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Having found out what he wanted, he put out his light and was on the point of leaving, when a door opened opposite him, down below. Some one came in and lit a lamp. He recognized the Broker. He thereupon resolved to stay where he was, since the expedition, after all, could not be done so long as that man was there.

The Broker took two revolvers from his pocket. He tested the triggers and changed the cartridges, whistling a music-hall tune as he did so.

An hour elapsed in this way. Lupin was beginning to grow restless, without, however, making up his mind to go.

More minutes passed, half an hour, an hour …

At last, the man said aloud:

“Come in.”

One of the scoundrels slipped into the shed; and, one after the other, a third arrived and a fourth …

“We are all here,” said the Broker. “Dieudonne and Chubby will meet us down there. Come, we’ve no time to lose … Are you armed?”

“To the teeth.”

“That’s all right. It’ll be hot work.”

“How do you know, Broker?”

“I’ve seen the chief … When I say that I’ve seen him, no … but he spoke to me …”

“Yes,” said one of the men, “in the dark, at a street-corner, as usual. Ah, Altenheim’s ways were better than that. At least, one knew what one was doing.”

“And don’t you know?” retorted the Broker. “We’re breaking in at the Kesselbach woman’s.”

“And what about the two watchers? The two coves whom Lupin posted there?”

“That’s their look-out: there’s seven of us. They had better give us as little trouble as possible.”

“What about the Kesselbach?”

“Gag her first, then bind her and bring her here … There, on that old sofa … And then wait for orders.”

“Is the job well paid?”

“The Kesselbach’s jewels to begin with.”

“Yes, if it comes off … but I’m speaking of the certainty.”

“Three hundred-franc notes apiece, beforehand, and twice as much again afterwards.”

“Have you the money?”

“Yes.”

“That’s all right. You can say what you like, but, as far as paying goes, there’s no one to equal that bloke.” And, in a voice so low that Lupin could hardly hear, “I say, Broker, if we’re obliged to use the knife, is there a reward?”

“The same as usual, two thousand.”

“If it’s Lupin?”

“Three thousand.”

“Oh, if we could only get him!”

One after the other, they left the lumber-room. Lupin heard the Broker’s parting words:

“This is the plan of attack. We divide into three lots. A whistle; and every one runs forward …”

Lupin hurriedly left his hiding-place, went down the ladder, ran round the house, without going in, and climbed back over the railings:

“The Broker’s right; it’ll be hot work … Ah, it’s my skin they’re after! A reward for Lupin! The rascals!”

He passed through the toll-gate and jumped into a taxi:

“Rue Raynouard.”

He stopped the cab at two hundred yards from the Rue des Vignes and walked to the corner of the two streets. To his great surprise, Doudeville was not there.

“That’s funny,” said Lupin. “It’s past twelve … This business looks suspicious to me.”

He waited ten minutes, twenty minutes. At half-past twelve, nobody had arrived. Further delay was dangerous. After all, if Doudeville and his men were prevented from coming, Charolais, his son and he, Lupin, himself were enough to repel the attack, without counting the assistance of the servants.

He therefore went ahead. But he caught sight of two men who tried to hide in the shadow of a corner wall.

“Hang it!” he said. “That’s the vanguard of the gang, Dieudonne and Chubby. I’ve allowed myself to be out-distanced, like a fool.”

Here he lost more time. Should he go straight up to them, disable them and then climb into the house through the pantry-window, which he knew to be unlocked? That would be the most prudent course and would enable him, moreover, to take Mrs. Kesselbach away at once and to remove her to a place of safety.

Yes, but it also meant the failure of his plan; it meant missing this glorious opportunity of trapping the whole gang, including Louis de Malreich himself, without doubt.

Suddenly a whistle sounded from somewhere on the other side of the house. Was it the rest of the gang, so soon? And was an offensive movement to be made from the garden?

But, at the preconcerted signal, the two men climbed through the window and disappeared from view.

Lupin scaled the balcony at a bound and jumped into the pantry. By the sound of their footsteps, he judged that the assailants had gone into the garden; and the sound was so distinct that he felt easy in his mind: Charolais and his son could not fail to hear the noise.

He therefore went upstairs. Mrs. Kesselbach’s bedroom was on the first landing. He walked in without knocking.

A night-light was burning in the room; and he saw Dolores, on a sofa, fainting. He ran up to her, lifted her and, in a voice of command, forcing her to answer:

“Listen … Charolais? His son … Where are they?”

She stammered:

“Why, what do you mean? … They’re gone, of course! …”

“What, gone?”

“You sent me word … an hour ago … a telephone-message …”

He picked up a piece of blue paper lying beside her and read:

“Send the two watchers away at once … and all my men … Tell them to meet me at the Grand Hotel. Have no fear.”

“Thunder! And you believed it? … But your servants?”

“Gone.”

He went up to the window. Outside, three men were coming from the other end of the garden.

From the window in the next room, which looked out on the street, he saw two others, on the pavement.

And he thought of Dieudonne, of Chubby, of Louis de Malreich, above all, who must now be prowling around, invisible and formidable.

“Hang it!” he muttered. “I half believe they’ve done me this time!”

CHAPTER XIV

THE MAN IN BLACK

AT THAT MOMENT, ARSÈNE
Lupin felt the impression, the certainty, that he had been drawn into an ambush, by means which he had not the time to perceive, but of which he guessed the prodigious skill and address. Everything had been calculated, everything ordained; the dismissal of his men, the disappearance or treachery of the servants, his own presence in Mrs. Kesselbach’s house.

Clearly, the whole thing had succeeded, exactly as the enemy wished, thanks to circumstances almost miraculously fortunate; for, after all, he might have arrived before the false message had sent his friends away. But then there would have been a battle between his own gang and the Altenheim gang. And Lupin, remembering Malreich’s conduct, the murder of Altenheim, the poisoning of the mad girl at Veldenz, Lupin asked himself whether the ambush was aimed at him alone or whether Malreich had not contemplated the possibility of a general scuffle, involving the killing of accomplices who had by this time become irksome to him.

It was an intuition, rather, a fleeting idea, that just passed through his mind. The hour was one for action. He must defend Dolores, the abduction of whom was, in all likelihood, the first and foremost reason of the attack.

He half-opened the casement window on the street and levelled his revolver. A shot, rousing and alarming the neighborhood, and the scoundrels would take to their heels.

“Well, no,” he muttered, “no! It shall not be said that I shirked the fight. The opportunity is too good … And, then, who says that they would run away! … There are too many of them to care about the neighbors.”

He returned to Dolores’ room. There was a noise downstairs. He listened and, finding that it came from the staircase, he locked the door.

Dolores was crying and throwing herself about the sofa.

He implored her:

“Are you strong enough? We are on the first floor. I could help you down. We can lower the sheets from the window …”

“No, no, don’t leave me … I am frightened … I haven’t the strength … they will kill me … Oh, protect me!”

He took her in his arms and carried her to the next room. And, bending over her:

“Don’t move; and keep calm. I swear to you that not one of those men shall touch you, as long as I am alive.”

The door of the first room was tried. Dolores, clinging to him with all her might, cried:

“Oh, there they are! There they are! … They will kill you … you are alone! …”

Eagerly, he said:

“No, I am not alone … You are here … You are here beside me …”

He tried to release himself. She took his head in her two hands, looked him deep in the eyes and whispered:

“Where are you going? What are you going to do? No … you must not die … I won’t have it … you must live … you must.”

She stammered words which he did not catch and which she seemed to stifle between her lips lest he should hear them; and, having spent all her energy, exhausted, she fell back unconscious.

He leant over her and gazed at her for a moment. Softly, lightly, he pressed a kiss upon her hair.

Then he went back to the first room, carefully closed the door between the two and switched on the electric light.

“One second, my lads!” he cried. “You seem in a great hurry to get yourselves smashed to pieces! … Don’t you know that Lupin’s here? I’ll make you dance!”

While speaking, he unfolded a screen in such a way as to hide the sofa on which Mrs. Kesselbach had been lying; and he now spread dresses and coverings over it. The door was on the point of giving way under the blows of the men outside.

“Here I am! Coming! Are you ready? Now, gentlemen, one at a time! …”

He briskly turned the key and drew the bolt.

Shouts, threats, a roar of infuriated animals came through the open doorway.

Yet none of them dared come forward. Before rushing at Lupin, they hesitated, seized with alarm, with fear …

This was what he had reckoned on.

Standing in the middle of the room, full in the light, with outstretched arm, he held between his fingers a sheaf of bank-notes, which he divided, counting them one by one, into seven equal shares. And he calmly said:

“Three thousand francs’ reward for each of you, if Lupin is sent to his last account? That’s what you were promised, isn’t it? Here’s double the money!”

He laid the bundles on the table, within reach of the scoundrels.

The Broker roared:

“Humbug! He’s trying to gain time. Shoot him down!”

He raised his arm. His companions held him back.

And Lupin continued:

“Of course, this need not affect your plan of campaign. You came here, first, to kidnap Mrs. Kesselbach and, secondly, to lay hands on her jewels. Far be it from me to interfere with your laudable intentions!”

“Look here, what are you driving at?” growled the Broker, listening in spite of himself.

“Aha, Broker, I’m beginning to interest you, am I? … Come in, old chap … Come in, all of you … There’s a draught at the top of those stairs … and such pretty fellows as you mustn’t run the risk of catching cold … What, are we afraid? Why, I’m all by myself! … Come, pull yourselves together, my lambs!”

They entered the room, puzzled and suspicious.

“Shut the door, Broker … we shall be more comfortable. Thanks, old man. Oh, by the way, I see the notes are gone. Therefore we’re agreed. How easy it is for honest men to come to terms!”

“Well … and next?”

“Next? Well, as we’re partners …”

“Partners?”

“Why, haven’t you accepted my money? We’re working together, old man, and we will carry off the young woman together first and carry off the jewels after.”

The Broker grinned:

“Don’t want you for that.”

“Yes, you do, old man.”

“Why?”

“Because you don’t know where the jewels are hidden and I do.”

“We’ll find out.”

“To-morrow. Not to-night.”

“Well, let’s hear. What do you want?”

“My share of the jewels.”

“Why didn’t you take the lot, as you know where they are?”

“Can’t get at them by myself. There’s a way of doing it, but I don’t know it. You’re here, so I’m making use of you.”

The Broker hesitated:

“Share the jewels … Share the jewels … A few bits of glass and brass, most likely …”

“You fool! … There’s more than a million’s worth.”

The men quivered under the impression made upon them.

“Very well,” said the Broker. “But suppose the Kesselbach gets away? She’s in the next room, isn’t she?”

“No, she’s in here.”

Lupin for a moment pulled back one of the leaves of the screen, revealing the heap of dresses and bed-clothes which he had laid out on the sofa:

“She’s here, fainting. But I shan’t give her up till we’ve divided.”

“Still …”

“You can take it or leave it. I don’t care if I am alone. You know what I’m good for. So please yourselves …”

The men consulted with one another and the Broker said:

“Where is the hiding-place you’re talking of?”

“Under the fireplace. But, when you don’t know the secret, you must first lift up the whole chimneypiece, looking-glass, marble and all in a lump, it seems. It’s no easy job.”

“Pooh, we’re a smart lot, we are! Just you wait and see. In five minutes …”

He gave his orders and his pals at once set to work with admirable vigor and discipline. Two of them, standing on chairs, tried to lift the mirror. The four others attacked the fireplace itself. The Broker, on his knees, kept his eyes on the hearth and gave the word of command:

“Cheerily, lads! … Altogether, if you please! … Look out! … One, two … ah, there, it’s moving! …”

Standing behind them, with his hands in his pockets, Lupin watched them affectionately and, at the same time, revelled with all his pride, as an artist and master, in this striking proof of his authority, of his might, of the incredible sway which he wielded over others. How could those scoundrels for a second accept that improbable story and lose all sense of things, to the point of relinquishing every chance of the fight in his favor?

He took from his pockets two great massive and formidable revolvers and, calmly, choosing the first two men whom he would bring down and the two who would fall next, he aimed as he might have aimed at a pair of targets in a rifle-gallery.