blush up to his eyes, as though he had been grossly insulted. He

experienced all the humiliation which a duellist would undergo if he
heard the most secret advice which he had received from his seconds

repeated aloud by a mocking adversary.
However, he held his tongue. Victoire went back to her work. As for

him, he remained in his room all day, thinking.
That night he did not sleep.

And he kept saying to himself:
"What is the good of thinking? I am up against one of those problems

which are not solved by any amount of thought. It is certain that I am
not alone in the matter and that, between Daubrecq and the police, there

is, in addition to the third thief that I am, a fourth thief who is
working on his own account, who knows me and who reads my game clearly.

But who is this fourth thief? And am I mistaken, by any chance? And...
oh, rot!... Let's get to sleep!... "

But he could not sleep; and a good part of the night went in this way.
At four o'clock in the morning he seemed to hear a noise in the house.

He jumped up quickly and, from the top of the staircase, saw Daubrecq
go down the first flight and turn toward the garden.

A minute later, after opening the gate, the deputy returned with a man
whose head was buried in an enormous fur collar and showed him into his

study.
Lupin had taken his precautions in view of any such contingency. As the

windows of the study and those of his bedroom, both of which were at the
back of the house, overlooked the garden, he fastened a rope-ladder to

his balcony, unrolled it softly and let himself down by it until it was
level with the top of the study windows.

These windows were closed by shutters; but, as they were bowed, there
remained a semi-circular space at the top; and Lupin, though he could

not hear, was able to see all that went on inside.
He then realized that the person whom he had taken for a man was a woman:

a woman who was still young, though her dark hair was mingled with gray;
a tall woman, elegantly but quite unobtrusively dressed, whose handsome

features bore the expression of weariness and melancholy which long
suffering gives.

"Where the deuce have I seen her before?" Lupin asked himself. "For I
certainly know that face, that look, that expression."

She stood leaning against the table, listening impassively to Daubrecq,
who was also standing and who was talking very excitedly. He had his

back turned to Lupin; but Lupin, leaning forward, caught sight of a
glass in which the deputy's image was reflected. And he was startled

to see the strange look in his eyes, the air of fierce and brutal
desire with which Daubrecq was staring at his visitor.

It seemed to embarrass her too, for she sat down with lowered lids.
Then Daubrecq leant over her and it appeared as though he were ready to

fling his long arms, with their huge hands, around her. And, suddenly,
Lupin perceived great tears rolling down the woman's sad face.

Whether or not it was the sight of those tears that made Daubrecq lose
his head, with a brusque movement he clutched the woman and drew her to

him. She repelled him, with a violence full of hatred. And, after a
brief struggle, during which Lupin caught a glimpse of the man's bestial

and contorted features, the two of them stood face to face, railing at
each other like mortal enemies.

Then they stopped. Daubrecq sat down. There was mischief in his face,
and sarcasm as well. And he began to talk again, with sharp taps on the

table, as though he were dictating terms.
She no longer stirred. She sat haughtily in her chair and towered over

him, absent-minded, with roaming eyes. Lupin, captivated by that
powerful and sorrowfulcountenance, continued to watch her; and he was

vainly seeking to remember of what or of whom she reminded him, when he
noticed that she had turned her head slightly and that she was

imperceptibly moving her arm.
And her arm strayed farther and farther and her hand crept along the

table and Lupin saw that, at the end of the table, there stood a
water-bottle with a gold-topped stopper. The hand reached the

water-bottle, felt it, rose gently and seized the stopper. A quick
movement of the head, a glance, and the stopper was put back in its

place. Obviously, it was not what the woman hoped to find.
"Dash it!" said Lupin. "She's after the crystal stopper too! The

matter is becoming more complicated daily; there's no doubt about it."
But, on renewing his observation of the visitor, he was astounded to

note the sudden and unexpected expression of her countenance,
a terrible, implacable, ferocious expression. And he saw that her hand

was continuing its stealthy progress round the table and that, with an
uninterrupted and crafty sliding movement, it was pushing back books

and, slowly and surely, approaching a dagger whose blade gleamed among
the scattered papers.

It gripped the handle.
Daubrecq went on talking. Behind his back, the hand rose steadily,

little by little; and Lupin saw the woman's desperate and furious eyes
fixed upon the spot in the neck where she intended to plant the knife:

"You're doing a very silly thing, fair lady," thought Lupin.
And he already began to turn over in his mind the best means of escaping

and of taking Victoire with him.
She hesitated, however, with uplifted arm. But it was only a momentary

weakness. She clenched her teeth. Her whole face, contracted with
hatred, became yet further convulsed. And she made the dread movement.

At the same instant Daubrecq crouched and, springing from his seat,
turned and seized the woman's frail wrist in mid-air.

Oddly enough, he addressed no reproach to her, as though the deed which
she had attempted surprised him no more than any ordinary, very natural

and simple act. He shrugged his shoulders, like a man accustomed to
that sort of danger, and strode up and down in silence.

She had dropped the weapon and was now crying, holding her head between
her hands, with sobs that shook her whole frame.

He next came up to her and said a few words, once more tapping the table
as he spoke.

She made a sign in the negative and, when he insisted, she, in her turn,
stamped her foot on the floor and exclaimed, loud enough for Lupin to

hear:
"Never!... Never!... "

Thereupon, without another word, Daubrecq fetched the fur cloak which
she had brought with her and hung it over the woman's shoulders, while

she shrouded her face in a lace wrap.
And he showed her out.

Two minutes later, the garden-gate was locked again. "Pity I can't run
after that strange person," thought Lupin, "and have a chat with her

about the Daubrecq bird. Seems to me that we two could do a good stroke
of business together."

In any case, there was one point to be cleared up: Daubrecq the deputy,
whose life was so orderly, so apparentlyrespectable, was in the habit

of receiving visits at night, when his house was no longer watched by
the police.

He sent Victoire to arrange with two members of his gang to keep watch
for several days. And he himself remained awake next night.

As on the previous morning, he heard a noise at four o'clock. As on the
previous morning, the deputy let some one in.

Lupin ran down his ladder and, when he came to the free space above the
shutters, saw a man crawling at Daubrecq's feet, flinging his arms

round Daubrecq's knees in frenzied despair and weeping, weeping
convulsively.

Daubrecq, laughing, pushed him away repeatedly, but the man clung to
him. He behaved aimost like one out of his mind and, at last, in a

genuine fit of madness, half rose to his feet, took the deputy by the
throat and flung him back in a chair. Daubrecq struggled, powerless at

first, while his veins swelled in his temples. But soon, with a
strength far beyond the ordinary, he regained the mastery and deprived

his adversary of all power of movement. Then, holding him with one hand,
with the other he gave him two great smacks in the face.

The man got up, slowly. He was livid and could hardly stand on his legs.
He waited for a moment, as though to recover his self-possession. Then,

with a terrifying calmness, he drew a revolver from his pocket and
levelled it at Daubrecq.