Maurice Leblanc

“ This is all very amusing."
"Are you sure it's very amusing?" moaned Wilson, dolefully.
"Sure?" cried Shears, with a gaiety that was too boisterous to be quite natural. "Of course I'm sure! I never saw anything more amusing in my life. It's first-rate farce.... What a master of chaff this Arsène Lupin is!... He tricks you, but he does it so gracefully!... I wouldn't give my seat at this banquet for all the gold in the world.... Wilson, old chap, you disappoint me. Can I have been mistaken in you? Are you really deficient in that nobility of character which makes a man bear up under misfortune? ”

“ Shears took his time, as though he wished to save up his effect. Then he said:
"The blue diamond found in the tooth-powder is an imitation diamond. The real one you kept."
Arsène Lupin was silent for a moment and then, with his eyes fixed on the Englishman, said very simply:
"You're a great man, sir."
"Isn't he?" said Wilson, emphatically and gaping with admiration.
"Yes," said Lupin, "everything becomes cleared up and appears in its true sense. ”

“ What will people say, when they learn that you, Holmlock Shears, and I, Wilson, have been locked up by Arsène Lupin?"
"It can't be helped, my dear fellow; they will laugh like anything," replied Shears, angrily, with a frowning face. "But we can't go on living here forever, can we?" ”

“ A fine autumn sun filled the avenue. The air was mild and light.
At the Rond-Point, Shears lit his pipe and resumed his walk. Wilson cried:
"I can't understand you, Shears; you take it so calmly! The man laughs at you, plays with you as a cat plays with a mouse ... and you don't utter a word!" ”

“ Shears stopped and said:
"I'm thinking of your visiting-card, Wilson."
"Well?"
"Well, here is a man, who, by way of preparing for a possible struggle with us, obtains specimens of your handwriting and mine and has one of your cards ready in his pocketbook. Have you thought of the amount of precaution, of perspicacity, of determination, of method, of organization that all this represents?"
"You mean to say ..."
"I mean to say, Wilson, that, to fight an enemy so formidably armed, so wonderfully equipped—and to beat him—takes ... a man like myself. ”

“ To begin with, there's the question of my vanity: they consider that I'm worth asking the famous Englishman to meet. Next, think of the pleasure which a fighter like myself must take in the prospect of a duel with Holmlock Shears. Well, I shall have to exert myself to the utmost. For I know the fellow: he won't retreat a step."
"He's a clever man."
"A very clever man. As a detective, I doubt if his equal exists, or has ever existed. Only, I have one advantage over him, which is that he's attacking, while I'm on the defensive. Mine is the easier game to play. ”

“ It sounded clear and frank.
"Joy!" cried Lupin. "Here's a man at last! An adversary is a rara avis at any time; and this one is Holmlock Shears! We shall have some sport."
"You're not afraid?" asked Wilson.
"Very nearly, Mr. Wilson," said Lupin, rising, "and the proof is that I am going to hurry to make good my retreat ... else I might risk being caught napping. Ten days, we said, Mr. Shears?"
"Ten days. This is Sunday. It will all be over by Wednesday week." ”

“ The whole case lies there. The rest is mere talk and child's play. Don't you agree?"
"I agree."
"In that case, M. Lupin, am I not right in saying that I shall have finished my business in ten days?"
"In ten days, yes, the whole truth will be known."
"And you will be arrested."
"No."
"No?"
"For me to be arrested there would have to be a conjunction of such unlikely circumstances, a series of such stupefying pieces of ill-luck, that I cannot admit the possibility."
"What neither circumstances nor luck may be able to effect, M. Lupin, can be brought about by one man's will and persistence." ”

“ He, therefore, slipped into the garden, taking care not to close the gate behind him. He had not gone three steps, when he stopped. A glimmer of light had passed along one of the windows on the second floor.
And the glimmer passed along a second window and a third, while he was able to see nothing but a shadow outlined against the walls of the rooms. And the glimmer descended from the second floor to the first and, for a long time, wandered from room to room.
"Who on earth can be walking about, at one in the morning, in the house where Baron d'Hautrec was murdered?" ”

“ He dismissed his cab at the corner of the avenue and the Rue de la Pompe, walked along the pavement to No. 134 and went through the same performance in front of the house which Baron d'Hautrec had occupied and the two houses by which it was hemmed in on either side, measuring the width of their respective frontages and calculating the depth of the little gardens in front of the houses.
The avenue was deserted and very dark under its four rows of trees, amid which an occasional gas-jet seemed to struggle vainly against the thickness of the gloom. ”

“ And how did they get it?"
"That's just what I mean to try to discover."
"At Crozon?"
"No, I shall get out at Creil and return to Paris. That's where the game between Arsène Lupin and myself must be played out. The tricks will count the same, wherever we make them; but it is better that Lupin should think that I am out of town."
"Still ..."
"What difference can it make to you, madame? The main object is your diamond, is it not?" ”

“ And, even then, Wilson," he added, laughing, "one does not succeed at the first attempt, as you see!"
At six o'clock, the Écho de France published the following paragraph in its special edition:
"This morning, M. Thénard, the commissary of police of the 16th division, released Messrs. Holmlock Shears and Wilson, who had been confined, by order of Arsène Lupin, in the late Baron d'Hautrec's house, where they spent an excellent night. "They were also relieved of their luggage and have laid an information against Arsène Lupin. ”

“ Ganimard is shrewd enough ... sometimes he's even quick-witted."
"Quick-witted!"
"Yes, yes. For instance, this interview is a masterstroke. First, he announces the coming of his English rival, so as to put me on my guard and make Shears's task more difficult. Secondly, he specifies the exact point to which he has carried the case, so that Shears may enjoy only the benefit of his own discoveries. That's fair fighting." ”

“ The idea no sooner passed through his mind than he wanted to put it into execution. But how to manage? The height of the gate made it impossible for him to climb it. He took an electric lantern from his pocket, as well as a skeleton key which he always carried. ”