The Essential Maurice Leblanc Collection. Морис Леблан
I am here. How could I have entered a house which they searched this morning from cellar to garret? No, in all probability they are waiting for me to catch me on the wing ... poor fellows!... Unless they have guessed that the unknown lady was sent by me and presume that she has been commissioned to effect the exchange.... In that case, they are preparing to arrest her when she leaves...."
The bell rang.
Lupin stopped M. Gerbois with an abrupt gesture and, in a harsh and peremptory voice, said:
"Stay where you are, sir! Think of your daughter and be reasonable; if not.... As for you, Matre Detinan, I have your word."
M. Gerbois stood rooted to the floor. The lawyer did not move.
Lupin took up his hat without the least show of haste. There was a little dust on it; he brushed it with the back of his coat-sleeve:
"My dear matre, if I can ever be of use to you.... My best wishes, Mlle. Suzanne, and kind regards to M. Philippe." He took a heavy gold hunter from his pocket. "M. Gerbois, it is now eighteen minutes to four: I authorize you to leave this room at fourteen minutes to four.... Not a moment before fourteen minutes to four.... Is it understood?"
"But they'll enter by force!" Matre Detinan could not help saying.
"You forget the law, my dear matre! Ganimard would never dare to violate the sanctity of a Frenchman's home. We should have time for a pleasant rubber. But forgive me, you all three seem a little upset and I would not for the world abuse...."
He placed the watch on the table, opened the door of the room and, addressing the fair-haired lady, said:
"Shall we go, dear?"
He stood back for her to pass, made a parting and very respectful bow to Mlle. Gerbois, walked out and closed the door after him. And they heard him, in the hall, saying aloud:
"Good-afternoon, Ganimard, how are you? Remember me very kindly to Mme. Ganimard.... I must drop in on her to lunch one of these days.... Good-bye, Ganimard!"
The bell rang again, sharply, violently, followed by repeated knocks and by the sound of voices on the landing....
"A quarter to four," stammered M. Gerbois.
After a few seconds, he stepped boldly into the hall. Arsne Lupin and the fair-haired lady were not there.
"Father!... You mustn't!... Wait!" cried Suzanne.
"Wait? You're mad!... Show consideration to that scoundrel!... And what about the half-million?..."
He opened the door.
Ganimard rushed in:
"Where's that lady?... And Lupin?"
"He was there ... he is there now."
Ganimard gave a shout of triumph:
"We've got him!... The house is surrounded."
Matre Detinan objected:
"But the servants' staircase?"
"The servants' staircase leads to the courtyard and there's only one outlet, the front door: I have ten men watching it."
"But he did not come in by the front door.... He won't go out that way either...."
"Which way, then?" jeered Ganimard. "Through the air?"
He drew back a curtain. A long passage was revealed, leading to the kitchen. Ganimard ran down it and found that the door of the servants' staircase was double-locked.
Opening the window, he called to one of the detectives:
"Seen any one?"
"No, sir."
"Then," he exclaimed, "they are in the flat!... They are hiding in one of the rooms!... It is physically impossible for them to have escaped.... Ah, Lupin, my lad, you did me once, but I'm having my revenge this time!..."
* * * * *
At seven o'clock in the evening, astonished at receiving no news, the head of the detective-service, M. Dudouis, called at the Rue Clapeyron in person. He put a few questions to the men who were watching the house and then went up to Matre Detinan, who took him to his room. There he saw a man, or rather a man's two legs struggling on the carpet, while the body to which they belonged was stuffed up the chimney.
"Hi!... Hi!..." yelped a stifled voice.
And a more distant voice, from right above, echoed:
"Hi!... Hi!..."
M. Dudouis laughed and exclaimed:
"Well, Ganimard, what are you playing sweep for?"
The inspector withdrew his body from the chimney. He was unrecognizable, with his black face, his sooty clothes and his eyes glowing with fever.
"I'm looking for him," he growled.
"For whom?"
"Arsne Lupin.... Arsne Lupin and his lady friend."
"But what next? You surely don't imagine they're hiding up the chimney?"
Ganimard rose to his feet, put his five soot-covered fingers on the sleeve of his superior's coat and, in a hollow, angry voice, said:
"Where would you have them be, chief? They must be somewhere. They are beings of flesh and blood, like you and me; they can't vanish into thin air."
"No; but they vanish for all that."
"Where? Where? The house is surrounded! There are men on the roof!"
"What about the next house?"
"There's no communication."
"The flats on the other floors?"
"I know all the tenants. They have seen nobody. They have heard nobody."
"Are you sure you know them all?"
"Every one. The porter answers for them. Besides, as an additional precaution, I have posted a man in each flat."
"We must find them, you know."
"That's what I say, chief, that's what I say. We must and we shall, because they are both here ... they can't be anywhere else. Be easy, chief; if I don't catch them to-night, I shall to-morrow.... I shall spend the night here!... I shall spend the night here!..."
He did, in fact, spend the night there and the next night and the night after that. And, when three whole days and three nights had elapsed, not only had he failed to discover the elusive Lupin and his no less elusive companion, but he had not even observed the slightest clue upon which to found the slightest supposition.
And that is why he refused to budge from his first opinion:
"Once there's no trace of their flight, they must be here!"
It is possible that, in the depths of his mind, he was less firmly convinced. But he refused to admit as much to himself. No, a thousand times no: a man and a woman do not vanish into space like the wicked genii in the fairy-tales! And, without losing courage, he continued his searchings and investigations, as though he hoped to discover them hidden in some impenetrable retreat, bricked up in the walls of the house.
CHAPTER II
THE BLUE DIAMOND
In the evening of the twenty-seventh of March, old General Baron d'Hautrec, who had been French Ambassador in Berlin under the Second Empire, was sleeping comfortably in an easy-chair in the house which his brother had left him six months before, at 134, Avenue Henri-Martin.