drive and rest, turn and turn about. At that rate, you ought to be in

Paris between six and seven to-morrow evening. But don't force the pace.
I'm keeping Daubrecq, not because I want him for my plans, but as a

hostage... and then by way of precaution... I like to feel that I can
lay my hands on him during the next few days. So look after the dear

fellow... Give him a few drops of chioroform every three or four hours:
it's his one weakness... Off with you, Masher... And you, Daubrecq, don't

get excited up there. The roof'll bear you all right... If you feel at
all sick, don't mind... Off you go, Masher!

He watched the car move into the distance and then told the cabman to
drive to a post-office, where he dispatched a telegram in these words:

"M. Prasville, Prefecture de Police, Paris:
"Person found. Will bring you document eleven o'clock

to-morrow morning. Urgent communciation.
"CLARISSE."

Clarisse and Lupin reached the station by half-past two.
"If only there's room!" said Clarisse, who was alarmed at the least

thing.
"Room? Why, our berths are booked!"

"By whom?"
"By Jacob... by Daubrecq."

"How?"
"Why, at the office of the hotel they gave me a letter which had come

for Daubrecq by express. It was the two berths which Jacob had sent
him. Also, I have his deputy's pass. So we shall travel under the

name of M. and Mme. Daubrecq and we shall receive all the attention
due to our rank and station. You see, my dear madam, that everything's

arranged."
The journey, this time, seemed short to Lupin. Clarisse told him what

she had done during the past few days. He himself explained the miracle
of his sudden appearance in Daubrecq's bedroom at the moment when his

adversary belleved him in Italy:
"A miracle, no," he said. "But still a remarkablephenomenon took place

in me when I left San Remo, a sort of mysterious intuition which
prompted me first to try and jump out of the train - and the Masher

prevented me - and next to rush to the window, let down the glass and
follow the porter of the Ambassadeurs-Palace, who had given me your

message, with my eyes. Well, at that very minute, the porter aforesaid
was rubbing his hands with an air of such satisfaction that, for no

other reason, suddenly, I understood everything: I had been diddled,
taken in by Daubrecq, as you yourself were. Heaps of llttle details

flashed across my mind. My adversary's scheme became clear to me from
start to finish. Another minute... and the disaster would have been

beyond remedy. I had, I confess, a few moments of real despair, at the
thought that I should not be able to repair all the mistakes that had

been made. It depended simply on the time-table of the trains, which
would either allow me or would not allow me to find Daubrecq's emissary

on the railway-platform at San Remo. This time, at last, chance
favoured me. We had hardly alighted at the first station when a train

passed, for France. When we arrived at San Remo, the man was there.
I had guessed right. He no longer wore his hotel-porter's cap and

frock-coat, but a jacket and bowler. He stepped into a second-class
compartment. From that moment, victory was assured."

"But... how ... ?" asked Clarisse, who, in spite of the thoughts that
obsessed her, was interested in Lupin's story.

"How did I find you? Lord, simply by not losing sight of Master Jacob,
while leaving him free to move about as he pleased, knowing that he was

bound to account for his actions to Daubrecq. In point of fact, this
morning, after spending the night in a small hotel at Nice, he met

Daubrecq on the Promenade des Anglais. They talked for some time. I
followed them. Daubrecq went back to the hotel, planted Jacob in one of

the passages on the ground-floor, opposite the telephone-office, and
went up in the lift. Ten minutes later I knew the number of his room

and knew that a lady had been occupying the next room, No. 130, since
the day before. 'I believe we've done it,' I said to the Growler and

the Masher. I tapped lightly at your door. No answer. And the door
was locked."

"Well?" asked Clarisse.
"Well, we opened it. Do you think there's only one key in the world

that will work a lock? So I walked in. Nobody in your room. But the
partition-door was ajar. I slipped through it. Thenceforth, a mere

hanging separated me from you, from Daubrecq and from the packet of
tobacco which I saw on the chimney-slab."

"Then you knew the hiding-place?"
"A look round Daubrecq's study in Paris showed me that that packet of

tobacco had disappeared. Besides... "
"What?"

"I knew, from certain confessions wrung from Daubrecq in the Lovers'
Tower, that the word Marie held the key to the riddle. Since then I

had certainly thought of this word, but with the preconceived notion
that it was spelt M A R I E. Well, it was really the first two

syllables of another word, which I guessed, so to speak, only at the
moment when I was struck by the absence of the packet of tobacco."

"What word do you mean?"
"Maryland, Maryland tobacco, the only tobacco that Daubrecq smokes."

And Lupin began to laugh:
"Wasn't it silly? And, at the same -time, wasn't it clever of Daubrecq?

We looked everywhere, we ransacked everything. Didn't I unscrew the
brass sockets of the electric lights to see if they contained a crystal

stopper? But how could I have thought, how could any one, however great
his perspicadty, have thought of tearing off the paper band of a packet

of Maryland, a band put on, gummed, sealed, stamped and dated by the
State, under the control of the Inland Revenue Office? Only think! The

State the accomplice of such an act of infamy! The Inland R-r-r-revenue
Awfice lending itself to such a trick! No, a thousand times no!

The Regie* is not perfect. It makes matches that won't light and
cigarettes filled with hay. But there's all the difference in the world

between recognizing that fact and believing the Inland Revenue to be in
league with Daubrecq with the object of hiding the list of the

Twenty-seven from the legitimatecuriosity of the government and the
enterprising efforts of Arsene Lupin! Observe that all Daubrecq had to

do, in order to introduce the crystal stopper, was to bear upon the band
a little, loosen it, draw it back, unfold the yellow paper, remove the

tobacco and fasten it up again. Observe also that all we had to do, in
Paris, was to take the packet in our hands and examine it, in order to

discover the hiding-place. No matter! The packet itself, the plug of
Maryland made up and passed by the State and by the Inland Revenue

Office, was a sacred, intangible thing, a thing above suspicion! And
nobody opened it. That was how that demon of a Daubrecq allowed that

untouched packet of tobacco to lie about for months on his table, among
his pipes and among other unopened packets of tobacco. And no power on

earth could have given any one even the vaguest notion of looking into
that harmless little cube. I would have you observe, besides... " Lupin

went on pursuing his remarks relative to the packet of Maryland and the
crystal stopper. His adversary's ingenuity and shrewdness interested

him all the more inasmuch as Lupin had ended by getting the better of
him. But to Clarisse these topics mattered much less than did her

anxiety as to the acts which must be performed to save her son; and she
sat wrapped in her own thoughts and hardiy listened to him.

_______________________________________________________________________
*The department of the French excise which holds the monopoly for the

manufacture and sale of tobacco, cigars, cigarettes and matches -
Translator's Note.