The Crystal Stopper

by Maurice Leblanc

  CHAPTER IV. THE CHIEF OF THE ENEMIES

  "Poor boy!" murmured Lupin, when his eyes fell on Gilbert's letter nextmorning. "How he must feel it!"

  On the very first day when he saw him, he had taken a liking to thatwell-set-up youngster, so careless, gay and fond of life. Gilbert wasdevoted to him, would have accepted death at a sign from his master.And Lupin also loved his frankness, his good humour, his simplicity, hisbright, open face.

  "Gilbert," he often used to say, "you are an honest man. Do you know,if I were you, I should chuck the business and become an honest man forgood."

  "After you, governor," Gilbert would reply, with a laugh.

  "Won't you, though?"

  "No, governor. An honest man is a chap who works and grinds. It's ataste which I may have had as a nipper; but they've made me lose itsince."

  "Who's they?"

  Gilbert was silent. He was always silent when questioned about hisearly life; and all that Lupin knew was that he had been an orphan sincechildhood and that he had lived all over the place, changing his nameand taking up the queerest jobs. The whole thing was a mystery which noone had been able to fathom; and it did not look as though the policewould make much of it either.

  Nor, on the other hand, did it look as though the police would considerthat mystery a reason for delaying proceedings. They would sendVaucheray's accomplice for trial--under his name of Gilbert or any othername--and visit him with the same inevitable punishment.

  "Poor boy!" repeated Lupin. "They're persecuting him like this onlybecause of me. They are afraid of his escaping and they are in a hurryto finish the business: the verdict first and then... the execution.

  "Oh, the butchers!... A lad of twenty, who has committed no murder, whois not even an accomplice in the murder..."

  Alas, Lupin well knew that this was a thing impossible to prove and thathe must concentrate his efforts upon another point. But upon which? Washe to abandon the trail of the crystal stopper?

  He could not make up his mind to that. His one and only diversion fromthe search was to go to Enghien, where the Growler and the Masher lived,and make sure that nothing had been seen of them since the murder at theVilla Marie-Therese. Apart from this, he applied himself to the questionof Daubrecq and nothing else.

  He refused even to trouble his head about the problems set before him:the treachery of the Growler and the Masher; their connection with thegray-haired lady; the spying of which he himself was the object.

  "Steady, Lupin," he said. "One only argues falsely in a fever. So holdyour tongue. No inferences, above all things! Nothing is morefoolish than to infer one fact from another before finding a certainstarting-point. That's where you get up a tree. Listen to your instinct.Act according to your instinct. And as you are persuaded, outside allargument, outside all logic, one might say, that this business turnsupon that confounded stopper, go for it boldly. Have at Daubrecq and hisbit of crystal!"

  Lupin did not wait to arrive at these conclusions before settling hisactions accordingly. At the moment when he was stating them in his mind,three days after the scene at the Vaudeville, he was sitting, dressedlike a retired tradesman, in an old overcoat, with a muffler round hisneck, on a bench in the Avenue Victor-Hugo, at some distance from theSquare Lamartine. Victoire had his instructions to pass by that bench atthe same hour every morning.

  "Yes," he repeated to himself, "the crystal stopper: everything turns onthat... Once I get hold of it..."

  Victoire arrived, with her shopping-basket on her arm. He at oncenoticed her extraordinary agitation and pallor:

  "What's the matter?" asked Lupin, walking beside his old nurse.

  She went into a big grocer's, which was crowded with people, and,turning to him:

  "Here," she said, in a voice torn with excitement. "Here's what you'vebeen hunting for."

  And, taking something from her basket, she gave it to him.

  Lupin stood astounded: in his hand lay the crystal stopper.

  "Can it be true? Can it be true?" he muttered, as though the ease of thesolution had thrown him off his balance.

  But the fact remained, visible and palpable. He recognized by its shape,by its size, by the worn gilding of its facets, recognized beyond anypossible doubt the crystal stopper which he had seen before. He evenremarked a tiny, hardly noticeable little scratch on the stem which heremembered perfectly.

  However, while the thing presented all the same characteristics, itpossessed no other that seemed out of the way. It was a crystal stopper,that was all. There was no really special mark to distinguish it fromother stoppers. There was no sign upon it, no stamp; and, being cut froma single piece, it contained no foreign object.

  "What then?"

  And Lupin received a quick insight into the depth of his mistake. Whatgood could the possession of that crystal stopper do him so long as hewas ignorant of its value? That bit of glass had no existence in itself;it counted only through the meaning that attached to it. Before takingit, the thing was to be certain. And how could he tell that, in takingit, in robbing Daubrecq of it, he was not committing an act of folly?

  It was a question which was impossible of solution, but which forceditself upon him with singular directness.

  "No blunders!" he said to himself, as he pocketed the stopper. "In thisconfounded business, blunders are fatal."

  He had not taken his eyes off Victoire. Accompanied by a shopman, shewent from counter to counter, among the throng of customers. She nextstood for some little while at the pay-desk and passed in front ofLupin.

  He whispered her instructions:

  "Meet me behind the Lycee Janson."

  She joined him in an unfrequented street:

  "And suppose I'm followed?" she said.

  "No," he declared. "I looked carefully. Listen to me. Where did you findthe stopper?"

  "In the drawer of the table by his bed."

  "But we had felt there already."

  "Yes; and I did so again this morning. I expect he put it there lastnight."

  "And I expect he'll want to take it from there again," said Lupin.

  "Very likely."

  "And suppose he finds it gone?"

  Victoire looked frightened.

  "Answer me," said Lupin. "If he finds it gone, he'll accuse you oftaking it, won't he?"

  "Certainly."

  "Then go and put it back, as fast as you can."

  "Oh dear, oh dear!" she moaned. "I hope he won't have had time to findout. Give it to me, quick."

  "Here you are," said Lupin.

  He felt in the pocket of his overcoat.

  "Well?" said Victoire, holding out her hand.

  "Well," he said, after a moment, "it's gone."

  "What!"

  "Yes, upon my word, it's gone... somebody's taken it from me."

  He burst into a peal of laughter, a laughter which, this time, was freefrom all bitterness.

  Victoire flew out at him:

  "Laugh away!... Putting me in such a predicament!..."

  "How can I help laughing? You must confess that it's funny. It'sno longer a tragedy that we're acting, but a fairy-tale, as much afairy-tale as Puss in Boots or Jack and the Beanstalk. I must write itwhen I get a few weeks to myself: The Magic Stopper; or, The Mishaps ofPoor Arsene."

  "Well... who has taken it from you?"

  "What are you talking about?... It has flown away... vanished from mypocket: hey presto, begone!"

  He gave the old servant a gentle push and, in a more serious tone:

  "Go home, Victoire, and don't upset yourself. Of course, some one sawyou give me the stopper and took advantage of the crowd in the shop topick my pocket of it. That only shows that we are watched more closelythan I thought and by adversaries of the first rank. But, once more, beeasy. Honest men always come by their own... Have you anything else totell me?"

  "Yes. Some one came yesterday evening, while M. Daubrecq was out. I sawlights reflected upon the trees in the garden."

  "The portress' bedroom?"<
br />
  "The portress was up."

  "Then it was some of those detective-fellows; they are still hunting.I'll see you later, Victoire. You must let me in again."

  "What! You want to..."

  "What do I risk? Your room is on the third floor. Daubrecq suspectsnothing."

  "But the others!"

  "The others? If it was to their interest to play me a trick, they'd havetried before now. I'm in their way, that's all. They're not afraid ofme. So till later, Victoire, at five o'clock exactly."

  One further surprise awaited Lupin. In the evening his old nurse toldhim that, having opened the drawer of the bedside table from curiosity,she had found the crystal stopper there again.

  Lupin was no longer to be excited by these miraculous incidents. Hesimply said to himself:

  "So it's been brought back. And the person who brought it back and whoenters this house by some unexplained means considered, as I did, thatthe stopper ought not to disappear. And yet Daubrecq, who knows that heis being spied upon to his very bedroom, has once more left the stopperin a drawer, as though he attached no importance to it at all! Now whatis one to make of that?"

  Though Lupin did not make anything of it, nevertheless he could notescape certain arguments, certain associations of ideas that gave himthe same vague foretaste of light which one receives on approaching theoutlet of a tunnel.

  "It is inevitable, as the case stands," he thought, "that there mustsoon be an encounter between myself and the others. From that moment Ishall be master of the situation."

  Five days passed, during which Lupin did not glean the slightestparticular. On the sixth day Daubrecq received a visit, in the smallhours, from a gentleman, Laybach the deputy, who, like his colleagues,dragged himself at his feet in despair and, when all was done, handedhim twenty thousand francs.

  Two more days; and then, one night, posted on the landing of thesecond floor, Lupin heard the creaking of a door, the front-door, as heperceived, which led from the hall into the garden. In the darknesshe distinguished, or rather divined, the presence of two persons, whoclimbed the stairs and stopped on the first floor, outside Daubrecq'sbedroom.

  What were they doing there? It was not possible to enter the room,because Daubrecq bolted his door every night. Then what were theyhoping?

  Manifestly, a handiwork of some kind was being performed, as Lupindiscovered from the dull sounds of rubbing against the door. Then words,uttered almost beneath a whisper, reached him:

  "Is it all right?"

  "Yes, quite, but, all the same, we'd better put it off till to-morrow,because..."

  Lupin did not hear the end of the sentence. The men were already gropingtheir way downstairs. The hall-door was closed, very gently, and thenthe gate.

  "It's curious, say what one likes," thought Lupin. "Here is a house inwhich Daubrecq carefully conceals his rascalities and is on his guard,not without good reason, against spies; and everybody walks in and outas in a booth at a fair. Victoire lets me in, the portress admits theemissaries of the police: that's well and good; but who is playing falsein these people's favour? Are we to suppose that they are acting alone?But what fearlessness! And how well they know their way about!"

  In the afternoon, during Daubrecq's absence, he examined the door of thefirst-floor bedroom. And, at the first glance, he understood: one of thelower panels had been skilfully cut out and was only held in place byinvisible tacks. The people, therefore, who had done this work were thesame who had acted at his two places, in the Rue Matignon and the RueChateaubriand.

  He also found that the work dated back to an earlier period and that, asin his case, the opening had been prepared beforehand, in anticipationof favourable circumstances or of some immediate need.

  The day did not seem long to Lupin. Knowledge was at hand. Not onlywould he discover the manner in which his adversaries employed thoselittle openings, which were apparently unemployable, since they didnot allow a person to reach the upper bolts, but he would learn who theingenious and energetic adversaries were with whom he repeatedly andinevitably found himself confronted.

  One incident annoyed him. In the evening Daubrecq, who had complained offeeling tired at dinner, came home at ten o'clock and, contrary to hisusual custom, pushed the bolts of the hall-door. In that case, how wouldthe others be able to carry out their plan and go to Daubrecq's room?Lupin waited for an hour after Daubrecq put out his light. Then he wentdown to the deputy's study, opened one of the windows ajar and returnedto the third floor and fixed his rope-ladder so that, in case of need,he could reach the study without passing though the house. Lastly, heresumed his post on the second-floor landing.

  He did not have to wait long. An hour earlier than on the previous nightsome one tried to open the hall-door. When the attempt failed, a fewminutes of absolute silence followed. And Lupin was beginning to thinkthat the men had abandoned the idea, when he gave a sudden start. Someone had passed, without the least sound to interrupt the silence. Hewould not have known it, so utterly were the thing's steps deadened bythe stair-carpet, if the baluster-rail, which he himself held in hishand, had not shaken slightly. Some one was coming upstairs.

  And, as the ascent continued, Lupin became aware of the uncanny feelingthat he heard nothing more than before. He knew, because of the rail,that a thing was coming and he could count the number of steps climbedby noting each vibration of the rail; but no other indication gave himthat dim sensation of presence which we feel in distinguishing movementswhich we do not see, in perceiving sounds which we do not hear. And yeta blacker darkness ought to have taken shape within the darkness andsomething ought, at least, to modify the quality of the silence. No, hemight well have believed that there was no one there.

  And Lupin, in spite of himself and against the evidence of his reason,ended by believing it, for the rail no longer moved and he thought thathe might have been the sport of an illusion.

  And this lasted a long time. He hesitated, not knowing what to do, notknowing what to suppose. But an odd circumstance impressed him. A clockstruck two. He recognized the chime of Daubrecq's clock. And the chimewas that of a clock from which one is not separated by the obstacle of adoor.

  Lupin slipped down the stairs and went to the door. It was closed,but there was a space on the left, at the bottom, a space left by theremoval of the little panel.

  He listened. Daubrecq, at that moment, turned in his bed; and hisbreathing was resumed, evenly and a little stertorously. And Lupinplainly heard the sound of rumpling garments. Beyond a doubt, the thingwas there, fumbling and feeling through the clothes which Daubrecq hadlaid beside his bed.

  "Now," thought Lupin, "we shall learn something. But how the deuce didthe beggar get in? Has he managed to draw the bolts and open the door?But, if so, why did he make the mistake of shutting it again?"

  Not for a second--a curious anomaly in a man like Lupin, an anomalyto be explained only by the uncanny feeling which the whole adventureproduced in him--not for a second did he suspect the very simple truthwhich was about to be revealed to him. Continuing his way down, hecrouched on one of the bottom steps of the staircase, thus placinghimself between the door of the bedroom and the hall-door, on theroad which Daubrecq's enemy must inevitably take in order to join hisaccomplices.

  He questioned the darkness with an unspeakable anguish. He was onthe point of unmasking that enemy of Daubrecq's, who was also hisown adversary. He would thwart his plans. And the booty captured fromDaubrecq he would capture in his turn, while Daubrecq slept and whilethe accomplices lurking behind the hall-door or outside the garden-gatevainly awaited their leader's return.

  And that return took place. Lupin knew it by the renewed vibration ofthe balusters. And, once more, with every sense strained and everynerve on edge, he strove to discern the mysterious thing that was comingtoward him. He suddenly realized it when only a few yards away. Hehimself, hidden in a still darker recess, could not be seen. And whathe saw--in the very vaguest manner--was approaching stair by stair, withinfinite precauti
ons, holding on to each separate baluster.

  "Whom the devil have I to do with?" said Lupin to himself, while hisheart thumped inside his chest.

  The catastrophe was hastened. A careless movement on Lupin's part wasobserved by the stranger, who stopped short. Lupin was afraid lest theother should turn back and take to flight. He sprang at the adversaryand was stupefied at encountering nothing but space and knocking againstthe stair-rail without seizing the form which he saw. But he at oncerushed forward, crossed the best part of the hall and caught up hisantagonist just as he was reaching the door opening on the garden.

  There was a cry of fright, answered by other cries on the further sideof the door.

  "Oh, hang it, what's this?" muttered Lupin, whose arms had closed, inthe dark, round a little, tiny, trembling, whimpering thing.

  Suddenly understanding, he stood for a moment motionless and dismayed,at a loss what to do with his conquered prey. But the others wereshouting and stamping outside the door. Thereupon, dreading lestDaubrecq should wake up, he slipped the little thing under his jacket,against his chest, stopped the crying with his handkerchief rolled intoa ball and hurried up the three flights of stairs.

  "Here," he said to Victoire, who woke with a start. "I've brought youthe indomitable chief of our enemies, the Hercules of the gang. Have youa feeding-bottle about you?"

  He put down in the easy-chair a child of six or seven years of age, thetiniest little fellow in a gray jersey and a knitted woollen cap, whosepale and exquisitely pretty features were streaked with the tears thatstreamed from the terrified eyes.

  "Where did you pick that up?" asked Victoire, aghast.

  "At the foot of the stairs, as it was coming out of Daubrecq's bedroom,"replied Lupin, feeling the jersey in the hope that the child had broughta booty of some kind from that room.

  Victoire was stirred to pity:

  "Poor little dear! Look, he's trying not to cry!... Oh, saints above,his hands are like ice! Don't be afraid, sonnie, we sha'n't hurt you:the gentleman's all right."

  "Yes," said Lupin, "the gentleman's quite all right, but there's anothervery wicked gentleman who'll wake up if they go on making such a rumpusoutside the hall-door. Do you hear them, Victoire?"

  "Who is it?"

  "The satellites of our young Hercules, the indomitable leader's gang."

  "Well...?" stammered Victoire, utterly unnerved.

  "Well, as I don't want to be caught in the trap, I shall start byclearing out. Are you coming, Hercules?"

  He rolled the child in a blanket, so that only its head remainedoutside, gagged its mouth as gently as possible and made Victoire fastenit to his shoulders:

  "See, Hercules? We're having a game. You never thought you'd findgentlemen to play pick-a-back with you at three o'clock in the morning!Come, whoosh, let's fly away! You don't get giddy, I hope?"

  He stepped across the window-ledge and set foot on one of the rungs ofthe ladder. He was in the garden in a minute.

  He had never ceased hearing and now heard more plainly still the blowsthat were being struck upon the front-door. He was astounded thatDaubrecq was not awakened by so violent a din:

  "If I don't put a stop to this, they'll spoil everything," he said tohimself.

  He stood in an angle of the house, invisible in the darkness, andmeasured the distance between himself and the gate. The gate was open.To his right, he saw the steps, on the top of which the people wereflinging themselves about; to his left, the building occupied by theportress.

  The woman had come out of her lodge and was standing near the people,entreating them:

  "Oh, do be quiet, do be quiet! He'll come!"

  "Capital!" said Lupin. "The good woman is an accomplice of these aswell. By Jingo, what a pluralist!"

  He rushed across to her and, taking her by the scruff of the neck,hissed:

  "Go and tell them I've got the child... They can come and fetch it at myplace, Rue Chateaubriand."

  A little way off, in the avenue, stood a taxi which Lupin presumed to beengaged by the gang. Speaking authoritatively, as though he were one ofthe accomplices, he stepped into the cab and told the man to drive himhome.

  "Well," he said to the child, "that wasn't much of a shake-up, wasit?... What do you say to going to bye-bye on the gentleman's bed?"

  As his servant, Achille, was asleep, Lupin made the little chapcomfortable and stroked his hair for him. The child seemed numbed. Hispoor face was as though petrified into a stiff expression made up, atone and the same time, of fear and the wish not to show fear, of thelonging to scream and a pitiful effort not to scream.

  "Cry, my pet, cry," said Lupin. "It'll do you good to cry."

  The child did not cry, but the voice was so gentle and so kind that herelaxed his tense muscles; and, now that his eyes were calmer andhis mouth less contorted, Lupin, who was examining him closely, foundsomething that he recognized, an undoubted resemblance.

  This again confirmed certain facts which he suspected and which he hadfor some time been linking in his mind. Indeed, unless he was mistaken,the position was becoming very different and he would soon assume thedirection of events. After that...

  A ring at the bell followed, at once, by two others, sharp ones.

  "Hullo!" said Lupin to the child. "Here's mummy come to fetch you. Don'tmove."

  He ran and opened the door.

  A woman entered, wildly:

  "My son!" she screamed. "My son! Where is he?"

  "In my room," said Lupin.

  Without asking more, thus proving that she knew the way, she rushed tothe bedroom.

  "As I thought," muttered Lupin. "The youngish woman with the gray hair:Daubrecq's friend and enemy."

  He walked to the window and looked through the curtains. Two men werestriding up and down the opposite pavement: the Growler and the Masher.

  "And they're not even hiding themselves," he said to himself. "That'sa good sign. They consider that they can't do without me any longer andthat they've got to obey the governor. There remains the pretty ladywith the gray hair. That will be more difficult. It's you and I now,mummy."

  He found the mother and the boy clasped in each other's arms; andthe mother, in a great state of alarm, her eyes moist with tears, wassaying:

  "You're not hurt? You're sure? Oh, how frightened you must have been, mypoor little Jacques!"

  "A fine little fellow," said Lupin.

  She did not reply. She was feeling the child's jersey, as Lupin haddone, no doubt to see if he had succeeded in his nocturnal mission; andshe questioned him in a whisper.

  "No, mummy," said the child. "No, really."

  She kissed him fondly and petted him, until, in a little while, thechild, worn out with fatigue and excitement, fell asleep. She remainedleaning over him for a long time. She herself seemed very much worn outand in need of rest.

  Lupin did not disturb her contemplation. He looked at her anxiously,with an attention which she did not perceive, and he noticed the widerrings round her eyes and the deeper marks of wrinkles. Yet he consideredher handsomer than he had thought, with that touching beauty whichhabitual suffering gives to certain faces that are more human, moresensitive than others.

  She wore so sad an expression that, in a burst of instinctive sympathy,he went up to her and said: "I do not know what your plans are, but,whatever they may be, you stand in need of help. You cannot succeedalone."

  "I am not alone."

  "The two men outside? I know them. They're no good. I beseech you,make use of me. You remember the other evening, at the theatre, in theprivate box? You were on the point of speaking. Do not hesitate to-day."

  She turned her eyes on him, looked at him long and fixedly and, asthough unable to escape that opposing will, she said:

  "What do you know exactly? What do you know about me?"

  "There are many things that I do not know. I do not know your name. ButI know..."

  She interrupted him with a gesture; and, resolutely, in her turn,dominating the man who was c
ompelling her to speak:

  "It doesn't matter," she exclaimed. "What you know, after all, is notmuch and is of no importance. But what are your plans? You offer me yourhelp: with what view? For what work? You have flung yourself headlonginto this business; I have been unable to undertake anything withoutmeeting you on my path: you must be contemplating some aim... What aim?"

  "What aim? Upon my word, it seems to me that my conduct..."

  "No, no," she said, emphatically, "no phrases! What you and I want iscertainties; and, to achieve them, absolute frankness. I will set youthe example. M. Daubrecq possesses a thing of unparalleled value, not initself, but for what it represents. That thing you know. You havetwice held it in your hands. I have twice taken it from you. Well, I amentitled to believe that, when you tried to obtain possession of it, youmeant to use the power which you attribute to it and to use it to yourown advantage..."

  "What makes you say that?"

  "Yes, you meant to use it to forward your schemes, in the interest ofyour own affairs, in accordance with your habits as a..."

  "As a burglar and a swindler," said Lupin, completing the sentence forher.

  She did not protest. He tried to read her secret thoughts in the depthsof her eyes. What did she want with him? What was she afraid of? If shemistrusted him, had he not also reasons to mistrust that woman who hadtwice taken the crystal stopper from him to restore it to Daubrecq?Mortal enemy of Daubrecq's though she were, up to what point did sheremain subject to that man's will? By surrendering himself to her,did he not risk surrendering himself to Daubrecq? And yet he had neverlooked upon graver eyes nor a more honest face.

  Without further hesitation, he stated:

  "My object is simple enough. It is the release of my friends Gilbert andVaucheray."

  "Is that true? Is that true?" she exclaimed, quivering all over andquestioning him with an anxious glance.

  "If you knew me..."

  "I do know you... I know who you are. For months, I have taken part inyour life, without your suspecting it... and yet, for certain reasons, Istill doubt..."

  He said, in a more decisive tone:

  "You do not know me. If you knew me, you would know that there can be nopeace for me before my two companions have escaped the awful fate thatawaits them."

  She rushed at him, took him by the shoulders and positively distraught,said:

  "What? What did you say? The awful fate?... Then you believe... youbelieve..."

  "I really believe," said Lupin, who felt how greatly this threat upsether, "I really believe that, if I am not in time, Gilbert and Vaucherayare done for."

  "Be quiet!... Be quiet!" she cried, clutching him fiercely. "Bequiet!... You mustn't say that... There is no reason... It's just youwho suppose..."

  "It's not only I, it's Gilbert as well..."

  "What? Gilbert? How do you know?"

  "From himself?"

  "From him?"

  "Yes, from Gilbert, who has no hope left but in me; from Gilbert, whoknows that only one man in the world can save him and who, a few daysago, sent me a despairing appeal from prison. Here is his letter."

  She snatched the paper greedily and read in stammering accents:

  "Help, governor!... I am frightened!... I am frightened!..."

  She dropped the letter. Her hands fluttered in space. It was as thoughher staring eyes beheld the sinister vision which had already so oftenterrified Lupin. She gave a scream of horror, tried to rise and fainted.