queerly throughout the
removal of the things, keeping close together
and
apparently watching each other. What could be happening?
Lupin
mechanically returned to the house, urged by a feeling of anxiety
which he was
unable to explain; and, at the same time, he listened to a
dull sound which rose in the distance, from the direction of Eughien,
and which seemed to be coming nearer... People strolling about, no doubt...
He gave a sharp
whistle and then went to the main gate, to take a glance
down the avenue. But, suddeniy, as he was
opening the gate, a shot rang
out, followed by a yell of pain. He returned at a run, went round the
house, leapt up the steps and rushed to the dining-room:
"Blast it all, what are you doing there, you two?"
Gilbert and Vaucheray, locked in a
furiousembrace, were rolling on the
floor, uttering cries of rage. Their clothes were dripping with blood.
Lupin flew at them to separate them. But already Gilbert had got his
adversary down and was wrenching out of his hand something which Lupin
had no time to see. And Vaucheray, who was losing blood through a wound
in the shoulder, fainted.
"Who hurt him? You, Gilbert?" asked Lupin,
furiously.
"No, Leonard."
"Leonard? Why, he was tied up!"
"He undid his fastenings and got hold of his
revolver."
"The scoundrel! Where is he?"
Lupin took the lamp and went into the
pantry.
The man-servant was lying on his back, with his arms
outstretched, a
dagger stuck in his
throat and a livid face. A red
stream trickled from
his mouth.
"Ah,-' gasped Lupin, after examining him, "he's dead!"
"Do you think so?... Do you think so?" stammered Gilbert, in a trembling
voice.
"He's dead, I tell you."
"It was Vaucheray... it was Vaucheray who did it... "
Pale with anger, Lupin caught hold of him:
"It was Vaucheray, was it?... And you too, you blackguard, since you were
there and didn't stop him! Blood! Blood! You know I won't have it...
Well, it's a bad
lookout for you, my fine fellows... You'll have to pay
the damage! And you won't get off cheaply either... Mind the guillotine!"
And, shaking him
violently, "What wasit? Why did he kill him?"
"He wanted to go through his pockets and take the key of the cupboard
from him. When he stooped over him, he saw that the man unloosed his
arms. He got frightened... and he stabbed him... "
"But the
revolver-shot?"
"It was Leonard... he had his
revolver in his hand... he just had strength
to take aim before he died ... "
"And the key of the cupboard?"
"Vaucheray took it ... ."
"Did he open it?"
"And did he find what he was after?"
"Yes."
"And you wanted to take the thing from him. What sort of thing was it?
The reliquary? No, it was too small for that.... Then what was it?
Answer me, will you?... "
Lupin gathered from Gilbert's silence and the determined expression on
his face that he would not
obtain a reply. With a threatening gesture,
"I'll make you talk, my man. Sure as my name's Lupin, you shall come out
with it. But, for the moment, we must see about decamping. Here, help
me. We must get Vaucheray into the boat... "
They had returned to the dining-room and Gilbert was bending over the
wounded man, when Lupin stopped him:
"Listen."
They exchanged one look of alarm... Some one was
speaking in the
pantry... a very low, strange, very distant voice... Nevertheless, as they at
once made certain, there was no one in the room, no one except the dead
man, whose dark
outline lay stretched upon the floor.
And the voice spake anew, by turns
shrill, stifled, bleating, stammering,
yelling, fearsome. It uttered indistinct words, broken
syllables.
Lupin felt the top of his head covering with perspiration. What was
this incoherent voice,
mysterious as a voice from beyond the grave?
He had knelt down by the man-servant's side. The voice was silent and
then began again:
"Give us a better light," he said to Gilbert.
He was trembling a little,
shaken with a
nervous dread which he was
unable to master, for there was no doubt possible: when Gilbert had
removed the shade from the lamp, Lupin realized that the voice issued
from the
corpse itself, without a
movement of the
lifeless mass,
without a
quiver of the bleeding mouth.
"Governor, I've got the shivers," stammered Gilbert.
Again the same voice, the same snuffling whisper.
Suddenly, Lupin burst out laughing, seized the
corpse and pulled it aside:
"Exactly!" he said, catching sight of an object made of polished metal.
"Exactly! That's it!... Well, upon my word, it took me long enough!"
On the spot on the floor which he had uncovered lay the
receiver of a
telephone, the cord of which ran up to the
apparatus fixed on the wall,
at the usual
height.
Lupin put the
receiver to his ear. The noise began again at once, but
it was a mixed noise, made up of different calls, exclamations, confused
cries, the noise produced by a number of persons questioning one another
at the same time.
"Are you there?... He won't answer. It's awful... They must have killed
him. What is it?... Keep up your courage. There's help on the way...
police... sol diers... "
"Dash it!" said Lupin, dropping the
receiver.
The truth appeared to him in a terrifying
vision. Quite at the beginning,
while the things
upstairs were being moved, Leonard, whose bonds were not
securely fastened, had contrived to
scramble to his feet, to unhook the
receiver, probably with his teeth, to drop it and to
appeal for
assistanceto the Enghien telephone-exchange.
And those were the words which Lupin had overheard, after the first boat
started:
"Help!... Murder!... I shall be killed!"
And this was the reply of the exchange. The police were hurrying to the
spot. And Lupin remembered the sounds which he had heard from the garden,
four or five minutes earlier, at most:
"The police! Take to your heels!" he shouted, darting across the dining
room.
"What about Vaucheray?" asked Gilbert.
"Sorry, can't be helped!"
But Vaucheray, waking from his torpor, entreated him as he passed:
"Governor, you wouldn't leave me like this!"
Lupin stopped, in spite of the danger, and was lifting the wounded man,
with Gilbert's
assistance, when a loud din arose outside:
"Too late!" he said.
At that moment, blows shook the hall-door at the back of the house. He
ran to the front steps: a number of men had already turned the corner
of the house at a rush. He might have managed to keep ahead of them,
with Gilbert, and reach the waterside. But what chance was there of
embarking and escaping under the enemy's fire?
He locked and bolted the door.
"We are surrounded... and done for," spluttered Gilbert.
"Hold your tongue," said Lupin.
"But they've seen us,
governor. There, they're knocking."
"Hold your tongue," Lupin
repeated. "Not a word. Not a
movement."
He himself remained unperturbed, with an utterly calm face and the
pensive attitude of one who has all the time that he needs to examine a
delicate situation from every point of view. He had reached one of those
minutes which he called the "superior moments of existence," those which
alone give a value and a price to life. On such occasions, however
threatening the danger, he always began by counting to himself, slowly
- "One... Two... Three... Four.... Five... Six" - until the
beating of his heart became
normal and regular. Then and not till then,
he reflected, but with what
intensity, with what perspicacity, with what
a
profound intuition of possibilities! All the factors of the problem
were present in his mind. He foresaw everything. He admitted everything.
And he took his
resolution in all logic and in all certainty.
After thirty or forty seconds, while the men outside were banging at the
doors and picking the locks, he said to his companion:
"Follow me."
Returning to the dining-room, he
softly opened the sash and drew the
Venetian blinds of a window in the side-wall. People were coming and
going, rendenng
flight out of the question.
Thereupon he began to shout with all his might, in a breathiess voice:
"This way!... Help!... I've got them! ... This way!"
He
pointed his
revolver and fired two shots into the tree-tops. Then
he went back to Vaucheray, bent over him and smeared his face and hands
with the wounded man's blood. Lastly, turning upon Gilbert, he took
him
violently by the shoulders and threw him to the floor.
"What do you want,
governor? There's a nice thing to do!"
"Let me do as I please," said Lupin, laying an
imperativestress on
every
syllable. "I'll answer for everything... I'll answer for the two
of you... Let me do as I like with you... I'll get you both out of prison
... But I can only do that if I'm free."
Excited cries rose through the open window.
"This way!" he shouted. "I've got them! Help!"
And, quietly, in a whisper:
"Just think for a moment... Have you anything to say to me?... Something
that can be of use to us?
Gilbert was too much taken aback to understand 'Lupin's plan and he
struggled
furiously. Vaucheray showed more
intelligence;
moreover, he
had given up all hope of escape, because of his wound; and he snarled:
"Let the
governor have his way, you ass!... As long as he gets off, isn't
that the great thing?"
Suddenly, Lupin remembered the article which Gilbert had put in his
pocket, after capturing it from Vaucheray. He now tried to take it in
his turn.
"No, not that! Not if I know it!" growled Gilbert, managing to release
himself.
Lupin floored him once more. But two men suddenly appeared at the window;
and Gilbert yielded and, handing the thing to Lupin, who pocketed it
without looking at it, whispered:
"Here you are,
governor... I'll explain. You can be sure that... "
He did not have time to finish... Two policemen and others after them and
soldiers who entered through every door and window caine to Lupin's
assistance.
Gilbert was at once seized and
firmly bound. Lupin withdrew:
"I'm glad you've come," he said. "The beggar's given me a lot of
trouble. I wounded the other; but this one... "
The commissary of police asked him, hurriedly:
"Have you seen the man-servant? Have they killed him?"
"I don't know," ,he answered.
"You don't know?... "
"Why, I came with you from Enghien, on
hearing of the murder! Only,
while you were going round the left of the house, I went round the right.
There was, a window open. I climbed up just as these two ruffians
were about to jump down. I fred at this one," pointing to Vaucheray,
"and seized hold of his pal."
How could he have been suspected? He was covered with blood. He had
handed over the valet's murderers. Half a score of people had witnessed
the end of the
heroiccombat which he had delivered. Besides, the uproar
was too great for any one to take the trouble to argue or to waste time
in entertaining doubts. In the
height of the first
confusion, the people
of the neighbourhood invaded the villa. One and all lost their heads.
They ran to every side,
upstairs,
downstairs, to the very
cellar. They
asked one another questions, yelled and shouted; and no one dreamt of
checking Lupin's statements, which sounded so plausible.
However, the discovery of the body in the
pantry restored the comnussary
to a sense of his
responsibility. He issued orders, had the house
cleared and placed policemen at the gate to prevent any one from passing
in or out. Then, without further delay, he examined the spot and began
his
inquiry. Vaucheray gave his name; Gilbert refused to give his, on
the plea that he would only speak in the presence of a
lawyer. But, when
he was accused of the murder, he informed against Vaucheray, who defended
himself by denouncing the other; and the two of them vociferated at the