The Crystal Stopper - Maurice Leblanc (best ereader for epub .txt) 📗

“Oh, well done, well done!”

Daubrecq bowed his head, by way of thanks, and muttered:

“I haven’t quite finished⁠ ⁠… A little patience, if you don’t mind.” And he continued, “Hullo! Prasville!⁠ ⁠… No, no, old chap, I’m not humbugging⁠ ⁠… You’ll find Lupin here, with me, in my study⁠ ⁠… Lupin, who’s worrying me like the rest of you⁠ ⁠… Oh, one more or less makes no difference to me! But, all the same, this one’s a bit too pushing. And I am appealing to your sense of kindness. Rid me of the fellow, do⁠ ⁠… Half-a-dozen of your satellites and the two who are pacing up and down outside my house will be enough⁠ ⁠… Oh, while you’re about it, go up to the third floor and rope in my cook as well⁠ ⁠… She’s the famous Victoire: you know, Master Lupin’s old nurse⁠ ⁠… And, look here, one more tip, to show you how I love you: send a squad of men to the Rue Chateaubriand, at the corner of the Rue Balzac⁠ ⁠… That’s where our national hero lives, under the name of Michel Beaumont⁠ ⁠… Do you twig, old cockalorum? And now to business. Hustle!”

When Daubrecq turned his head, Lupin was standing up, with clenched fists. His burst of admiration had not survived the rest of the speech and the revelations which Daubrecq had made about Victoire and the flat in the Rue Chateaubriand. The humiliation was too great; and Lupin no longer bothered to play the part of the small general practitioner. He had but one idea in his head: not to give way to the tremendous fit of rage that was urging him to rush at Daubrecq like a bull.

Daubrecq gave the sort of little cluck which, with him, did duty for a laugh. He came waddling up, with his hands in his trouser-pockets, and said, incisively:

“Don’t you think that this is all for the best? I’ve cleared the ground, relieved the situation⁠ ⁠… At least, we now know where we stand. Lupin versus Daubrecq; and that’s all about it. Besides, think of the time saved! Dr. Vernes, the divisional surgeon, would have taken two hours to spin his yarn! Whereas, like this, Master Lupin will be compelled to get his little story told in thirty minutes⁠ ⁠… unless he wants to get himself collared and his accomplices nabbed. What a shock! What a bolt from the blue! Thirty minutes and not a minute more. In thirty minutes from now, you’ll have to clear out, scud away like a hare and beat a disordered retreat. Ha, ha, ha, what fun! I say, Polonius, you really are unlucky, each time you come up against Bibi Daubrecq! For it was you who were hiding behind that curtain, wasn’t it, my ill-starred Polonius?”

Lupin did not stir a muscle. The one and only solution that would have calmed his feelings, that is to say, for him to throttle his adversary then and there, was so absurd that he preferred to accept Daubrecq’s gibes without attempting to retort, though each of them cut him like the lash of a whip. It was the second time, in the same room and in similar circumstances, that he had to bow before that Daubrecq of misfortune and maintain the most ridiculous attitude in silence. And he felt convinced in his innermost being that, if he opened his mouth, it would be to spit words of anger and insult in his victor’s face. What was the good? Was it not essential that he should keep cool and do the things which the new situation called for?

“Well, M. Lupin, well?” resumed the deputy. “You look as if your nose were out of joint. Come, console yourself and admit that one sometimes comes across a joker who’s not quite such a mug as his fellows. So you thought that, because I wear spectacles and eyeglasses, I was blind? Bless my soul, I don’t say that I at once suspected Lupin behind Polonius and Polonius behind the gentleman who came and bored me in the box at the Vaudeville. No, no! But, all the same, it worried me. I could see that, between the police and Mme. Mergy, there was a third bounder trying to get a finger in the pie. And, gradually, what with the words let fall by the portress, what with watching the movements of my cook and making inquiries about her in the proper quarter, I began to understand. Then, the other night, came the lightning-flash. I heard the row in the house, in spite of my being asleep. I managed to reconstruct the incident, to follow up Mme. Mergy’s traces, first, to the Rue Chateaubriand and, afterward, to Saint-Germain⁠ ⁠… And then⁠ ⁠… what then? I put different facts together: the Enghien burglary⁠ ⁠… Gilbert’s arrest⁠ ⁠… the inevitable treaty of alliance between the weeping mother and the leader of the gang⁠ ⁠… the old nurse installed as cook⁠ ⁠… all these people entering my house through the doors or through the windows⁠ ⁠… And I knew what I had to do. Master Lupin was sniffing at the secret. The scent of the Twenty-Seven attracted him. I had only to wait for his visit. The hour has arrived. Good evening, Master Lupin.”

Daubrecq paused. He had delivered his speech with the evident satisfaction of a man entitled to claim the appreciation of the most captious critics.

As Lupin did not speak, he took out his watch: “I say! Only twenty-three minutes! How time flies! At this rate, we shan’t have time to come to an explanation.” And, stepping still closer to Lupin, “I’m bound to say, I’m disappointed. I thought that Lupin was a different sort of gentleman. So, the moment he meets a more or less serious adversary, the colossus falls to pieces? Poor young man! Have a glass of water, to bring you round!” Lupin did not utter a word, did not betray a gesture of irritation. With absolute composure, with a precision of movement that showed his perfect self-control and the clear plan of