章节正文
The Crystal Stopper
by Maurice LeBlanc
CHAPTER I
THE ARRESTS
The two boats fastened to the little pier that jutted out from the garden
lay rocking in its shadow. Here and there lighted windows showed through
the thick mist on the margins of the lake. The Enghien Casino opposite
blazed with light, though it was late in the season, the end of September.
A few stars appeared through the clouds. A light breeze ruffled the
surface of the water.
Arsene Lupin left the summer-house where he was smoking a cigar and,
bending forward at the end of the pier:
"Growler?" he asked. "Masher?... Are you there?"
A man rose from each of the boats, and one of them answered:
"Yes, governor."
"Get ready. I hear the car coming with Gilbert and Vaucheray."
He crossed the garden, walked round a house in process of construction,
the scaffolding of which loomed overhead, and cautiously opened the door
on the Avenue de Ceinture. He was not mistaken: a bright light flashed
round the bend and a large, open motor-car drew up, whencesprang two
men in great-coats, with the collars turned up, and caps.
It was Gilbert and Vaucheray: Gilbert, a young fellow of twenty or
twenty-two, with an attractive cast of features and a supple and sinewy
frame; Vaucheray, older, shorter, with grizzled hair and a pale, sickly
face.
"Well," asked Lupin, "did you see him, the deputy?"
"Yes, governor," said Gilbert, "we saw him take the 7.40 tram for Paris,
as we knew he would."
"Then we are free to act?"
"Absolutely. The Villa Marie-Therese is ours to do as we please with."
The chauffeur had kept his seat. Lupin gave him his orders:
"Don't wait here. It might attract attention. Be back at half-past nine
exactly, in time to load the car unless the whole business falls through."
Why should it fall through?" observed Gilbert.
The motor drove away; and Lupin, taking the road to the lake with his two
companions, replied:
"Why? Because I didn't prepare the plan; and, when I don't do a thing
myself, I am only half-confident."
"Nonsense, governor! I've been working with you for three years
now... I'm beginning to know the ropes!"
"Yes, my lad, you're beginning," said Lupin, "and that's just why I'm
afraid of blunders... Here, get in with me... And you, Vaucheray, take
the other boat... That's it... And now push off, boys... and make as
little noise as you can."
Growler and Masher, the two oarsmen, made straight for the opposite bank,
a little to the left of the casino.
They met a boat containing a couple locked in each other's arms, floating
at random, and another in which a number of people were singing at the
top of their voices. And that was all.
Lupin shifted closer to his companion and said, under his breath:
"Tell me, Gilbert, did you think of this job, or was it Vaucheray's idea?"
"Upon my word, I couldn't tell you: we've both of us been discussing it
for weeks."
"The thing is, I don't trust Vaucheray: he's a low ruflian when one gets
to know him... I can't make out why I don't get rid of him... "
"Oh, governor!"
"Yes, yes, I mean what I say: he's a dangerous fellow, to say nothing of
the fact that he has some rather serious peccadilloes on his conscience."
He sat silent for a moment and continued:
"So you're quite sure that you saw Daubrecq the deputy?"
"Saw him with my own eyes, governor."
"And you know that he has an appointment in Paris?"
"He's going to the theatre."
"Very well; but his servants have remained behind at the Enghien
villa... ."
"The cook has been sent away. As for the valet, Leonard, who is
Daubrecq's confidential man, he'll wait for his master in Paris. They
can't get back from town before one o'clock in the morning. But... "
"But what?"
"We must reckon with a possible freak of fancy on Daubrecq's part, a
change of mind, an unexpected return, and so arrange to have everything
finished and done with in an hour."
"And when did you get these details?"
"This morning. Vaucheray and I at once thought that it was a favourable
moment. I selected the garden of the unfinished house which we have just
left as the best place to start from; for the house is not watched at
night. I sent for two mates to row the boats; and I telephoned to you.
That's the whole story."
"Have you the keys?"
"The keys of the front-door."
"Is that the villa which I see from here, standing in its own grounds?"
"Yes, the Villa Marie-Therese; and as the two others, with the gardens
touching it on either side, have been unoccupied since this day week,
we shall be able to remove what we please at our leisure; and I swear to
you, governor, it's well worth while."
"The job's much too simple," mumbled Lupin. "No charm about it!"
They landed in a little creek whence rose a few stone steps, under cover
of a mouldering roof. Lupin reflected that shipping the furniture would
be easy work. But, suddenly, he said:
"There are people at the villa. Look... a light."
"It's a gas-jet, governor. The light's not moving."
The Growler stayed by the boats, with instructions to keep watch, while
the Masher, the other rower, went to the gate on the Avenue de Ceinture,
and Lupin and his two companions crept in the shadow to the foot of the
steps.
Gilbert went up first. Groping in the dark, he inserted first the big
door-key and then the latch-key. Both turned easily in their locks, the
door opened and the three men walked in.
A gas-jet was flaring in the hall.
"You see, governor... " said Gilbert.
"Yes, yes," said Lupin, in a low voice, "but it seems to me that the
light which I saw shining did not come from here... "
"Where did it come from then?"
"I can't say... Is this the drawing-room?"
"No," replied Gilbert, who was not afraid to speak pretty loudly, "no.
By way of precaution, he keeps everything on the first floor, in his
bedroom and in the two rooms on either side of it."
"And where is the staircase?"
"On the right, behind the curtain."
Lupin moved to the curtain and was drawing the hanging aside when,
suddenly, at four steps on the left, a door opened and a head appeared,
a pallid man's head, with terrified eyes.
"Help! Murder!" shouted the man.
And he rushed back into the room.
"It's Leonard, the valet!" cried Gilbert.
"If he makes a fuss, I'll out him," growled Vaucheray.
"You'll jolly well do nothing of the sort, do you hear, Vaucheray?" said
Lupin, peremptorily. And he darted off in pursuit of the servant. He
first went through a dining-room, where he saw a lamp still lit, with
plates and a bottle around it, and he found Leonard at the further end
of a pantry, making vain efforts to open the window:
"Don't move, sportie! No kid! Ah, the brute!
He had thrown himself flat on the floor, on seeing Leonard raise his arm
at him. Three shots were fired in the dusk of the pantry; and then the
valet came tumbling to the ground, seized by the legs by Lupin, who
snatched his weapon from him and gripped him by the throat:
"Get out, you dirty brute!" he growled. "He very nearly did for me...
Here, Vaucheray, secure this gentleman!
He threw the light of his pocket-lantern on the servant's face and
chuckled:
"He's not a pretty gentleman either... You can't have a very clear
conscience, Leonard; besides, to play flunkey to Daubrecq the deputy... !
Have you finished, Vaucheray? I don't want to hang about here for ever!"
"There's no danger, governor," said Gilbert.
"Oh, really?... So you think that shots can't be heard?... "
"Quite impossible."
"No matter, we must look sharp. Vaucheray, take the lamp and let's go
upstairs."
He took Gilbert by the arm and, as he dragged him to the first floor:
"You ass," he said, "is that the way you make inquiries? Wasn't I right
to have my doubts?"
"Look here, governor, I couldn't know that he would change his mind and
come back to dinner."
"One's got to know everything when one has the honour of breaking into
people's houses. You numskull! I'll remember you and Vaucheray... a
nice pair of gossoons!... "
The sight of the furniture on the first floor pacified Lupin and he
started on his inventory with the satisfied air of a collector who has
looked in to treat himself to a few works of art:
"By Jingo! There's not much of it, but what there is is pucka! There's
nothing the matter with this representative of the people in the question
of taste. Four Aubusson chairs... A bureau signed 'Percier-Fontaine,' for
a wager... Two inlays by Gouttieres... A genuine Fragonard and a sham
Nattier which any American millionaire will swallow for the asking: in
short, a fortune... And there are curmudgeons who pretend that there's
nothing but faked stuff left. Dash it all, why don't they do as I do?
They should look about!"
Gilbert and Vaucheray, following Lupin's orders and instructions, at
once proceeded methodically to remove the bulkier pieces. The first boat
was filled in half an hour; and it was decided that the Growler and the
Masher should go on ahead and begin to load the motor-car.
Lupin went to see them start. On returning to the house, it struck him,
as he passed through the hall, that he heard a voice in the pantry. He
went there and found Leonard lying flat on his stomach, quite alone,
with his hands tied behind his back:
"So it's you growling, my confidential flunkey? Don't get excited: it's
almost finished. Only, if you make too much noise, you'll oblige us to
take severer measures... Do you like pears? We might give you one, you
know: a choke-pear!... "
As he went upstairs, he again heard the same sound and, stopping to
listen, he caught these words, uttered in a hoarse, groaning voice, which
came, beyond a doubt, from the pantry:
"Help!... Murder!... Help!... I shall be killed!... Inform the commissary!"
"The fellow's clean off his chump!" muttered Lupin. "By Jove!... To
disturb the police at nine o'clock in the evening: there's a notion for
you!"
He set to work again. It took longer than he expected, for they
discovered in the cupboards all sorts of valuable knickknacks which it
would have been very wrong to disdain and, on the other hand, Vaucheray
and Gilbert were going about their investigations with signs of
laboured concentration that nonplussed him.
At long last, he lost his patience:
"That will do!" he said. "We're not going to spoil the whole job and
keep the motor waiting for the sake of the few odd bits that remain.
I'm taking the boat."
They were now by the waterside and Lupin went down the steps. Gilbert
held him back:
"I say, governor, we want one more look round five minutes, no longer."
"But what for, dash it all?"
"Well, it's like this: we were told of an old reliquary, something
stunning... "
"Well?"
"We can't lay our hands on it. And I was thinking... There's a cupboard
with a big lock to it in the pantry... You see, we can't very well... "
He was already on his way to the villa. Vaucheray ran back too.
"I'll give you ten minutes, not a second longer!" cried Lupin. "In ten
minutes, I'm off."
But the ten minutes passed and he was still waiting.
He looked at his watch:
"A quarter-past nine," he said to himself. "This is madness."
And he also remembered that Gilbert and Vaucheray had behaved rather
by Maurice LeBlanc
CHAPTER I
THE ARRESTS
The two boats fastened to the little pier that jutted out from the garden
lay rocking in its shadow. Here and there lighted windows showed through
the thick mist on the margins of the lake. The Enghien Casino opposite
blazed with light, though it was late in the season, the end of September.
A few stars appeared through the clouds. A light breeze ruffled the
surface of the water.
Arsene Lupin left the summer-house where he was smoking a cigar and,
bending forward at the end of the pier:
"Growler?" he asked. "Masher?... Are you there?"
A man rose from each of the boats, and one of them answered:
"Yes, governor."
"Get ready. I hear the car coming with Gilbert and Vaucheray."
He crossed the garden, walked round a house in process of construction,
the scaffolding of which loomed overhead, and cautiously opened the door
on the Avenue de Ceinture. He was not mistaken: a bright light flashed
round the bend and a large, open motor-car drew up, whencesprang two
men in great-coats, with the collars turned up, and caps.
It was Gilbert and Vaucheray: Gilbert, a young fellow of twenty or
twenty-two, with an attractive cast of features and a supple and sinewy
frame; Vaucheray, older, shorter, with grizzled hair and a pale, sickly
face.
"Well," asked Lupin, "did you see him, the deputy?"
"Yes, governor," said Gilbert, "we saw him take the 7.40 tram for Paris,
as we knew he would."
"Then we are free to act?"
"Absolutely. The Villa Marie-Therese is ours to do as we please with."
The chauffeur had kept his seat. Lupin gave him his orders:
"Don't wait here. It might attract attention. Be back at half-past nine
exactly, in time to load the car unless the whole business falls through."
Why should it fall through?" observed Gilbert.
The motor drove away; and Lupin, taking the road to the lake with his two
companions, replied:
"Why? Because I didn't prepare the plan; and, when I don't do a thing
myself, I am only half-confident."
"Nonsense, governor! I've been working with you for three years
now... I'm beginning to know the ropes!"
"Yes, my lad, you're beginning," said Lupin, "and that's just why I'm
afraid of blunders... Here, get in with me... And you, Vaucheray, take
the other boat... That's it... And now push off, boys... and make as
little noise as you can."
Growler and Masher, the two oarsmen, made straight for the opposite bank,
a little to the left of the casino.
They met a boat containing a couple locked in each other's arms, floating
at random, and another in which a number of people were singing at the
top of their voices. And that was all.
Lupin shifted closer to his companion and said, under his breath:
"Tell me, Gilbert, did you think of this job, or was it Vaucheray's idea?"
"Upon my word, I couldn't tell you: we've both of us been discussing it
for weeks."
"The thing is, I don't trust Vaucheray: he's a low ruflian when one gets
to know him... I can't make out why I don't get rid of him... "
"Oh, governor!"
"Yes, yes, I mean what I say: he's a dangerous fellow, to say nothing of
the fact that he has some rather serious peccadilloes on his conscience."
He sat silent for a moment and continued:
"So you're quite sure that you saw Daubrecq the deputy?"
"Saw him with my own eyes, governor."
"And you know that he has an appointment in Paris?"
"He's going to the theatre."
"Very well; but his servants have remained behind at the Enghien
villa... ."
"The cook has been sent away. As for the valet, Leonard, who is
Daubrecq's confidential man, he'll wait for his master in Paris. They
can't get back from town before one o'clock in the morning. But... "
"But what?"
"We must reckon with a possible freak of fancy on Daubrecq's part, a
change of mind, an unexpected return, and so arrange to have everything
finished and done with in an hour."
"And when did you get these details?"
"This morning. Vaucheray and I at once thought that it was a favourable
moment. I selected the garden of the unfinished house which we have just
left as the best place to start from; for the house is not watched at
night. I sent for two mates to row the boats; and I telephoned to you.
That's the whole story."
"Have you the keys?"
"The keys of the front-door."
"Is that the villa which I see from here, standing in its own grounds?"
"Yes, the Villa Marie-Therese; and as the two others, with the gardens
touching it on either side, have been unoccupied since this day week,
we shall be able to remove what we please at our leisure; and I swear to
you, governor, it's well worth while."
"The job's much too simple," mumbled Lupin. "No charm about it!"
They landed in a little creek whence rose a few stone steps, under cover
of a mouldering roof. Lupin reflected that shipping the furniture would
be easy work. But, suddenly, he said:
"There are people at the villa. Look... a light."
"It's a gas-jet, governor. The light's not moving."
The Growler stayed by the boats, with instructions to keep watch, while
the Masher, the other rower, went to the gate on the Avenue de Ceinture,
and Lupin and his two companions crept in the shadow to the foot of the
steps.
Gilbert went up first. Groping in the dark, he inserted first the big
door-key and then the latch-key. Both turned easily in their locks, the
door opened and the three men walked in.
A gas-jet was flaring in the hall.
"You see, governor... " said Gilbert.
"Yes, yes," said Lupin, in a low voice, "but it seems to me that the
light which I saw shining did not come from here... "
"Where did it come from then?"
"I can't say... Is this the drawing-room?"
"No," replied Gilbert, who was not afraid to speak pretty loudly, "no.
By way of precaution, he keeps everything on the first floor, in his
bedroom and in the two rooms on either side of it."
"And where is the staircase?"
"On the right, behind the curtain."
Lupin moved to the curtain and was drawing the hanging aside when,
suddenly, at four steps on the left, a door opened and a head appeared,
a pallid man's head, with terrified eyes.
"Help! Murder!" shouted the man.
And he rushed back into the room.
"It's Leonard, the valet!" cried Gilbert.
"If he makes a fuss, I'll out him," growled Vaucheray.
"You'll jolly well do nothing of the sort, do you hear, Vaucheray?" said
Lupin, peremptorily. And he darted off in pursuit of the servant. He
first went through a dining-room, where he saw a lamp still lit, with
plates and a bottle around it, and he found Leonard at the further end
of a pantry, making vain efforts to open the window:
"Don't move, sportie! No kid! Ah, the brute!
He had thrown himself flat on the floor, on seeing Leonard raise his arm
at him. Three shots were fired in the dusk of the pantry; and then the
valet came tumbling to the ground, seized by the legs by Lupin, who
snatched his weapon from him and gripped him by the throat:
"Get out, you dirty brute!" he growled. "He very nearly did for me...
Here, Vaucheray, secure this gentleman!
He threw the light of his pocket-lantern on the servant's face and
chuckled:
"He's not a pretty gentleman either... You can't have a very clear
conscience, Leonard; besides, to play flunkey to Daubrecq the deputy... !
Have you finished, Vaucheray? I don't want to hang about here for ever!"
"There's no danger, governor," said Gilbert.
"Oh, really?... So you think that shots can't be heard?... "
"Quite impossible."
"No matter, we must look sharp. Vaucheray, take the lamp and let's go
upstairs."
He took Gilbert by the arm and, as he dragged him to the first floor:
"You ass," he said, "is that the way you make inquiries? Wasn't I right
to have my doubts?"
"Look here, governor, I couldn't know that he would change his mind and
come back to dinner."
"One's got to know everything when one has the honour of breaking into
people's houses. You numskull! I'll remember you and Vaucheray... a
nice pair of gossoons!... "
The sight of the furniture on the first floor pacified Lupin and he
started on his inventory with the satisfied air of a collector who has
looked in to treat himself to a few works of art:
"By Jingo! There's not much of it, but what there is is pucka! There's
nothing the matter with this representative of the people in the question
of taste. Four Aubusson chairs... A bureau signed 'Percier-Fontaine,' for
a wager... Two inlays by Gouttieres... A genuine Fragonard and a sham
Nattier which any American millionaire will swallow for the asking: in
short, a fortune... And there are curmudgeons who pretend that there's
nothing but faked stuff left. Dash it all, why don't they do as I do?
They should look about!"
Gilbert and Vaucheray, following Lupin's orders and instructions, at
once proceeded methodically to remove the bulkier pieces. The first boat
was filled in half an hour; and it was decided that the Growler and the
Masher should go on ahead and begin to load the motor-car.
Lupin went to see them start. On returning to the house, it struck him,
as he passed through the hall, that he heard a voice in the pantry. He
went there and found Leonard lying flat on his stomach, quite alone,
with his hands tied behind his back:
"So it's you growling, my confidential flunkey? Don't get excited: it's
almost finished. Only, if you make too much noise, you'll oblige us to
take severer measures... Do you like pears? We might give you one, you
know: a choke-pear!... "
As he went upstairs, he again heard the same sound and, stopping to
listen, he caught these words, uttered in a hoarse, groaning voice, which
came, beyond a doubt, from the pantry:
"Help!... Murder!... Help!... I shall be killed!... Inform the commissary!"
"The fellow's clean off his chump!" muttered Lupin. "By Jove!... To
disturb the police at nine o'clock in the evening: there's a notion for
you!"
He set to work again. It took longer than he expected, for they
discovered in the cupboards all sorts of valuable knickknacks which it
would have been very wrong to disdain and, on the other hand, Vaucheray
and Gilbert were going about their investigations with signs of
laboured concentration that nonplussed him.
At long last, he lost his patience:
"That will do!" he said. "We're not going to spoil the whole job and
keep the motor waiting for the sake of the few odd bits that remain.
I'm taking the boat."
They were now by the waterside and Lupin went down the steps. Gilbert
held him back:
"I say, governor, we want one more look round five minutes, no longer."
"But what for, dash it all?"
"Well, it's like this: we were told of an old reliquary, something
stunning... "
"Well?"
"We can't lay our hands on it. And I was thinking... There's a cupboard
with a big lock to it in the pantry... You see, we can't very well... "
He was already on his way to the villa. Vaucheray ran back too.
"I'll give you ten minutes, not a second longer!" cried Lupin. "In ten
minutes, I'm off."
But the ten minutes passed and he was still waiting.
He looked at his watch:
"A quarter-past nine," he said to himself. "This is madness."
And he also remembered that Gilbert and Vaucheray had behaved rather
- crystal [´kristəl]
n.水晶 a.水晶的 (初中英语单词) - breeze [bri:z] n.微风；不费力的事 (初中英语单词)
- overhead [´əuvə,hed] ad.当头 a.在头上的 (初中英语单词)
- sprang [spræŋ] spring 的过去式 (初中英语单词)
- attractive [ə´træktiv] a.有吸引力；诱人的 (初中英语单词)
- working [´wə:kiŋ] a.工人的；劳动的 (初中英语单词)
- beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
- companion [kəm´pæniən] n.同伴；同事；伴侣 (初中英语单词)
- reckon [´rekən] v.计算；认为；估计 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- governor [´gʌvənə] n.总督；州长 (初中英语单词)
- shipping [´ʃipiŋ] n.船运业；船舶(总数) (初中英语单词)
- pursuit [pə´sju:t] n.追踪；追击；事务 (初中英语单词)
- weapon [´wepən] n.武器；斗争手段 (初中英语单词)
- bureau [´bjuərəu] n.局；编辑部；事务所 (初中英语单词)
- swallow [swɔləu] n.燕子 v.吞，咽；淹没 (初中英语单词)
- pretend [pri´tend] v.假装；借口；妄求 (初中英语单词)
- stomach [´stʌmək] n.胃；胃口，食欲 (初中英语单词)
- oblige [ə´blaidʒ] vt.责成；迫使；使感激 (初中英语单词)
- valuable [´væljuəbəl, -jubəl] a.有价值的，贵重的 (初中英语单词)
- concentration [,kɔnsən´treiʃən] n.集中，专心 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- cautiously [´kɔ:ʃəsli] ad.小心地；谨慎地 (高中英语单词)
- mistaken [mis´teikən] mistake的过去分词 (高中英语单词)
- random [´rændəm] n.偶然的行动 (高中英语单词)
- unexpected [ʌniks´pektid] a.突然的；意外的 (高中英语单词)
- leisure [´leʒə] n.空闲；悠闲；安定 (高中英语单词)
- precaution [pri´kɔ:ʃən] n.预防 vt.预先警告 (高中英语单词)
- hanging [´hæŋiŋ] n.绞刑 a.悬挂着的 (高中英语单词)
- pantry [´pæntri] n.食品室；餐具室 (高中英语单词)
- seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
- deputy [´depjuti] n.代理人；代表 (高中英语单词)
- genuine [´dʒenjuin] a.真正的；真诚的 (高中英语单词)
- millionaire [,miljə´neə] n.百万富翁 (高中英语单词)
- decided [di´saidid] a.明显的；决定的 (高中英语单词)
- disdain [dis´dein] vt.&n.藐视，轻视 (高中英语单词)
- whence [wens] ad.从何处；从那里 (英语四级单词)
- chauffeur [´ʃəufə,ʃeu´fə:] n.(汽车)司机 (英语四级单词)
- confidential [,kɔnfi´denʃəl] a.极受信任的；心腹的 (英语四级单词)
- unfinished [´ʌn´finiʃt] a.未完成的，未完工的 (英语四级单词)
- drawing [´drɔ:iŋ] n.画图；制图；图样 (英语四级单词)
- collector [kə´lektə] n.收款(税)员；收藏家 (英语四级单词)
- upstairs [,ʌp´steəz] ad.在楼上 a.楼上的 (英语四级单词)
- hoarse [hɔ:s] a.嘶哑的；嗓门粗哑的 (英语四级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- unoccupied [ʌn´ɔkjupaid] a.空闲的，没人住的 (英语六级单词)
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