minute.
They’re ten to one as it is!”
He clenched his fists.
“Hang it! I’ll get out of this scrape by myself! Call for help? Not if
I know it!”
He summoned up all his energies to think, but his jaded brain gave him none but confused and disconnected ideas. He was haunted by Florence’s image and by Marie Fauville’s as well.
“It’s to-night that I’m to save them,” he said to himself. “And I certainly will save them, as they are not guilty and as I know the real criminal. But how shall I set about it to succeed?”
He thought of the Prefect of Police, of the meeting that was to take place at Fauville’s house on the Boulevard Suchet. The meeting had begun. The police were watching the house. And this reminded him of the sheet of paper found by Weber in the eighth volume of Shakespeare’s plays, and of the sentence written on it, which the Prefect had read out:
Delphi Collected Works of Maurice Leblanc (Illustrated) (Delphi Series Nine Book 17) Page 266
