The widow gave a strident laugh:
“Well played, wasn’t it? The Lupin of Lupins, the master of masters, inaccessible and invisible, caught in a trap by a woman and a boy! … Here he is in flesh and bone … here he is with hands and feet tied, no more dangerous than a sparrow … here is he … here he is! …”
She shook with joy and began to pace the room, throwing sidelong glances at the bed, like a wild beast that does not for a moment take its eyes from its victim. And never had Lupin beheld greater hatred and savagery in any human being.
“Enough of this prattle,” she said.
Suddenly restraining herself, she stalked back to him and, in a quite different tone, in a hollow voice, laying stress on every syllable:
“Thanks to the papers in your pocket, Lupin, I have made good use of the last twelve days. I know all your affairs, all your schemes, all your assumed names, all the organization of your band, all the lodgings which you possess in Paris and elsewhere. I have even visited one of them, the most secret, the one where you hide your papers, your ledgers and the whole story of your financial operations. The result of my investigations is very satisfactory. Here are four cheques, taken from four chequebooks and corresponding with four accounts which you keep at four different banks under four different names. I have filled in each of them for ten thousand francs. A larger figure would have been too risky. And, now, sign.”
“By Jove!” said Lupin, sarcastically. “This is blackmail, my worthy Mme. Dugrival.”
“That takes your breath away, what?”
“It takes my breath away, as you say.”
“And you find an adversary who is a match for you?”
“The adversary is far beyond me. So the trap—let us call it infernal—the infernal trap into which I have fallen was laid not merely by a widow thirsting for revenge, but also by a first-rate business woman anxious to increase her capital?”
“Just so.”
“My congratulations. And, while I think of it, used M. Dugrival perhaps to … ?”
“You have hit it, Lupin. After all, why conceal the fact? It will relieve your conscience. Yes, Lupin, Dugrival used to work on the same lines as yourself. Oh, not on the same scale! … We were modest people: a louis here, a louis there … a purse or two which we trained Gabriel to pick up at the races. … And, in this way, we had made our little pile … just enough to buy a small place in the country.”
“I prefer it that way,” said Lupin.
“That’s all right! I’m only telling you, so that you may know that I am not a beginner and that you have nothing to hope for. A rescue? No. The room in which we now are communicates with my bedroom. It has a private outlet of which nobody knows. It was Dugrival’s special apartment. He used to see his friends here. He kept his implements and tools here, his disguises … his telephone even, as you perceive. So there’s no hope, you see. Your accomplices have given up looking for you here. I have sent them off on another track. Your goose is cooked. Do you begin to realize the position?”
“Yes.”
“Then sign the cheques.”
“And, when I have signed them, shall I be free?”
“I must cash them first.”
“And after that?”
“After that, on my soul, as I hope to be saved, you will be free.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“Have you any choice?”
“That’s true. Hand me the cheques.”
She unfastened Lupin’s right hand, gave him a pen and said:
“Don’t forget that the four cheques require four different signatures and that the handwriting has to be altered in each case.”
“Never fear.”
He signed the cheques.
“Gabriel,” said the widow, “it is ten o’clock. If I am not back by twelve, it will mean that this scoundrel has played me one of his tricks. At twelve o’clock, blow out his brains. I am leaving you the revolver with which your uncle shot himself. There are five bullets left out of the six. That will be ample.”
She left the room, humming a tune as she went.
Lupin mumbled:
“I wouldn’t give twopence for my life.”
He shut his eyes for an instant and then, suddenly, said to Gabriel:
“How much?”
And, when the other did not appear to understand, he grew irritated:
“I mean what I say. How much? Answer me, can’t you? We drive the same trade, you and I. I steal, thou stealest, we steal. So we ought to come to terms: that’s what we are here for. Well? Is it a bargain? Shall we clear out together. I will give you a post in my gang, an easy, well-paid post. How much do you want for yourself? Ten thousand? Twenty thousand? Fix your own price; don’t be shy. There’s plenty to be had for the asking.”
An angry shiver passed through his frame as he saw the impassive face of his keeper:
“Oh, the beggar won’t even answer! Why, you can’t have been so
