章节正文
well to hope that this one could be solved other than in the course of
events. But, feeling very much put out and exceedinglyuneasy, he then
and there locked up his entresol flat in the Rue Matignon and swore that
he would never set foot in it again.
And he applied himself forthwith to the question of corresponding with
Vaucheray or Gilbert.
Here a fresh disappointment awaited him. It was so clearly understood,
both at the Sante Prison and at the Law Courts, that all communication
between Lupin and the prisoners must be absolutely prevented, that a
multitude of minute precautions were ordered by the prefect of police
and minutely observed by the lowest subordinates. Tried policemen,
always the same men, watched Gilbert and Vaucheray, day and night, and
never let them out of their sight.
Lupin, at this time, had not yet promoted himself to the crowning honour
of his career, the post of chief of the detective~service,* and,
consequently, was not able to take steps at the Law Courts to insure the
execution of his plans. After a fortnight of fruitless endeavours, he
was obliged to bow.
__________________________________________________________________________
*See 813, by Maurice Leblanc, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.
__________________________________________________________________________
He did so with a raging heart and a growing sense of anxiety.
"The difficult part of a business," he often says, "is not the finish,
but the start."
Where was he to start in the present circumstances? What road was he to
follow?
His thoughts recurred to Daubrecq the deputy, the original owner of the
crystal stopper, who probably knew its importance. On the other hand,
how was Gilbert aware of the doings and mode of life of Daubrecq the
deputy? What means had he employed to keep him under observation? Who
had told him of the place where Daubrecq spent the evening of that day?
These were all interesting questions to solve.
Daubrecq had moved to his winter quarters in Paris immediately after the
burglary at the Villa Marie-Therese and was now living in his own house,
on the left-hand side of the little Square Lamartine that opens out at
the end of the Avenue Victor-Hugo.
First disguising himself as an old gentleman of private means, strolling
about, cane in hand, Lupin spent his time in the neighbourhood, on the
benches of the square and the avenue. He made a discovery on the first
day. Two men, dressed as workmen, but behaving in a manner that left no
doubt as to their aims, were watching the deputy's house. When Daubrecq
went out, they set off in pursuit of him; and they were immediately
behind him when he came home again. At night, as soon as the lights were
out, they went away.
Lupin shadowed them in his turn. They were detective-officers.
"Hullo, hullo!" he said to himself. "This is hardly what I expected.
So the Daubrecq bird is under suspicion?"
But, on the fourth day, at nightfall, the two men were joined by six
others, who conversed with them in the darkest part of the Square
Lamartine. And, among these new arrivals, Lupin was vastly astonished
to recognize, by his figure and bearing, the famous Prasville, the
erstwhile barrister, sportsman and explorer, now favourite at the Elysee,
who, for some mysterious reason, had been pitchforked into the
headquarters of police as secretary-general, with the reversion of the
prefecture.
And, suddenly, Lupin remembered: two years ago, Prasville and Daubrecq
the deputy had had a personal encounter on the Place du Palais-Bourbon.
The incident made a great stir at the time. No one knew the cause of it.
Prasville had sent his seconds to Daubrecq on the same day; but Daubrecq
refused to fight.
A little while later, Prasville was appointed secretary-general.
"Very odd, very odd," said Lupin, who remained plunged in thought, while
continuing to observe Prasvile's movements.
At seven o'clock Prasville's group of men moved away a few yards, in the
direction of the Avenue Henri-Martin. The door of a small garden on the
right of the house opened and Daubrecq appeared. The two detectives
followed close behind him and, when he took the Rue-Taitbout train,
jumped on after him.
Prasville at once walked across the square and rang the bell. The
garden-gate was between the house and the porter's lodge. The portress
came and opened it. There was a brief conversation, after which
Prasville and his companions were admitted.
"A domiciliary visit," said Lupin. "Secret and illegal. By the strict
rules of politeness, I ought to be invited. My presence is indispensable."
Without the least hesitation he went up to the house, the door of which
had not been closed, and, passing in front of the portress, who was
casting her eyes outside, he asked, in the hurried tones of a person who
is late for an appointment:
"Have the gentlemen come?"
"Yes, you will find them in the study."
His plan was quite simple: if any one met him, he would pretend to be a
tradesman. But there was no need for this subterfuge. He was able,
after crossing an empty hail, to enter a dining-room which also had no
one in it, but which, through the panes of a glass partition that
separated the dining-room from the study, afforded him a view of
Prasville and his five companions.
Prasville opened all the drawers with the aid of false keys. Next, he
examined all the papers, while his companions took down the books from
the shelves, shook the pages of each separately and felt inside the
bindings.
"Of course, it's a paper they're looking for," said Lupin. "Bank-notes,
perhaps... "
Prasville exclaimed:
"Whatrot! We shan't find a thing!"
Yet he obviously did not abandon all hope of discovering what he wanted,
for he suddenly seized the four bottles in a liqueur-stand, took out the
four stoppers and inspected them.
"Hullo!" thought Lupin. "Now he's going for decanter-stoppers! Then
it's not a question of a paper? Well, I give it up."
Prasville next lifted and examined different objects; and he asked:
"How often have you been here?"
"Six times last winter," was the reply.
"And you have searched the house thoroughly?"
"Every one of the rooms, for days at a time, while he was visiting his
constituency."
"Still... still ... ." And he added, "Has he no servant at present?"
"No, he is looking for one. He has his meals out and the portress keeps
the house as best she can. The woman is devoted to us... "
Prasville persisted in his investigations for nearly an hour and a half,
shifting and fingering all the knickknacks, but taking care to put
everything back exactly where he found it. At nine o'clock, however,
the two detectives who had followed Daubrecq burst into the study:
"He's coming back!"
"On foot?"
"Yes."
"Have we time?"
"Oh, dear, yes!"
Prasville and the men from the police-office withdrew, without undue
haste, after taking a last glance round the room to make sure that there
was nothing to betray their visit.
The position was becoming critical for Lupin. He ran the risk of
knocking up against Daubrecq, if he went away, or of not being able to
get out, if he remained. But, on ascertaining that the dining-room
windows afforded a direct means of exit to the square, he resolved to
stay. Besides, the opportunity of obtaining a close view of Daubrecq
was too good to refuse; and, as Daubrecq had been out to dinner, there
was not much chance of his entering the dining-room.
Lupin, therefore, waited, holding himself ready to hide behind a velvet
curtain that could be drawn across the glazed partition in case of need.
He heard the sound of doors opening and shutting. Some one walked into
the study and switched on the light. He recognized Daubrecq.
The deputy was a stout, thickset, bull-necked man, very nearly bald,
with a fringe of gray whiskers round his chin and wearing a pair of black
eye-glasses under his spectacles, for his eyes were weak and strained.
Lupin noticed the powerful features, the square chin, the prominent
cheek-bones. The hands were brawny and covered with hair, the legs bowed;
and he walked with a stoop, bearing first on one hip and then on the
other, which gave him something of the gait of a gorilla. But the face
was topped by an enormous, lined forehead, indented with hollows and
dotted with bumps.
There was something bestial, something savage, something repulsive about
the man's whole personality. Lupin remembered that, in the Chamber of
Deputies, Daubrecq was nicknamed" The Wild Man of the Woods" and that he
was so labelled not only because he stood aloof and hardly ever mixed
with his fellow-members, but also because of his appearance, his
behaviour, his peculiar gait and his remarkablemuscular development.
He sat down to his desk, took a meerschaum pipe from his pocket, selected
a packet of caporal among several packets of tobacco which lay drying in
a bowl, tore open the wrapper, filled his pipe and lit it. Then he began
to write letters.
Presently he ceased his work and sat thinking, with his attention fixed
on a spot on his desk.
He lifted a little stamp-box and examined it. Next, he verified the
position of different articles which Prasville had touched and replaced;
and he searched them with his eyes, felt them with his hands, bending
over them as though certain signs, known to himself alone, were able to
tell him what he wished to know.
Lastly, he grasped the knob on an electric bell-push and rang. The
portress appeared a minute later.
He asked:
"They've been, haven't they?"
And, when the woman hesitated about replying, he insisted:
"Come, come, Clemence, did you open this stampbox?"
"No, sir."
"Well, I fastened the lid down with a little strip of gummed paper. The
strip has been broken."
"But I assure you,... " the woman began.
"Why tell lies," he said, "considering that I myself instructed you to
lend yourself to those visits?"
"The fact is... "
"The fact is that you want to keep on good terms with both sides... Very
well!" He handed her a fifty-franc note and repeated, "Have they been?"
"Yes."
"The same men as in the spring?"
"Yes, all five of them... with another one, who ordered them about."
"A tall, dark man?"
Yes."
Lupin saw Daubrecq's mouth hardening; and Daubrecq continued:
"Is that all?"
"There was one more, who came after they did and joined them... and then,
just now, two more, the pair who usually keep watch outside the house."
"Did they remain in the study?"
"Yes, sir."
"And they went away when I came back? A few minutes before, perhaps?"
"Yes, sir."
"That will do."
The woman left the room. Daubrecq returned to his letter-writing. Then,
stretching out his arm, he made some marks on a white writing-tablet, at
the end of his desk, and rested it against the desk, as though he wished
to keep it in sight. The marks were figures; and Lupin was able to read
the following subtraction-sum:
"9- 8 =1"
And Daubrecq, speaking between his teeth, thoughtfully uttered the
syllables:
"Eight from nine leaves one... There's not a doubt about that," he added,
aloud. He wrote one more letter, a very short one, and addressed the
envelope with an inscription which Lupin was able to decipher when the
letter was placed beside the writing-tablet:
"To Monsieur Prasville,
"Secretary-general of the Prefecture of Police."
Then he rang the bell again:
events. But, feeling very much put out and exceedinglyuneasy, he then
and there locked up his entresol flat in the Rue Matignon and swore that
he would never set foot in it again.
And he applied himself forthwith to the question of corresponding with
Vaucheray or Gilbert.
Here a fresh disappointment awaited him. It was so clearly understood,
both at the Sante Prison and at the Law Courts, that all communication
between Lupin and the prisoners must be absolutely prevented, that a
multitude of minute precautions were ordered by the prefect of police
and minutely observed by the lowest subordinates. Tried policemen,
always the same men, watched Gilbert and Vaucheray, day and night, and
never let them out of their sight.
Lupin, at this time, had not yet promoted himself to the crowning honour
of his career, the post of chief of the detective~service,* and,
consequently, was not able to take steps at the Law Courts to insure the
execution of his plans. After a fortnight of fruitless endeavours, he
was obliged to bow.
__________________________________________________________________________
*See 813, by Maurice Leblanc, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.
__________________________________________________________________________
He did so with a raging heart and a growing sense of anxiety.
"The difficult part of a business," he often says, "is not the finish,
but the start."
Where was he to start in the present circumstances? What road was he to
follow?
His thoughts recurred to Daubrecq the deputy, the original owner of the
crystal stopper, who probably knew its importance. On the other hand,
how was Gilbert aware of the doings and mode of life of Daubrecq the
deputy? What means had he employed to keep him under observation? Who
had told him of the place where Daubrecq spent the evening of that day?
These were all interesting questions to solve.
Daubrecq had moved to his winter quarters in Paris immediately after the
burglary at the Villa Marie-Therese and was now living in his own house,
on the left-hand side of the little Square Lamartine that opens out at
the end of the Avenue Victor-Hugo.
First disguising himself as an old gentleman of private means, strolling
about, cane in hand, Lupin spent his time in the neighbourhood, on the
benches of the square and the avenue. He made a discovery on the first
day. Two men, dressed as workmen, but behaving in a manner that left no
doubt as to their aims, were watching the deputy's house. When Daubrecq
went out, they set off in pursuit of him; and they were immediately
behind him when he came home again. At night, as soon as the lights were
out, they went away.
Lupin shadowed them in his turn. They were detective-officers.
"Hullo, hullo!" he said to himself. "This is hardly what I expected.
So the Daubrecq bird is under suspicion?"
But, on the fourth day, at nightfall, the two men were joined by six
others, who conversed with them in the darkest part of the Square
Lamartine. And, among these new arrivals, Lupin was vastly astonished
to recognize, by his figure and bearing, the famous Prasville, the
erstwhile barrister, sportsman and explorer, now favourite at the Elysee,
who, for some mysterious reason, had been pitchforked into the
headquarters of police as secretary-general, with the reversion of the
prefecture.
And, suddenly, Lupin remembered: two years ago, Prasville and Daubrecq
the deputy had had a personal encounter on the Place du Palais-Bourbon.
The incident made a great stir at the time. No one knew the cause of it.
Prasville had sent his seconds to Daubrecq on the same day; but Daubrecq
refused to fight.
A little while later, Prasville was appointed secretary-general.
"Very odd, very odd," said Lupin, who remained plunged in thought, while
continuing to observe Prasvile's movements.
At seven o'clock Prasville's group of men moved away a few yards, in the
direction of the Avenue Henri-Martin. The door of a small garden on the
right of the house opened and Daubrecq appeared. The two detectives
followed close behind him and, when he took the Rue-Taitbout train,
jumped on after him.
Prasville at once walked across the square and rang the bell. The
garden-gate was between the house and the porter's lodge. The portress
came and opened it. There was a brief conversation, after which
Prasville and his companions were admitted.
"A domiciliary visit," said Lupin. "Secret and illegal. By the strict
rules of politeness, I ought to be invited. My presence is indispensable."
Without the least hesitation he went up to the house, the door of which
had not been closed, and, passing in front of the portress, who was
casting her eyes outside, he asked, in the hurried tones of a person who
is late for an appointment:
"Have the gentlemen come?"
"Yes, you will find them in the study."
His plan was quite simple: if any one met him, he would pretend to be a
tradesman. But there was no need for this subterfuge. He was able,
after crossing an empty hail, to enter a dining-room which also had no
one in it, but which, through the panes of a glass partition that
separated the dining-room from the study, afforded him a view of
Prasville and his five companions.
Prasville opened all the drawers with the aid of false keys. Next, he
examined all the papers, while his companions took down the books from
the shelves, shook the pages of each separately and felt inside the
bindings.
"Of course, it's a paper they're looking for," said Lupin. "Bank-notes,
perhaps... "
Prasville exclaimed:
"Whatrot! We shan't find a thing!"
Yet he obviously did not abandon all hope of discovering what he wanted,
for he suddenly seized the four bottles in a liqueur-stand, took out the
four stoppers and inspected them.
"Hullo!" thought Lupin. "Now he's going for decanter-stoppers! Then
it's not a question of a paper? Well, I give it up."
Prasville next lifted and examined different objects; and he asked:
"How often have you been here?"
"Six times last winter," was the reply.
"And you have searched the house thoroughly?"
"Every one of the rooms, for days at a time, while he was visiting his
constituency."
"Still... still ... ." And he added, "Has he no servant at present?"
"No, he is looking for one. He has his meals out and the portress keeps
the house as best she can. The woman is devoted to us... "
Prasville persisted in his investigations for nearly an hour and a half,
shifting and fingering all the knickknacks, but taking care to put
everything back exactly where he found it. At nine o'clock, however,
the two detectives who had followed Daubrecq burst into the study:
"He's coming back!"
"On foot?"
"Yes."
"Have we time?"
"Oh, dear, yes!"
Prasville and the men from the police-office withdrew, without undue
haste, after taking a last glance round the room to make sure that there
was nothing to betray their visit.
The position was becoming critical for Lupin. He ran the risk of
knocking up against Daubrecq, if he went away, or of not being able to
get out, if he remained. But, on ascertaining that the dining-room
windows afforded a direct means of exit to the square, he resolved to
stay. Besides, the opportunity of obtaining a close view of Daubrecq
was too good to refuse; and, as Daubrecq had been out to dinner, there
was not much chance of his entering the dining-room.
Lupin, therefore, waited, holding himself ready to hide behind a velvet
curtain that could be drawn across the glazed partition in case of need.
He heard the sound of doors opening and shutting. Some one walked into
the study and switched on the light. He recognized Daubrecq.
The deputy was a stout, thickset, bull-necked man, very nearly bald,
with a fringe of gray whiskers round his chin and wearing a pair of black
eye-glasses under his spectacles, for his eyes were weak and strained.
Lupin noticed the powerful features, the square chin, the prominent
cheek-bones. The hands were brawny and covered with hair, the legs bowed;
and he walked with a stoop, bearing first on one hip and then on the
other, which gave him something of the gait of a gorilla. But the face
was topped by an enormous, lined forehead, indented with hollows and
dotted with bumps.
There was something bestial, something savage, something repulsive about
the man's whole personality. Lupin remembered that, in the Chamber of
Deputies, Daubrecq was nicknamed" The Wild Man of the Woods" and that he
was so labelled not only because he stood aloof and hardly ever mixed
with his fellow-members, but also because of his appearance, his
behaviour, his peculiar gait and his remarkablemuscular development.
He sat down to his desk, took a meerschaum pipe from his pocket, selected
a packet of caporal among several packets of tobacco which lay drying in
a bowl, tore open the wrapper, filled his pipe and lit it. Then he began
to write letters.
Presently he ceased his work and sat thinking, with his attention fixed
on a spot on his desk.
He lifted a little stamp-box and examined it. Next, he verified the
position of different articles which Prasville had touched and replaced;
and he searched them with his eyes, felt them with his hands, bending
over them as though certain signs, known to himself alone, were able to
tell him what he wished to know.
Lastly, he grasped the knob on an electric bell-push and rang. The
portress appeared a minute later.
He asked:
"They've been, haven't they?"
And, when the woman hesitated about replying, he insisted:
"Come, come, Clemence, did you open this stampbox?"
"No, sir."
"Well, I fastened the lid down with a little strip of gummed paper. The
strip has been broken."
"But I assure you,... " the woman began.
"Why tell lies," he said, "considering that I myself instructed you to
lend yourself to those visits?"
"The fact is... "
"The fact is that you want to keep on good terms with both sides... Very
well!" He handed her a fifty-franc note and repeated, "Have they been?"
"Yes."
"The same men as in the spring?"
"Yes, all five of them... with another one, who ordered them about."
"A tall, dark man?"
Yes."
Lupin saw Daubrecq's mouth hardening; and Daubrecq continued:
"Is that all?"
"There was one more, who came after they did and joined them... and then,
just now, two more, the pair who usually keep watch outside the house."
"Did they remain in the study?"
"Yes, sir."
"And they went away when I came back? A few minutes before, perhaps?"
"Yes, sir."
"That will do."
The woman left the room. Daubrecq returned to his letter-writing. Then,
stretching out his arm, he made some marks on a white writing-tablet, at
the end of his desk, and rested it against the desk, as though he wished
to keep it in sight. The marks were figures; and Lupin was able to read
the following subtraction-sum:
"9- 8 =1"
And Daubrecq, speaking between his teeth, thoughtfully uttered the
syllables:
"Eight from nine leaves one... There's not a doubt about that," he added,
aloud. He wrote one more letter, a very short one, and addressed the
envelope with an inscription which Lupin was able to decipher when the
letter was placed beside the writing-tablet:
"To Monsieur Prasville,
"Secretary-general of the Prefecture of Police."
Then he rang the bell again:
- disappointment [,disə´pɔintmənt]
n.失望；挫折 (初中英语单词) - absolutely [´æbsəlu:tli] ad.绝对地；确实 (初中英语单词)
- career [kə´riə] n.经历；生涯；职业 (初中英语单词)
- doings [´du:iŋz] n.行动；所作的事 (初中英语单词)
- observation [,ɔbzə´veiʃən] n.观测；注意；意义 (初中英语单词)
- pursuit [pə´sju:t] n.追踪；追击；事务 (初中英语单词)
- sportsman [´spɔ:tsmən] n.运动员；好运动的人 (初中英语单词)
- mysterious [mi´stiəriəs] a.神秘的；难以理解的 (初中英语单词)
- encounter [in´kauntə] vt.&n.偶然相遇；冲突 (初中英语单词)
- incident [´insidənt] n.小事件；事变 (初中英语单词)
- pretend [pri´tend] v.假装；借口；妄求 (初中英语单词)
- obviously [´ɔbviəsli] ad.明显地；显而易见地 (初中英语单词)
- abandon [ə´bændən] vt.抛弃，放弃，离弃 (初中英语单词)
- betray [bi´trei] vt.背叛；辜负；暴露 (初中英语单词)
- therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
- opening [´əupəniŋ] n.开放；开端 a.开始的 (初中英语单词)
- enormous [i´nɔ:məs] a.巨大地，很，极 (初中英语单词)
- forehead [´fɔrid] n.额，前部 (初中英语单词)
- savage [´sævidʒ] a.野蛮的 n.蛮人 (初中英语单词)
- personality [,pə:sə´næliti] n.人；个性；人品；人物 (初中英语单词)
- peculiar [pi´kju:liə] a.特有的；奇异的 (初中英语单词)
- remarkable [ri´mɑ:kəbl] a.值得注意的；显著的 (初中英语单词)
- tobacco [tə´bækəu] n.烟草(叶)；卷烟 (初中英语单词)
- monsieur [mə´sjə:] n.先生 (初中英语单词)
- exceedingly [ik´si:diŋli] ad.非常地，极度地 (高中英语单词)
- uneasy [ʌn´i:zi] a.不安的；不自在的 (高中英语单词)
- forthwith [fɔ:θ´wið] ad.立刻 (高中英语单词)
- insure [in´ʃuə] vt.给...保险 (高中英语单词)
- fortnight [´fɔ:tnait] n.两星期 (高中英语单词)
- deputy [´depjuti] n.代理人；代表 (高中英语单词)
- bearing [´beəriŋ] n.举止；忍耐；关系 (高中英语单词)
- explorer [ik´splɔ:rə] n.勘探者；探险家 (高中英语单词)
- hesitation [,hezi´teiʃən] n.犹豫，踌躇 (高中英语单词)
- hurried [´hʌrid] a.仓促的，慌忙的 (高中英语单词)
- partition [pɑ:´tiʃən] n.分割；划分 (高中英语单词)
- shelves [ʃelvz] shelf的复数 (高中英语单词)
- withdrew [wið´dru:] withdraw的过去式 (高中英语单词)
- critical [´kritikəl] a.批评的；关键性的 (高中英语单词)
- fringe [´frindʒ] n.穗；边缘；刘海 (高中英语单词)
- chamber [´tʃeimbə] n.房间；议院；会议室 (高中英语单词)
- muscular [´mʌskjulə] a.肌肉的；强有力的 (高中英语单词)
- repeated [ri´pi:tid] a.反复的；重复的 (高中英语单词)
- thoughtfully [´θɔ:tfuli] ad.深思地；体贴地 (高中英语单词)
- inscription [in´skripʃən] n.题名；题字；碑文 (高中英语单词)
- corresponding [,kɔri´spɔndiŋ] a.符合的；相当的 (英语四级单词)
- workmen [´wə:kmen] n.workman的复数 (英语四级单词)
- vastly [´vɑ:stli, ´væstli] ad.巨大地；广阔地 (英语四级单词)
- separately [´sepəritli] ad.分离地；孤独地 (英语四级单词)
- devoted [di´vəutid] a.献身...的，忠实的 (英语四级单词)
- resolved [ri´zɔlvd] a.决心的；坚定的 (英语四级单词)
- packet [´pækit] n.盒 vt....打成小包 (英语四级单词)
- applied [ə´plaid] a.实用的，应用的 (英语六级单词)
- nightfall [´nait,fɔ:l] n.黄昏；傍晚 (英语六级单词)
- illegal [i´li:gəl] a.不合法的，非法的 (英语六级单词)
- politeness [pə´laitnis] n.礼貌；文雅；温和 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)
- speaking [´spi:kiŋ] n.说话 a.发言的 (英语六级单词)
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