813 - Maurice LeBlanc (best short novels of all time TXT) 📗

insignificant.”

“Name them.”

“I have found the son of the Grand-duke of Zweibrucken-Veldenz. The grand-duchy must be restored to him.”

“Anything else?”

“He loves a young girl, who loves him in her turn. She is the fairest and the most virtuous of her sex. He must marry her.”

“Anything else?”

“That is all.”

“There is nothing more?”

“Nothing. Your majesty need only have this letter delivered to the editor of the Grand Journal, who will then destroy, unread, the article which he may now receive at any moment.”

Lupin held out the letter, with a heavy heart and a trembling hand. If the Emperor took it, that would be a sign of his acceptance.

The Emperor hesitated and then, with an abrupt movement, took the letter, put on his hat, wrapped his cloak round him and walked out without a word.

Lupin remained for a few seconds, staggering, as though dazed…

Then, suddenly, he fell into his chair, shouting with joy and pride…

“Monsieur le Juge d’Instruction, I am sorry to say good-bye to you to-day.”

“Why, M. Lupin, are you thinking of leaving us?” “With the greatest reluctance, I assure you, Monsieur le Juge d’Instruction. Our relations have been so very pleasant and cordial! But all good things must come to an end. My cure at the Santfi Palace is finished. Other duties call me. I have resolved to make my escape tonight.”

“Then I wish you good luck, M. Lupin.”

“A thousand thanks, M. le Juge d’Instruction.”

ArsŽne Lupin waited patiently for the hour of his escape, not without asking himself how it would be contrived and by what means France and Germany, uniting for the joint performance of this deserving work, would succeed in effecting it without creating too great a scandal.

Late in the afternoon, the warder told him to go to the entrance-yard. He hurried out and was met by the governor, who handed him over to M. Weber. M. Weber made him step into a motorcar in which somebody was already seated.

Lupin had a violent fit of laughter:

“What, you, my poor old Weber! Have they let you in for this tiresome job? Are you to be responsible for my escape? Upon my word, you are an unlucky beggar! Oh, my poor old chap, what hard lines! First made famous through my arrest, you are now to become immortal through my escape!”

He looked at the other man:

“Well, well, Monsieur le Prefet de Police, so you are in the business too! That’s a nasty thing for you, what? If you take my advice, you’ll stay in the background and leave the honor and glory to Weber! It’s his by right!… And he can stand a lot, the rascal!”

The car travelled at a fast pace, along the Seine and through Boulogne. At Saint-Cloud, they crossed the river.

“Splendid!” cried Lupin. “We’re going to Garches! You want me there, in order to reenact the death of Altenheim. We shall go down into the underground passage, I shah1 disappear and people will say that I got through another outlet, known to myself alone! Lord, how idiotic!”

He seemed quite unhappy about it:

“Idiotic! Idiotic in the highest degree! I blush for shame!… And those are the people who govern us!… What an age to live in!… But, you poor devils, why didn’t you come to me? I’d have invented a beautiful little escape for you, something of a miraculous nature. I had it all ready pigeon-holed in my mind! The public would have yelled with wonder and danced with delight. Instead of which… However, it’s quite true that you were given rather short notice… but all the same…”

The programme was exactly as Lupin had foreseen. They walked through the grounds of the House of Retreat to the Pavilion Hortense. Lupin and his two companions went down the stairs and along the underground passage. At the end of the tunnel, the deputy-chief said:

“You are free.”

“And there you are!” said Lupin. “Is that all? Well, my dear Weber, thank you very much and sorry to have given you so much trouble. Good-bye, Monsieur le Prefet; kind regards to the missus!”

He climbed the stairs that led to the Villa des Glycines, raised the trap-door and sprang into the room.

A hand fell on his shoulder.

Opposite him stood his first visitor of the day before, the one who had accompanied the Emperor. There were four men with him, two on either side.

“Look here,” said Lupin, “what’s the meaning” of this joke? I thought I was free!”

“Yes, yes,” growled the German, in his rough voice,

“you are free… free to travel with the five of us… if that suits you.”

Lupin looked at him, for a second, with a mad longing to hit him on the nose, just to teach him. But the five men looked devilish determined. Their leader did not betray any exaggerated fondness for him; and it seemed to him that the fellow would be only too pleased to resort to extreme measures. Besides, after all, what did he care?”

He chuckled:

“If it suits me? Why, it’s the dream of my life!”

A powerful covered car was waiting in the paved yard outside the villa. Two men got into the driver’s seat, two others inside, with their backs to the motor. Lupin and the stranger sat down on the front seat.

“Vorwarts!” cried Lupin, in German. “Vorwarts nock Veldenzr”

The stranger said:

“Silence! Those men must know nothing. Speak French. They don’t know French. But why speak at all?”

“Quite right,” said Lupin to himself. “Why speak at all?”

The car travelled all the evening and all night, without any incident. Twice they stopped to take in petrol at some sleepy little town.

The Germans took it in turns to watch their prisoner, who did not open his eyes until the early morning. “-.They stopped for breakfast at an inn on a hillside, near which stood a sign-post. Lupin saw that they were at an equal distance from Metz and Luxemburg.From there, they took a road that slanted north-east, in the direction of Treves.

Lupin said to his travelling-companion:

“Am I right in believing that I have the honor of speaking to Count von Waldemar, the Emperor’s confidential friend, the one who searched Hermann III.‘s house in Dresden?”

The stranger remained silent.

“You’re the sort of chap I can’t stand at any price,” muttered Lupin. “I’ll have some fun with you, one of these days. You’re ugly, you’re fat, you’re heavy; in short, I don’t like you.” And he added, aloud, “You are wrong not to answer me, Monsieur le Comte. I was speaking in your own interest: just as we were stepping in, I saw a motor come into sight, behind us, on the horizon. Did you see it?”

“No, why?”

“Nothing.”

“Still…”

“No nothing at all… a mere remark… Besides, we are ten minutes ahead… and our car is at least a forty-horse-power.”

“It’s a sixty,” said the German, looking at him uneasily from the corner of his eye.“Oh, then we’re all right!”

“They were climbing a little slope. When they reached the top, the count leant out of the window:

“Damn it all!” he swore.

“What’s the matter?” asked Lupin.

The count turned to him and, in a threatening voice:

“Take care! If anything happens, it will be so much the worse for you.”

“Oho! It seems the other’s gaining on us!… But what are you afraid of, my dear count? It’s no doubt a traveller… perhaps even some one they are sending to help us.”

“I don’t want any help,” growled the German.

He leant out again. The car was only two or three hundred yards behind.

He said to his men, pointing to Lupin.

“Bind him. If he resists…-.”

He drew his revolver.

“Why should I resist, O gentle Teuton?’ chuckled Lupin. And he added, while they were fastening his hands, “It is really curious to see how people take precautions when they need not and don’t when they ought to. What the devil do you care about that motor? Accomplices of mine? What an idea!”

Without replying, the German gave orders to the driver:

“To the right!… Slow down!… Let them pass… If they slow down also, stop!”

But, to his great surprise, the motor seemed, on the contrary, to increase its speed. It passed in front of the car like a whirlwind, in a cloud of dust. Standing up at the back, leaning over the hood, which was lowered, was a man dressed in black.

He raised his arm.

Two shots rang out.

The count, who was blocking the whole of the left window, fell back into the car.

Before even attending to him, the two men leapt upon Lupin and finished securing him.

“Jackasses! Blockheads!” shouted Lupin, shaking with rage. “Let me go, on the contrary! There now, we’re stopping! But go after him, you silly fools, catch him up!… It’s the man in black, I tell you, the murderer!… Oh, the idiots!…”

They gagged him. Then they attended to the count. The wound did not appear to be serious and was soon dressed. But the patient, who was in a very excited state, had an attack of fever and became delirious.

It was eight o’clock in the morning. They were in the open country, far from any village. The men had no information as to the exact object of the journey. Where were they to go? Whom were they to send to?

They drew up the motor beside a wood and waited. The whole day went by in this way. It was evening before a squad of cavalry arrived, dispatched from Treves in search of the motorcar.

Two hours later, Lupin stepped out of the car, and still escorted by his two Germans, by the light of a lantern climbed the steps of a staircase that led to a small room with iron-barred windows.

Here he spent the night.

The next morning, an officer led him, through a courtyard filled with soldiers, to the centre of a long row of buildings that ran round the foot of a mound covered with monumental ruins.

He was shown into a large, hastily-furnished room. His visitor of two days back was sitting at a writing-table, reading newspapers and reports, which he marked with great strokes of red pencil:

“Leave us,” he said to the officer.

And, going up to Lupin:

“The papers.”

The tone was no longer the same. It was now the harsh and imperious tone of the master who is at home and addressing an inferior… and such an inferior! A rogue, an adventurer of the worst type, before whom he had been obliged to humiliate himself!

“The papers,” he repeated.

Lupin was not put out of countenance. He said, quite calmly:

“They are in Veldenz Castle.”

“We are in the outbuildings of the castle. Those are the ruins of Veldenz, over there.”

“The papers are in the ruins.”

“Let us go to them. Show me the way.”

Lupin did not budge.

“Well?”

“Well, Sire, it is not as simple as you think. It takes some time to bring into play the elements which are needed to open that hiding-place.”

“How long do you want?”

“Twenty-four hours.”

An angry movement, quickly suppressed:

“Oh, there was no question of that between us!”

“Nothing was specified, neither that nor the little trip which Your Imperial Majesty made me take in the charge of half a dozen of your bodyguard. I am to hand over the papers, that is all.”

“And I am not to give you your liberty until you do hand over those papers.”

“It is a question of confidence, Sire. I should have considered myself quite as much bound to produce the papers if I had been free on leaving prison; and Your Imperial Majesty may be sure that I should not have walked off with them.