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"And then." he muttered.
"And then.. let us talk."
"Yes, yes.. let us talk.."
"A cigarette?" asked the prince. "Will you have one? Ah, I see that you are becoming reconciled to life! So much the better: we shall understand each other; and that quickly."
He lit the young man's cigarette and his own and, at once, in a few words uttered in a hard voice, explained himself:
"You, the late Gérard Baupré, were weary of life, ill, penniless, hopeless… Would you like to be well, rich, and powerful?"
"I don't follow you."
"It is quite simple. Accident has placed you on my path. You are young, good-looking, a poet; you are intelligent and – your act of despair shows it – you have a fine sense of conduct. These are qualities which are rarely found united in one person. I value them.. and I take them for my account."
"They are not for sale."
"Idiot! Who talks of buying or selling? Keep your conscience. It is too precious a jewel for me to relieve you of it."
"Then what do you ask of me?"
"Your life!" And, pointing to the bruises on the young man's throat, "Your life, which you have not known how to employ! Your life, which you have bungled, wasted, destroyed and which, I propose to build up again, in accordance with an ideal of beauty, greatness and dignity that would make you giddy, my lad, if you saw the abyss into which my secret thought plunges.." He had taken Gérard's head between his hands and he continued, eagerly: "You are free! No shackles! You have no longer the weight of your name to bear! You have got rid of that number with which society had stamped you as though branding you on the shoulder. You are free! In this world of slaves where each man bears his label you can either come and go unknown, invisible, as if you owned Gyges' ring.. or else you can choose your own label, the one you like best! Do you understand the magnificent treasure which you represent to an artist.. to yourself, if you like? A virgin life, a brand-new life! Your life is the wax which you have the right to fashion as you please, according to the whims of your imagination and the counsels of your reason."
The young man made a gesture expressive of weariness:
"Ah, what would you have me do with that treasure? What have I done with it so far? Nothing!"
"Give it to me."
"What can you do with it?"
"Everything. If you are not an artist, I am; and an enthusiastic artist, inexhaustible, indomitable, exuberant. If you have not the Promethean fire, I have! Where you failed, I shall succeed. Give me your life."
"Words, promises!" cried the young man, whose features began to glow with animation. "Empty dreams! I know my own worthlessness! I know my cowardice, my despondency, my efforts that come to nothing, all my wretchedness. To begin life anew, I should need a will which I do not possess.."
"I possess mine."
"Friends.."
"You shall have them."
"Means.."
"I am providing you with means.. and such means! You will only have to dip, as one would dip into a magic coffer."
"But who are you?" cried the young man, wildly.
"To others, Prince Sernine… To you.. what does it matter? I am more than a prince, more than a king, more than an emperor.."
"Who are you?.. Who are you?" stammered Baupré.
"The Master.. he who will and who can.. he who acts… There are no bounds to my will, there is none to my power. I am richer than the richest man alive, for his fortune is mine… I am more powerful than the mightiest, for their might is at my service!"
He took the other's head in his hands again and, looking deep into his eyes:
"Be rich, too.. be mighty… I offer you happiness.. and the joy of living.. and peace for your poet's brain.. and fame and glory also… Do you accept?"
"Yes.. yes." whispered Gérard, dazzled and overmastered. "What am I to do?"
"Nothing."
"But."
"Nothing, I say. The whole scaffolding of my plans rests on you, but you do not count. You have no active part to play. You are, for the moment, but a silent actor, or not even that, but just a pawn which I move along the board."
"What shall I do?"
"Nothing. Write poetry. You shall live as you please. You shall have money. You shall enjoy life. I will not even bother my head about you. I repeat, you play no part in my venture."
"And who shall I be?"
Sernine stretched out his arm and pointed to the next room:
"You shall take that man's place. You are that man!"
Gérard shuddered with revolt and disgust:
"Oh, no, he is dead!.. And then.. it is a crime!.. No, I want a new life, made for me, thought out for me.. an unknown name.."
"That man, I tell you!" cried Sernine, irresistible in his energy and authority. "You shall be that man and none other! That man, because his destiny is magnificent, because his name is illustrious, and because he hands down to you a thrice-venerable heritage of ancestral dignity and pride."
"It is a crime!" moaned Baupré, faltering.
"You shall be that man!" spoke Sernine, with unparalleled vehemence. "You shall be that man! If not, you become Baupré again; and over Baupré I own rights of life and death. Choose."
He drew his revolver, cocked it and took aim at the young man:
"Choose," he repeated.
The expression of his face was implacable. Gérard was frightened and sank down on his bed sobbing:
"I wish to live!"
"You wish it firmly, irrevocably?"
"Yes, a thousand times yes! After the terrible thing which I attempted, death appals me… Anything.. anything rather than death!.. Anything!.. Pain.. hunger.. illness.. every torture, every shame.. crime itself, if need be.. but not death!"
He shivered with fever and agony, as though the great enemy were still prowling round him and as though he felt himself powerless to escape from its clutches. The prince redoubled his efforts and, in a fervent voice, holding him under him like a prey:
"I will ask nothing impossible of you, nothing wrong… If there is anything, I am responsible… No, no crime.. a little pain at most… A little of your blood must flow. But what is that, compared with the dread of dying?"
"Pain is indifferent to me."
"Then here and now!" shouted Sernine. "Here and now! Ten seconds of pain and that is all… Ten seconds and the other's life is yours.."
He had seized him round the body and forced him down on a chair; and he now held the young man's left hand flat on the table, with his five fingers spread out. He swiftly took a knife from his pocket, pressed the blade against the little finger, between the first and second joints, and commanded:
"Strike! Strike your own blow. One blow of the fist and that is all!"
He had taken Gérard's right hand and was trying to bring it down upon the other like a hammer.
Gérard writhed and twisted, convulsed with horror. He understood:
"Never!" he stuttered. "Never!"
"Strike! One blow and it's done! One blow and you will be like that man: no one will recognize you."
"Tell me his name.."
"Strike first!"
"Never! Oh, what torture!.. I beseech you.. presently.."
"Now… I insist.. you must."
"No.. no.. I can't do it.."
"Strike, you fool! It means fortune, fame, love.."
Gérard raised his fist with a sudden movement.
"Love," he said, "yes.. for that, yes.."
"You will love and be loved," said Sernine. "Your betrothed awaits you. I have chosen her myself. She is the purest of the pure, the fairest of the fair. But you must win her. Strike!"
The lad's arm stiffened for the fatal blow; but the instinct of self-preservation was too strong for him. His body was wrung with a superhuman effort. He suddenly released himself from Sernine's hold and fled.
He rushed like a madman to the other room. A yell of terror escaped him, at the sight of the abominable vision, and he came back and fell on his knees before Sernine, beside the table.
"Strike!" said the prince, again spreading out the lad's fingers and fixing the blade of the knife.
What followed was done mechanically. With an automatic movement, with haggard eyes and a livid face, the young man raised his fist and struck:
"Ah!" he cried, with a moan of pain.
A small piece of flesh was separated from the little finger. Blood flowed. For the third time, Gérard fainted.
Sernine looked at him for a second or two and said, gently:
"Poor little chap!.. There, I'll reward you for what you've done; and a hundred times over. I always pay generously."
He went downstairs and found the doctor waiting below:
"It's done. Go upstairs, you, and make a little cut in his right cheek, similar to Pierre Leduc's. The two scars must be exactly alike. I shall come back for you in an hour."
"Where are you going?"
"To take the air. My heart feels anyhow."
Outside he drew a long breath and lit another cigarette:
"A good day's work," he muttered. "A little over-crowded, a little tiring, but fruitful, really fruitful. I am Dolores Kesselbach's friend. I am Geneviève's friend. I have manufactured a new Pierre Leduc, a very presentable one and entirely at my disposal. Lastly, I have found Geneviève a husband of the sort that you don't find by the dozen. Now my task is done. I have only to gather the fruit of my efforts. It's your turn to work, M. Lenormand. I, for my part, am ready." And he added, thinking of the poor mutilated lad whom he had dazzled with his promises, "Only – for there is an 'only' – I have not the slightest notion who this Pierre Leduc was, whose place I have magnanimously awarded to that good young man. And that's very annoying… For when all is said, there's nothing to prove to me that Pierre Leduc was not the son of a pork-butcher!."
CHAPTER V
M. LENORMAND AT WORK
On the morning of the 31st of May, all the newspapers reminded their readers that Lupin, in a letter addressed to M. Lenormand, had announced the escape of the messenger Jérôme for that date. And one of them summed up the situation, as it then stood, in very able terms:
"The horrible carnage at the Palace Hotel took place as far back as the 17th of April. What has been discovered since? Nothing.
"There were three clues: the cigarette-case, the initials L and M and the parcel of clothes left behind in the office of the hotel. What advantage has been taken of these clues? None.
"It appears that the police suspect one of the visitors who was staying on the first floor and who disappeared in a doubtful manner. Have they found him? Have they established his identity? No.
"The tragedy, therefore, remains as mysterious as at the beginning, the gloom is impenetrable.
"To complete the picture, we are told that dissension prevails between the prefect of police and his subordinate, M. Lenormand, and that the latter, finding himself less vigorously supported by the prime minister, virtually sent in his resignation several days ago. According to our information, the conduct of the Kesselbach case is now in the hands of the deputy-chief of the detective-service, M. Weber, a personal enemy of M. Lenormand's.
"In short, disorder and confusion reign; and this in the face of Lupin, who stands for method, energy and steadfastness of mind.
"What conclusion do we draw from these facts? Briefly, this: Lupin will release his accomplice to-day, the 31st of May, as he foretold."
This conclusion, which was echoed in all the other newspapers, was also the conclusion at which the general public had arrived. And we must take it that the threat was not considered devoid of importance in high places, for the prefect of police and, in the absence of M. Lenormand, who was said to be unwell, the deputy-chief of the detective-service, M. Weber, had adopted the most stringent measures, both at the Palais de Justice and at the Santé Prison, where the prisoner was confined.
They did not dare, for sheer reasons of shame, to suspend on that particular day the examinations conducted daily by M. Formerie; but, from the prison to the Boulevard du Palais, a regular mobilization of police-forces guarded the streets along the line.
To the intense astonishment of one and all, the 31st of May passed and the threatened escape did not take place.
One thing did happen, an attempt to execute the plan, as was betrayed by a block of tramway-cars, omnibuses and drays along the road taken by the prison-van and the unaccountable breaking of one of the wheels of the van itself. But the attempt assumed no more definite form.
Lupin, therefore, had met with a check. The public felt almost disappointed and the police triumphed loudly.
On the next day, Saturday, an incredible rumour spread through the Palais and the newspaper-offices: Jérôme the messenger had disappeared.
Was it possible? Although the special editions confirmed the news, people refused to believe it. But, at six o'clock, a note published by the Dépêche du Soir made it official:
"We have received the following communication signed by Arsène Lupin. The special stamp affixed to it, in accordance with the circular which Lupin recently sent to the press, guarantees the genuineness of the document:
"'To the Editor of the Dépêche du Soir.
"Sir,
"'Pray make my apologies to the public for not keeping my word yesterday. I remembered, at the last moment, that the 31st of May fell on a Friday! Could I set my friend at liberty on a Friday? I did not think it right to assume that responsibility.
"'I must also apologize for not on this occasion explaining, with my customary frankness, how this little event was managed. My process is so ingenious and so simple that I fear lest, if I revealed it, every criminal should be inspired by it. How surprised people will be on the day when I am free to speak! "Is that all?" I shall be asked. That is all; but it had to be thought of.
"'Permit me to be, Sir,"'Your obedient servant,"'Arsène Lupin.'"An hour later, M. Lenormand was rung up on the telephone and informed that Valenglay, the prime minister, wished to see him at the Ministry of the Interior.
"How well you're looking, my dear Lenormand! And I who thought that you were ill and dared not leave your room!"
"I am not ill, Monsieur le Président."
"So you were sulking in your tent!.. But you were always a bad-tempered fellow."
"I confess to the bad temper, Monsieur le Président, but not to the sulking."
"But you stay at home! And Lupin takes advantage of it to release his friends.."
"How could I stop him?"
"How? Why, Lupin's trick was of the plainest. In accordance with his usual method, he announced the date of the escape beforehand; everybody believed in it; an apparent attempt was planned; the escape was not made; and, on the next day, when nobody is thinking about it – whoosh! – the bird takes flight."
"Monsieur le Président," said the chief of the detective-service, solemnly, "Lupin disposes of such means that we are not in a position to prevent what he has decided on. The escape was mathematically certain. I preferred to pass the hand.. and leave the laughter for others to face."
Valenglay chuckled:
"It's a fact that Monsieur le Préfet de Police and M. Weber cannot be enjoying themselves at the present moment… But, when all is said, can you explain to me, M. Lenormand."
"All that we know, Monsieur le Président, is that the escape took place from the Palais de Justice. The prisoner was brought in a prison-van and taken to M. Formerie's room. He left M. Formerie's room, but he did not leave the Palais de Justice. And yet nobody knows what became of him."
"It's most bewildering."
"Most bewildering."
"And has nothing else been discovered?"
"Yes. The inner corridor leading to the examining magistrates' rooms was blocked by an absolutely unprecedented crowd of prisoners, warders, counsel and doorkeepers; and it was discovered that all those people had received forged notices to appear at the same hour. On the other hand, not one of the examining-magistrates who were supposed to have summoned them sat in his room that day; and this because of forged notices from the public prosecutor's office, sending them to every part of Paris.. and of the outskirts."
"Is that all?"
"No. Two municipal guards and a prisoner were seen to cross the courtyards. A cab was waiting for them outside and all three stepped in.
"And your supposition, Lenormand, your opinion.."
"My supposition, Monsieur le Président, is that the two municipal guards were accomplices who, profiting by the disorder in the corridor, took the place of the three warders. And my opinion is that this escape succeeded only through such special circumstances and so strange a combination of facts that we must look upon the most unlikely cases of complicity as absolutely certain. Lupin, for that matter, has connections at the Palais that balk all our calculations. He has agents in your ministry. He has agents at the Prefecture of Police. He has agents around me. It is a formidable organization, a detective-service a thousand times more clever, more daring, more varied and more supple than that under my own orders."
"And you stand this, Lenormand?"
"No, I do not."
"Then why this slackness on your part since the beginning of the case? What have you done against Lupin?"
"I have prepared for the struggle."
"Ah, capital! And, while you were preparing, he was acting."
"So was I."
"And do you know anything?"
"I know a great deal."
"What? Speak!"
Leaning on his stick, M. Lenormand took a little contemplative walk across the spacious room. Then he sat down opposite Valenglay, brushed the facings of his olive-green coat with his finger-tips, settled his spectacles on his nose and said, plainly:
"M. le Président, I hold three trump-cards in my hand. First, I know the name under which Arsène Lupin is hiding at this moment, the name under which he lived on the Boulevard Haussmann, receiving his assistants daily, reconstructing and directing his gang."
"But then why, in heaven's name, don't you arrest him?"
"I did not receive these particulars until later. The prince – let us call him Prince Dash – has disappeared. He is abroad, on other business."
"And, if he does not return."
"The position which he occupies, the manner in which he has flung himself into the Kesselbach case, necessitate his return and under the same name."
"Nevertheless."
"Monsieur le Président, I come to my second trump. I have at last discovered Pierre Leduc."
"Nonsense!"
"Or rather Lupin discovered him, and before disappearing, settled him in a little villa in the neighborhood of Paris."
"By Jove! But how did you know."
"Oh, easily! Lupin has placed two of his accomplices with Pierre Leduc, to watch him and defend him. Now these accomplices are two of my own detectives, two brothers whom I employ in the greatest secrecy and who will hand him over to me at the first opportunity!"
"Well done you! So that."
"So that, as Pierre Leduc, we may say, is the central point of the efforts of all those who are trying to solve the famous Kesselbach secret, I shall, sooner or later, through Pierre Leduc, catch, first, the author of the treble murder, because that miscreant substituted himself for Mr. Kesselbach in the accomplishment of an immense scheme and because Mr. Kesselbach had to find Pierre Leduc in order to be able to accomplish that scheme; and, secondly, Arsène Lupin, because Arsène Lupin is pursuing the same object."
"Splendid! Pierre Leduc is the bait which you are throwing to the enemy."
"And the fish is biting, Monsieur le Président. I have just had word that a suspicious person was seen, a short time ago, prowling round the little villa where Pierre Leduc is living under the protection of my officers. I shall be on the spot in four hours."
"And the third trump, Lenormand?"
"Monsieur le Président, a letter arrived yesterday, addressed to Mr. Rudolf Kesselbach, which I intercepted.."
"Intercepted, eh? You're getting on!"
"Yes, I intercepted it, opened it and kept it for myself. Here it is. It is dated two months back. It bears the Capetown postmark and contains these words: 'My dear Rudolf, I shall be in Paris on the 1st of June and in just as wretched a plight as when you came to my assistance. But I have great hopes of this Pierre Leduc affair of which I told you. What a strange story it is! Have you found the man I mean? Where do we stand? I am most anxious to know.' The letter is signed, 'Steinweg.' The first of June," continued M. Lenormand, "is to-day. I have ordered one of my inspectors to hunt me out this Steinweg. I have no doubt that he will succeed."
"Nor I, no doubt at all," cried Valenglay, rising from his chair, "and I make you every apology, my dear Lenormand, and my humble confession: I was on the point of letting you slide.. for good and all! To-morrow I was expecting the prefect of police and M. Weber."
"I knew that, Monsieur le Président."
"Impossible!"
"But for that, should I have put myself out? You now see my plan of campaign. On the one side, I am setting traps in which the murderer will be caught sooner or later. Pierre Leduc or Steinweg will deliver him into my hands. On the other side, I am on Arsène Lupin's heels. Two of his agents are in my pay and he believes them to be his most devoted helpers. In addition to this, he is working for me, because he is pursuing the perpetrator of the threefold crime as I am. Only, he imagines that he is dishing me, whereas it is I who am dishing him. So I shall succeed, but on one condition.."
"What is that?"
"That I am given free scope and allowed to act according to the needs of the moment, without troubling about the public, who are growing impatient, or my superiors, who are intriguing against me."
"I agree."
"In that case, Monsieur le Président, in a few days from this I shall be the victor.. or I shall be dead."
At Saint-Cloud. A little villa situated on one of the highest points of the upland, in an unfrequented road.
It was eleven o'clock at night. M. Lenormand left his car at Saint-Cloud and walked cautiously along the road. A shadow appeared.
"Is that you, Gourel?"
"Yes, chief."
"Did you tell the brothers Doudeville that I was coming?"
"Yes, your room is ready, you can go to bed and sleep.. unless they try to carry off Pierre Leduc to-night, which would not surprise me, considering the behavior of the fellow whom the Doudevilles saw."
They walked across the garden, softly entered the house and went up to the first floor. The two brothers, Jean and Jacques Doudeville, were there.
"No news of Prince Sernine?" asked Lenormand.
"No, chief."
"What about Pierre Leduc?"
"He spends the whole day lying flat on his back in his room on the ground-floor, or else in the garden. He never comes up to see us."
"Is he better?"
"Much better. The rest has made a great change in his appearance."
"Is he wholly devoted to Lupin?"
"To Prince Sernine, rather, for he does not suspect that the two are one and the same man. At least, I suppose so. One never knows, with him. He does not speak at all. Oh, he's a queer fish! There's only one person who has the gift of cheering him up, of making him talk and even laugh. That's a young girl from Garches, to whom Prince Sernine introduced him. Geneviève Ernemont her name is. She has been here three times already.. she was here to-day." He added, jestingly, "I believe there's a little flirting going on… It's like his highness Prince Sernine and Mrs. Kesselbach… It seems he's making eyes at her!.. That devil of a Lupin!"
M. Lenormand did not reply. But it was obvious that all these details, to which he seemed to attach no importance, were noted in the recesses of his memory, to be used whenever he might need to draw the logical inferences from them. He lit a cigar, chewed it without smoking it, lit it again and dropped it.
He asked two or three more questions and then, dressed as he was, threw himself on his bed:
"If the least thing happens, let me be awakened… If not, I shall sleep through the night… Go to your posts, all of you."
The others left the room.
An hour passed, two hours.
Suddenly, M. Lenormand felt some one touch him and Gourel said to him:
"Get up, chief; they have opened the gate."
"One man or two?"