“Come on, then,” he said.
The thing did not take long. The eight of them, Browning pistols in hand, went up the stairs without overmuch precaution, eager to surprise Lupin before he had time to organize his defences.
“Open the door!” roared Ganimard, rushing at the door of Mme. Sparmiento’s bedroom.
A policeman smashed it in with his shoulder.
There was no one in the room; and no one in Victoire’s bedroom either.
“They’re all upstairs!” shouted Ganimard. “They’ve gone up to Lupin in his attic. Be careful now!”
All the eight ran up the third flight of stairs. To his great astonishment, Ganimard found the door of the attic open and the attic empty. And the other rooms were empty too.
“Blast them!” he cursed. “What’s become of them?”
But the chief called him. M. Dudouis, who had gone down again to the second floor, noticed that one of the windows was not latched, but just pushed to:
“There,” he said, to Ganimard, “that’s the road they took, the road of the tapestries. I told you as much: the Rue Dufresnoy. …”
“But our men would have fired on them,” protested Ganimard, grinding his teeth with rage. “The street’s guarded.”
“They must have gone before the street was guarded.”
“They were all three of them in their rooms when I rang you up, chief!”
“They must have gone while you were waiting for me in the garden.”
“But why? Why? There was no reason why they should go today rather than tomorrow, or the next day, or next week, for that matter, when they had pocketed all the insurance-money!”
Yes, there was a reason; and Ganimard knew it when he saw, on the table, a letter addressed to himself and opened it and read it. The letter was worded in the style of the testimonials which we hand to people in our service who have given satisfaction:
“I, the undersigned, Arsène Lupin, gentleman-burglar, ex-colonel, ex-man-of-all-work, ex-corpse, hereby certify that the person of the name of Ganimard gave proof of the most remarkable qualities during his stay in this house. He was exemplary in his behaviour, thoroughly devoted and attentive; and, unaided by the least clue, he foiled a part of my plans and saved the insurance-companies four hundred and fifty thousand francs. I congratulate him; and I am quite willing to overlook his blunder in not anticipating that the downstairs telephone communicates with the telephone in Sonia Kritchnoff’s bedroom and that, when telephoning to Mr. Chief-detective, he was at the same time telephoning to me to clear out as fast as I could. It was a pardonable slip, which must not be allowed to dim the glamour of his services nor to detract from the merits of his victory.
“Having said this, I beg him to accept the homage of my admiration and of my sincere friendship.
Endnotes
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The Hollow Needle. By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (Eveleigh Nash). ↩
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813. By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (Mills & Boon). ↩
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The Exploits of Arsène Lupin. By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (Cassell). IV The Escape of Arsène Lupin. ↩
-
The Exploits of Arsène Lupin. IX Holmlock Shears arrives too late. ↩
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Arsène Lupin—The Novel of the Play. By Edgar Jepson and Maurice Leblanc (Mills & Boon). ↩
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The Hollow Needle. By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (Nash). 813 By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (Mills & Boon). ↩
Colophon
The Confessions of Arsène Lupin
was published in 1913 by
Maurice Leblanc.
It was translated from French between 1912 and 1913 by
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.
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