813

by Maurice Leblanc

  “We have only to beat the woods, chief, and we are sure …”

  “To return empty-handed. The beggar is far away by this time. He’s not one of those who are caught twice in one day. Oh, hang it all, hang it all!”

  They went back to the young girl, whom they found in the company of Jacques Doudeville and apparently none the worse for her adventure. M. Lenormand introduced himself, offered to take her back home and at once questioned her about the English major, Parbury.

  She expressed astonishment:

  “He is neither English nor a major; and his name is not Parbury.”

  “Then what is his name?”

  “Juan Ribeira. He is a Spaniard sent by his government to study the working of the French schools.”

  “As you please. His name and his nationality are of no importance. He is the man we are looking for. Have you known him long?”

  “A fortnight or so. He had heard about a school which I have founded at Garches and he interested himself in my experiment to the extent of proposing to make me an annual grant, on the one condition that he might come from time to time to observe the progress of my pupils. I had not the right to refuse …”

  “No, of course not; but you should have consulted your acquaintances. Is not Prince Sernine a friend of yours? He is a man of good counsel.”

  “Oh, I have the greatest confidence in him; but he is abroad at present.”

  “Did you not know his address?”

  “No. And, besides, what could I have said to him? That gentleman behaved very well. It was not until to-day … But I don’t know if …”

  “I beg you, mademoiselle, speak frankly. You can have confidence in me also.”

  “Well, M. Ribeira came just now. He told me that he had been sent by a French lady who was paying a short visit to Bougival, that this lady had a little girl whose education she would like to entrust to me and that she wished me to come and see her without delay. The thing seemed quite natural. And, as this is a holiday and as M. Ribeira had hired a carriage which was waiting for him at the end of the road, I made no difficulty about accepting a seat in it.”

  “But what was his object, after all?”

  She blushed and said:

  “To carry me off, quite simply. He confessed it to me after half an hour …”

  “Do you know nothing about him?”

  “No.”

  “Does he live in Paris?”

  “I suppose so.”

  “Has he ever written to you? Do you happen to have a few lines in his handwriting, anything which he left behind, that may serve us as a clue?”

  “No clue at all … Oh, wait a minute … but I don’t think that has any importance …”

  “Speak, speak … please …”

  “Well, two days ago, the gentleman asked permission to use my typewriting machine; and he typed out—with difficulty, for he evidently had no practice—a letter of which I saw the address by accident.”

  “What was the address?”

  “He was writing to the Journal and he put about twenty stamps into the envelope.”

  “Yes … the agony-column, no doubt,” said M. Lenormand.

  “I have to-day’s number with me, chief,” said Gourel.

  M. Lenormand unfolded the sheet and looked at the eighth page. Presently, he gave a start. He had read the following sentence, printed with the usual abbreviation:

  “To any person knowing Mr. Steinweg. Advertiser wishes to know if he is in Paris and his address. Reply through this column.”

  “Steinweg!” exclaimed Gourel. “But that’s the very man whom Dieuzy is bringing to you!”

  “Yes, yes,” said M. Lenormand, to himself, “it’s the man whose letter to Mr. Kesselbach I intercepted, the man who put Kesselbach on the track of Pierre Leduc … So they, too, want particulars about Pierre Leduc and his past? … They, too, are groping in the dark? …”

  He rubbed his hands: Steinweg was at his disposal. In less than an hour, Steinweg would have spoken. In less than an hour, the murky veil which oppressed him and which made the Kesselbach case the most agonizing and the most impenetrable that he had ever had in hand: that veil would be torn asunder.

  CHAPTER VI

  M. LENORMAND SUCCUMBS

  M. LENORMAND WAS BACK IN his room at the Prefecture of Police at six o’clock in the evening. He at once sent for Dieuzy:

  “Is your man here?”

  “Yes, chief.”

  “How far have you got with him?”

  “Not very. He won’t speak a word. I told him that, by a new regulation, foreigners were ’bliged to make a declaration at the Prefecture as to the object and the probable length of their stay in Paris; and I brought him here, to your secretary’s office.”

  “I will question him.”

  But, at that moment, an office-messenger appeared:

  “There’s a lady asking to see you at once, chief.”

  “Have you her card?”

  “Here, chief.”

  “Mrs. Kesselbach! Show her in.”

  He walked across the room to receive the young widow at the door and begged her to take a seat. She still wore the same disconsolate look, the same appearance of illness and that air of extreme lassitude which revealed the distress of her life.

  She held out a copy of the Journal and pointed to the line in the agony-column which mentioned Steinweg:

  “Old Steinweg was a friend of my husband’s,” she said, “and I have no doubt that he knows a good many things.”

  “Dieuzy,” said M. Lenormand, “bring the person who is waiting … Your visit, madame, will not have been useless. I will only ask you, when this person enters, not to say a word.”

  The door opened. A man appeared, an old man with white whiskers meeting under his chin and a face furrowed with deep wrinkles, poorly clad and wearing the hunted look of those wretches who roam about the world in search of their daily pittance.

  He stood on the threshold, blinking his eyelids, stared at M. Lenormand, seemed confused by the silence that greeted him on his entrance and turned his hat in his hands with embarrassment.

  But, suddenly, he appeared stupefied, his eyes opened wide and he stammered:

  “Mrs … Mrs. Kesselbach!”

  He had seen the young widow. And, recovering his serenity, smiling, losing his shyness, he went up to her and in a strong German accent:

  “Oh, I am glad! … At last! … I thought I should never … I was so surprised to receive no news down there … no telegrams … And how is our dear Rudolf Kesselbach?”

  The lady staggered back, as though she had been struck in the face, and at once fell into a chair and began to sob.

  “What’s the matter? … Why, what’s the matter?” asked Steinweg.

  M. Lenormand interposed:

  “I see, sir, that you know nothing about certain events that have taken place recently. Have you been long travelling?”

  “Yes, three months … I had been up to the Rand. Then I went back to Capetown and wrote to Rudolf from there. But, on my way home by the East Coast route, I accepted some work at Port Said. Rudolf has had my letter, I suppose?”

  “He is away. I will explain the reason of his absence. But, first, there is a point on which we should be glad of some information. It has to do with a person whom you knew and to whom you used to refer, in your intercourse with Mr. Kesselbach, by the name of Pierre Leduc.”

  “Pierre Leduc! What! Who told you?”

  The old man was utterly taken aback.

  He spluttered out again:

  “Who told you? Who disclosed to you …?”

  “Mr. Kesselbach.”

  “Never! It was a secret which I confided to him and Rudolf keeps his secrets … especially this one …”

  “Nevertheless, it is absolutely necessary that you should reply to our questions. We are at this moment engaged on an inquiry about Pierre Leduc which must come to a head without
delay; and you alone can enlighten us, as Mr. Kesselbach is no longer here.”

  “Well, then,” cried Steinweg, apparently making up his mind, “what do you want?”

  “Do you know Pierre Leduc?”

  “I have never seen him, but I have long been the possessor of a secret which concerns him. Through a number of incidents which I need not relate and thanks to a series of chances, I ended by acquiring the certainty that the man in whose discovery I was interested was leading a dissolute life in Paris and that he was calling himself Pierre Leduc, which is not his real name.”

  “But does he know his real name himself?”

  “I presume so.”

  “And you?”

  “Yes, I know it.”

  “Well, tell it to us.”

  He hesitated; then, vehemently:

  “I can’t,” he said. “No, I can’t.”

  “But why not?”

  “I have no right to. The whole secret lies there. When I revealed the secret to Rudolf, he attached so much importance to it that he gave me a large sum of money to purchase my silence and he promised me a fortune, a real fortune, on the day when he should succeed, first, in finding Pierre Leduc and, next, in turning the secret to account.” He smiled bitterly. “The large sum of money is already lost. I came to see how my fortune was getting on.”

  “Mr. Kesselbach is dead,” said the chief detective.

  Steinweg gave a bound:

  “Dead! Is it possible? No, it’s a trap. Mrs. Kesselbach, is it true?”

  She bowed her head.

  He seemed crushed by this unexpected revelation; and, at the same time, it must have been infinitely painful to him, for he began to cry:

  “My poor Rudolf, I knew him when he was a little boy … He used to come and play at my house at Augsburg … I was very fond of him.” And, calling Mrs. Kesselbach to witness, “And he of me, was he not, Mrs. Kesselbach? He must have told you … His old Daddy Steinweg, he used to call me.”

  M. Lenormand went up to him and, in his clearest voice:

  “Listen to me,” he said. “Mr. Kesselbach died murdered … Come, be calm … exclamations are of no use … He died murdered, I say, and all the circumstances of the crime prove that the culprit knew about the scheme in question. Was there anything in the nature of that scheme that would enable you to guess …?”

  Steinweg stood dumfounded. He stammered:

  “It was my fault … If I had not suggested the thing to him …”

  Mrs. Kesselbach went up to him, entreating him:

  “Do you think … have you any idea? … Oh, Steinweg, I implore you! …”

  “I have no idea … I have not reflected,” he muttered. “I must have time to reflect …”

  “Cast about in Mr. Kesselbach’s surroundings,” said M. Lenormand. “Did nobody take part in your interviews at that time? Was there nobody in whom he himself could have confided?”

  “No.”

  “Think well.”

  Both the others, Dolores and M. Lenormand, leant toward him, anxiously awaiting his answer.

  “No,” he said, “I don’t see …”

  “Think well,” repeated the chief detective. “The murderer’s Christian name and surname begin with an L and an M.”

  “An L,” he echoed. “I don’t see … an L … an M …”

  “Yes, the initials are in gold on the corner of a cigarette-case belonging to the murderer.”

  “A cigarette-case?” asked Steinweg, making an effort of memory.

  “A gun-metal case … and one of the compartments is divided into two spaces, the smaller for cigarette-papers, the other for tobacco …”

  “Two spaces, two spaces,” repeated Steinweg, whose thoughts seemed stimulated by that detail. “Couldn’t you show it to me?”

  “Here it is, or rather this is an exact reproduction,” said M. Lenormand, giving him a cigarette-case.

  “Eh! What!” said Steinweg, taking the case in his hands.

  He looked at it with stupid eyes, examined it, turned it over in every direction and, suddenly, gave a cry, the cry of a man struck with a horrible idea. And he stood like that, livid, with trembling hands and wild, staring eyes.

  “Speak, come, speak!” said M. Lenormand.

  “Oh,” he said, as though blinded with light, “now all is explained! …”

  “Speak, speak!”

  He walked across to the windows with a tottering step, then returned and, rushing up to the chief detective:

  “Sir, sir … Rudolf’s murderer … I’ll tell you … Well …”

  He stopped short.

  “Well?”

  There was a moment’s pause … Was the name of the odious criminal about to echo through the great silence of the office, between those walls which had heard so many accusations, so many confessions? M. Lenormand felt as if he were on the brink of the unfathomable abyss and as if a voice were mounting, mounting up to him … A few seconds more and he would know …

  “No,” muttered Steinweg, “no, I can’t …”

  “What’s that you say?” cried the chief detective, furiously.

  “I say that I can’t.”

  “But you have no right to be silent. The law requires you to speak.”

  “To-morrow … I will speak to-morrow … I must have time to reflect … To-morrow, I will tell you all that I know about Pierre Leduc … all that I suppose about that cigarette-case … To-morrow, I promise you …”

  It was obvious that he possessed that sort of obstinacy against which the most energetic efforts are of no avail. M. Lenormand yielded:

  “Very well. I give you until to-morrow, but I warn you that, if you do not speak to-morrow, I shall be obliged to go to the examining-magistrate.”

  He rang and, taking Inspector Dieuzy aside, said:

  “Go with him to his hotel … and stay there … I’ll send you two men … And mind you keep your eyes about you. Somebody may try to get hold of him.”

  The inspector went off with Steinweg; and M. Lenormand, returning to Mrs. Kesselbach, who had been violently affected by this scene, made his excuses.

  “Pray accept all my regrets, madame … I can understand how upset you must feel …”

  He questioned her as to the period at which Mr. Kesselbach renewed his relations with old Steinweg and as to the length of time for which those relations lasted. But she was so much worn-out that he did not insist.

  “Am I to come back to-morrow?” she asked.

  “No, it’s not necessary. I will let you know all that Steinweg says. May I see you down to your carriage? These three flights are rather steep …”

  He opened the door and stood back to let her pass. At that moment shouts were heard in the passage and people came running up, inspectors on duty, office-messengers, clerks:

  “Chief! Chief!”

  “What’s the matter?”

  “Dieuzy! …”

  “But he’s just left here …”

  “He’s been found on the staircase …”

  “Not dead? …”

  “No, stunned, fainting …”

  “But the man … the man who was with him … old Steinweg?”

  “He’s disappeared …”

  “Damn it!”

  He rushed along the passage and down the stairs, where he found Dieuzy lying on the first-floor landing, surrounded by people who were attending to him.

  He saw Gourel coming up again:

  “Oh, Gourel, have you been downstairs? Did you come across anybody?”

  “No, chief …”

  But Dieuzy was recovering consciousness and, almost before he had opened his eyes, mumbled:

  “Here, on the landing, the little door …”

  “Oh, hang it, the door of Court 7!”* shouted the chief detective. “Didn’t I say that it was to be kept locked? … It was certain that, sooner or later …” He seized the door-handle. “Oh, of course! The door is b
olted on the other side now!”

  The door was partly glazed. He smashed a pane with the butt-end of his revolver, drew the bolt and said to Gourel:

  “Run through this way to the exit on the Place Dauphine …”

  He went back to Dieuzy:

  “Come, Dieuzy, tell me about it. How did you come to let yourself be put into this state?”

  “A blow in the pit of the stomach, chief …”

  “A blow? From that old chap? … Why, he can hardly stand on his legs! …”

  “Not the old man, chief, but another, who was walking up and down the passage while Steinweg was with you and who followed us as though he were going out, too … When we got as far as this, he asked me for a light … I looked for my matches … Then he caught me a punch in the stomach … I fell down, and, as I fell, I thought I saw him open that door and drag the old man with him …”

  “Would you know him again?”

  “Oh yes, chief … a powerful fellow, very dark-skinned … a southerner of sorts, that’s certain …”

  “Ribeira,” snarled M. Lenormand. “Always Ribeira! … Ribeira, alias Parbury … Oh, the impudence of the scoundrel! He was afraid of what old Steinweg might say … and came to fetch him away under my very nose!” And, stamping his foot with anger, “But, dash it, how did he know that Steinweg was here, the blackguard! It’s only four hours since I was chasing him in the Saint-Cucufa woods … and now he’s here! … How did he know? … One would think he lived inside my skin! …”

  He was seized with one of those fits of dreaming in which he seemed to hear nothing and see nothing. Mrs. Kesselbach, who passed at that moment, bowed without his replying.

  But a sound of footsteps in the corridor roused him from his lethargy.

  “At last, is that you, Gourel?”

  “I’ve found out how it was, chief,” said Gourel, panting for breath. “There were two of them. They went this way and out of the Place Dauphine. There was a motor-car waiting for them. There were two people inside: one was a man dressed in black, with a soft hat pulled over his eyes …”

  “That’s he,” muttered M. Lenormand, “that’s the murderer, the accomplice of Ribeira,—Parbury. And who was the other?”