813

by Maurice Leblanc

  “Chapman!” Mr. Kesselbach cried again. “Chapman! Edwards!”

  “Chapman! Edwards!” echoed the stranger, in his turn. “What are you doing? You’re wanted!”

  “Sir, I ask you, I order you to let me pass.”

  “But, my dear sir, who’s preventing you?”

  He politely made way. Mr. Kesselbach walked to the door, opened it and gave a sudden jump backward. Behind the door stood another man, pistol in hand. Kesselbach stammered:

  “Edwards … Chap …”

  He did not finish. In a corner of the lobby he saw his secretary and his servant lying side by side on the floor, gagged and bound.

  Mr. Kesselbach, notwithstanding his nervous and excitable nature, was not devoid of physical courage; and the sense of a definite danger, instead of depressing him, restored all his elasticity and vigor. Pretending dismay and stupefaction, he moved slowly back to the chimneypiece and leant against the wall. His hand felt for the electric bell. He found it and pressed the button without removing his finger.

  “Well?” asked the stranger.

  Mr. Kesselbach made no reply and continued to press the button.

  “Well? Do you expect they will come, that the whole hotel is in commotion, because you are pressing that bell? Why, my dear sir, look behind you and you will see that the wire is cut!”

  Mr. Kesselbach turned round sharply, as though he wanted to make sure; but, instead, with a quick movement, he seized the traveling-bag, thrust his hand into it, grasped a revolver, aimed it at the man and pulled the trigger.

  “Whew!” said the stranger. “So you load your weapons with air and silence?”

  The cock clicked a second time and a third, but there was no report.

  “Three shots more, Lord of the Cape! I shan’t be satisfied till you’ve lodged six bullets in my carcass. What! You give up? That’s a pity … you were making excellent practice!”

  He took hold of a chair by the back, spun it round, sat down a-straddle and, pointing to an arm-chair, said:

  “Won’t you take a seat, my dear sir, and make yourself at home? A cigarette? Not for me, thanks: I prefer a cigar.”

  There was a box on the table: he selected an Upmann, light in color and flawless in shape, lit it and, with a bow:

  “Thank you! That’s a perfect cigar. And now let’s have a chat, shall we?”

  Rudolf Kesselbach listened to him in amazement. Who could this strange person be? … Still, at the sight of his visitor sitting there so quiet and so chatty, he became gradually reassured and began to think that the situation might come to an end without any need to resort to violence or brute force.

  He took out a pocket-book, opened it, displayed a respectable bundle of bank-notes and asked:

  “How much?”

  The other looked at him with an air of bewilderment, as though he found a difficulty in understanding what Kesselbach meant. Then, after a moment, he called:

  “Marco!”

  The man with the revolver stepped forward.

  “Marco, this gentleman is good enough to offer you a few bits of paper for your young woman. Take them, Marco.”

  Still aiming his revolver with his right hand, Marco put out his left, took the notes and withdrew.

  “Now that this question is settled according to your wishes,” resumed the stranger, “let us come to the object of my visit. I will be brief and to the point. I want two things. In the first place, a little black morocco pocket-case, shaped like an envelope, which you generally carry on you. Secondly, a small ebony box, which was in that traveling-bag yesterday. Let us proceed in order. The morocco case?”

  “Burnt.”

  The stranger knit his brows. He must have had a vision of the good old days when there were peremptory methods of making the contumacious speak:

  “Very well. We shall see about that. And the ebony box?”

  “Burnt.”

  “Ah,” he growled, “you’re getting at me, my good man!” He twisted the other’s arm with a pitiless hand. “Yesterday, Rudolf Kesselbach, you walked into the Crédit Lyonnais, on the Boulevard des Italiens, hiding a parcel under your overcoat. You hired a safe … let us be exact: safe No. 16, in recess No. 9. After signing the book and paying your safe-rent, you went down to the basement; and, when you came up again, you no longer had your parcel with you. Is that correct?”

  “Quite.”

  “Then the box and the pocket-case are at the Crédit Lyonnais?”

  “No.”

  “Give me the key of your safe.”

  “No.”

  “Marco!”

  Marco ran up.

  “Look sharp, Marco! The quadruple knot!”

  Before he had even time to stand on the defensive, Rudolf Kesselbach was tied up in a network of cords that cut into his flesh at the least attempt which he made to struggle. His arms were fixed behind his back, his body fastened to the chair and his legs tied together like the legs of a mummy.

  “Search him, Marco.”

  Marco searched him. Two minutes after, he handed his chief a little flat, nickel-plated key, bearing the numbers 16 and 9.

  “Capital. No morocco pocket-case?”

  “No, governor.”

  “It is in the safe. Mr. Kesselbach, will you tell me the secret cypher that opens the lock?”

  “No.”

  “You refuse?”

  “Yes.”

  “Marco!”

  “Yes, governor.”

  “Place the barrel of your revolver against the gentleman’s temple.”

  “It’s there.”

  “Now put your finger to the trigger.”

  “Ready.”

  “Well, Kesselbach, old chap, do you intend to speak?”

  “No.”

  “I’ll give you ten seconds, and not one more. Marco!”

  “Yes, governor.”

  “In ten seconds, blow out the gentleman’s brains.”

  “Right you are, governor.”

  “Kesselbach, I’m counting. One, two, three, four, five, six …”

  Rudolph Kesselbach made a sign.

  “You want to speak?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re just in time. Well, the cypher … the word for the lock?”

  “Dolor.”

  “Dolor … Dolor … Mrs. Kesselbach’s name is Dolores, I believe? You dear boy! … Marco, go and do as I told you … No mistake, mind! I’ll repeat it: meet Jérôme at the omnibus office, give him the key, tell him the word: Dolor. Then, the two of you, go to the Crédit Lyonnais. Jérôme is to walk in alone, sign the name-book, go down to the basement and bring away everything in the safe. Do you quite understand?”

  “Yes, governor. But if the safe shouldn’t open; if the word Dolor …”

  “Silence, Marco. When you come out of the Crédit Lyonnais, you must leave Jérôme, go to your own place and telephone the result of the operation to me. Should the word Dolor by any chance fail to open the safe, we (my friend Rudolf Kesselbach and I) will have one … last … interview. Kesselbach, you’re quite sure you’re not mistaken?”

  “Yes.”

  “That means that you rely upon the futility of the search. We shall see. Be off, Marco!”

  “What about you, governor?”

  “I shall stay. Oh, I’m not afraid! I’ve never been in less danger than at this moment. Your orders about the door were positive, Kesselbach, were they not?”

  “Yes.”

  “Dash it all, you seemed very eager to get that said! Can you have been trying to gain time? If so, I should be caught in a trap like a fool …” He stopped to think, looked at his prisoner and concluded, “No … it’s not possible … we shall not be disturbed …”

  He had not finished speaking, when the door-bell rang. He pressed his hand violently on Rudolf Kesselbach’s mouth:

  “Oh, you old fox, you were expecting some one!”

  The captive’s
eyes gleamed with hope. He could be heard chuckling under the hand that stifled him.

  The stranger shook with rage:

  “Hold your tongue, or I’ll strangle you! Here, Marco, gag him! Quick! … That’s it!”

  The bell rang again. He shouted, as though he himself were Kesselbach and as though Edwards were still there:

  “Why don’t you open the door, Edwards?”

  Then he went softly into the lobby and, pointing to the secretary and the manservant, whispered:

  “Marco, help me shift these two into the bedroom … over there … so that they can’t be seen.”

  He lifted the secretary. Marco carried the servant.

  “Good! Now go back to the sitting-room.”

  He followed him in and at once returned to the lobby and said, in a loud tone of astonishment:

  “Why, your man’s not here, Mr. Kesselbach … No, don’t move … finish your letter … I’ll go myself.”

  And he quietly opened the hall-door.

  “Mr. Kesselbach?”

  He found himself faced by a sort of jovial, bright-eyed giant, who stood swinging from one foot to the other and twisting the brim of his hat between his fingers. He answered:

  “Yes, that’s right. Who shall I say …?”

  “Mr. Kesselbach telephoned … He expects me …”

  “Oh, it’s you … I’ll tell him … Do you mind waiting a minute? … Mr. Kesselbach will speak to you.”

  He had the audacity to leave the visitor standing on the threshold of the little entrance-hall, at a place from which he could see a portion of the sitting-room through the open door, and, slowly, without so much as turning round, he entered the room, went to his confederate by Mr. Kesselbach’s side and whispered:

  “We’re done! It’s Gourel, the detective …”

  The other drew his knife. He caught him by the arm:

  “No nonsense! I have an idea. But, for God’s sake, Marco, understand me and speak in your turn. Speak as if you were Kesselbach … You hear, Marco! You are Kesselbach.”

  He expressed himself so coolly, so forcibly and with such authority that Marco understood, without further explanation, that he himself was to play the part of Kesselbach. Marco said, so as to be heard:

  “You must apologize for me, my dear fellow. Tell M. Gourel I’m awfully sorry, but I’m over head and ears in work … I will see him to-morrow morning, at nine … yes, at nine o’clock punctually.”

  “Good!” whispered the other. “Don’t stir.”

  He went back to the lobby, found Gourel waiting, and said:

  “Mr. Kesselbach begs you to excuse him. He is finishing an important piece of work. Could you possibly come back at nine o’clock to-morrow morning?”

  There was a pause. Gourel seemed surprised, more or less bothered and undecided. The other man’s hand clutched the handle of a knife at the bottom of his pocket. At the first suspicious movement, he was prepared to strike.

  At last, Gourel said:

  “Very well … At nine o’clock to-morrow … But, all the same … However, I shall be here at nine to-morrow …”

  And, putting on his hat, he disappeared down the passage of the hotel.

  Marco, in the sitting-room, burst out laughing:

  “That was jolly clever of you, governor! Oh, how nicely you spoofed him!”

  “Look alive, Marco, and follow him. If he leaves the hotel, let him be, meet Jérôme at the omnibus-office as arranged … and telephone.”

  Marco went away quickly.

  Then the man took a water-bottle on the chimneypiece, poured himself out a tumblerful, which he swallowed at a draught, wetted his handkerchief, dabbed his forehead, which was covered with perspiration, and then sat down beside his prisoner and, with an affectation of politeness, said:

  “But I must really have the honor, Mr. Kesselbach, of introducing myself to you.”

  And, taking a card from his pocket, he said: “Allow me … Arsène Lupin, gentleman-burglar.”

  The name of the famous adventurer seemed to make the best of impressions upon Mr. Kesselbach. Lupin did not fail to observe the fact and exclaimed:

  “Aha, my dear sir, you breathe again! Arsène Lupin is a delicate, squeamish burglar. He loathes bloodshed, he has never committed a more serious crime than that of annexing other people’s property … a mere peccadillo, eh? And what you’re saying to yourself is that he is not going to burden his conscience with a useless murder. Quite so … But will your destruction be so useless as all that? Everything depends on the answer. And I assure you that I’m not larking at present. Come on, old chap!”

  He drew up his chair beside the arm-chair, removed the prisoner’s gag and, speaking very plainly:

  “Mr. Kesselbach,” he said, “on the day when you arrived in Paris you entered into relations with one Barbareux, the manager of a confidential inquiry agency; and, as you were acting without the knowledge of your secretary, Chapman, it was arranged that the said Barbareux, when communicating with you by letter or telephone, should call himself ‘the Colonel.’ I hasten to tell you that Barbareux is a perfectly honest man. But I have the good fortune to number one of his clerks among my own particular friends. That is how I discovered the motive of your application to Barbareux and how I came to interest myself in you and to make a search or two here, with the assistance of a set of false keys … in the course of which search or two, I may as well tell you, I did not find what I was looking for.”

  He lowered his voice and, with his eyes fixed on the eyes of his prisoner, watching his expression, searching his secret thoughts, he uttered these words:

  “Mr. Kesselbach, your instructions to Barbareux were that he should find a man hidden somewhere in the slums of Paris who bears or used to bear the name of Pierre Leduc. The man answers to this brief description: height, five feet nine inches; hair and complexion, fair; wears a moustache. Special mark: the tip of the little finger of the left hand is missing, as the result of a cut. Also, he has an almost imperceptible scar on the right cheek. You seem to attach enormous importance to this man’s discovery, as though it might lead to some great advantage to yourself. Who is the man?”

  “I don’t know.”

  The answer was positive, absolute. Did he know or did he not know? It made little difference. The great thing was that he was determined not to speak.

  “Very well,” said his adversary, “but you have fuller particulars about him than those with which you furnished Barbareux.”

  “I have not.”

  “You lie, Mr. Kesselbach. Twice, in Barbareux’s presence, you consulted papers contained in the morocco case.”

  “I did.”

  “And the case?”

  “Burnt.”

  Lupin quivered with rage. The thought of torture and of the facilities which it used to offer was evidently passing through his mind again.

  “Burnt? But the box? … Come, own up … confess that the box is at the Crédit Lyonnais.”

  “Yes.”

  “And what’s inside it?”

  “The finest two hundred diamonds in my private collection.”

  This statement did not seem to displease the adventurer.

  “Aha, the finest two hundred diamonds! But, I say, that’s a fortune! … Yes, that makes you smile … It’s a trifle to you, no doubt … And your secret is worth more than that … To you, yes … but to me? …”

  He took a cigar, lit a match, which he allowed to go out again mechanically, and sat for some time thinking, motionless.

  The minutes passed.

  He began to laugh:

  “I dare say you’re hoping that the expedition will come to nothing and that they won’t open the safe? … Very likely, old chap! But, in that case, you’ll have to pay me for my trouble. I did not come here to see what sort of figure you cut in an arm-chair … The diamonds, since diamonds there appear to be … or else the morocco case … There’s your dilemma.” He loo
ked at his watch. “Half an hour … Hang it all! … Fate is moving very slowly … But there’s nothing for you to grin at, Mr. Kesselbach. I shall not go back empty-handed, make no mistake about that! … At last!”

  It was the telephone-bell. Lupin snatched at the receiver and, changing the sound of his voice, imitated the rough accent of his prisoner:

  “Yes, Rudolf Kesselbach … you’re speaking to him … Yes, please, mademoiselle, put me on … Is that you, Marco? … Good … Did it go off all right? … Excellent! … No hitch? … My best compliments! … Well, what did you pick up? … The ebony box? … Nothing else? … No papers? … Tut, tut! … And what’s in the box? … Are they fine diamonds? … Capital, capital! … One minute, Marco, while I think … You see, all this … If I were to tell you my opinion … Wait, don’t go away … hold the line …”

  He turned round.

  “Mr. Kesselbach, are you keen on your diamonds?”

  “Yes.”

  “Would you buy them back of me?”

  “Possibly.”

  “For how much? Five hundred thousand francs?”

  “Five hundred thousand … yes.”

  “Only, here’s the rub: how are we to make the exchange? A cheque? No, you’d swindle me … or else I’d swindle you … Listen. On the day after to-morrow, go to the Crédit Lyonnais in the morning, draw out your five hundred bank-notes of a thousand each and go for a walk in the Bois, on the Auteuil side … I shall have the diamonds in a bag: that’s handier … The box shows too much …”

  Kesselbach gave a start:

  “No, no … the box, too … I want everything …”

  “Ah,” cried Lupin, shouting with laughter, “you’ve fallen into the trap! … The diamonds you don’t care about … they can be replaced … But you cling to that box as you cling to your skin … Very well, you shall have your box … on the word of Arsène … you shall have it to-morrow morning, by parcel post!”

  He went back to the telephone:

  “Marco, have you the box in front of you? … Is there anything particular about it? … Ebony inlaid with ivory … Yes, I know the sort of thing … Japanese, from the Faubourg Saint-Antoine … No mark? … Ah, a little round label, with a blue border and a number! … Yes, a shop-mark … no importance. And is the bottom of the box thick? … Not very thick … Bother! No false bottom, then? … Look here, Marco: just examine the ivory inlay on the outside … or, rather, no, the lid.” He reveled with delight. “The lid! That’s it, Marco! Kesselbach blinked his eyes just now … We’re burning! … Ah, Kesselbach, old chap, didn’t you see me squinting at you? You silly fellow!” And, to Marco, “Well, what do you see? … A looking-glass inside the lid? … Does it slide? … Is it on hinges? … No! … Well, then, break it … Yes, yes, I tell you to break it … That glass serves no purpose there … it’s been added since!” He lost patience. “Mind your own business, idiot! … Do as I say! …”