Maurice Leblanc

“ He persisted madly, convulsively. The block of marble remained inert, motionless. Curse it! Was it conceivable that this stupid obstacle should bar his way? He struck the marble, struck it furious blows with his fists, hammered it, insulted it....
"Why, M. Lupin, is something not going as you wish?" ”

“ He laughed whole-heartedly. "At last we shall have some fun! Lupin is caught in the trap. How will he get out?... Caught in the trap!... What an adventure!... Ah, maître, I have to thank you for a grand emotion. This is what I call life!"
He pressed his clenched fists to his temples as though to restrain the ungovernable joy that was bubbling up within him; and he also had gestures like those of a child amusing itself beyond its power of endurance. ”

“ Ganimard, who had doubtless been posted nearer than Lupin thought, stood there, with his revolver aimed at him. And, behind Ganimard, ten men, twenty men crowded upon one another's heels, powerful, ruthless fellows, prepared to beat Lupin down like a dog at the least sign of resistance. ”

“ Ganimard is outside, with his men. Why does he not come in?"
"I asked him not to."
"And he consented?"
"I called in his services only on the express condition that he would be led by me. Besides, he believes that M. Félix Davey is merely an accomplice of Lupin's."
"Then I will repeat my question under another form. Why did you come in alone?"
"I wanted to speak to you first."
"Aha! You want to speak to me!"
The idea seemed to please Lupin greatly. There are circumstances in life in which we much prefer words to deeds.
"Mr. Shears, I am sorry not to have a chair to offer you. ”

“ Our age teems with little inventions that make life really charming and picturesque. And so amusing too ... especially when a man knows the game of life as I know it!"
He touched one of the marble mouldings of the mantel-piece and made it swing round on a pivot. The marble slab itself moved and the mirror above it slid between invisible grooves, revealing a yawning gap which contained the lower steps of a staircase built in the body of the chimney itself. ”

“ But a strange thing happened: the lift seemed to shoot right through the ceiling of the top floor, disappeared before the detectives' eyes and suddenly emerged on the upper story, where the servants' bedrooms were, and stopped.
Three men were in waiting and opened the door. Two of them overpowered Ganimard, who, hampered in his movements and completely bewildered, hardly thought of defending himself. The third helped Lupin out.
"I told you, Ganimard!... Carried off by balloon ... and thanks to you!... Next time, you must show less compassion. ”

“ They work perfectly."
"That's all right, then."
The two gentlemen returned to Félix Davey's flat. And Davey, after readjusting the marble moulding, exclaimed, gaily:
"Dubreuil, I should love to see the faces of those who discover all these wonderful contrivances: alarm-bells, a network of electric wires and speaking-tubes, invisible passages, sliding floor-boards, secret staircases!... regular pantomime machinery!"
"What an advertisement for Arsène Lupin!"
"We could very well have done without the advertisement. It seems a pity to leave so fine an installation. ”

“ He hung up the receivers.
"M. Ganimard, I propose to borrow three of your men."
"It's for the blonde lady, I suppose?"
"Yes."
"Do you know who she is, where she is?"
"Yes."
"By Jove! A fine capture! She and Lupin ... that completes the day's work. Folenfant, take two men and go with Mr. Shears."
The Englishman walked away, followed by the three detectives.
The end had come. The blonde lady also was about to fall into Shears's hands. Thanks to his wonderful persistency, thanks to the aid of fortunate events, the battle was turning to victory for him and irreparable disaster for Lupin. ”

“ Shears, I prefer to settle my little affairs alone."
"Still...."
"No, I don't want anybody's help."
"When Ganimard has you, it will be up with you. They won't let you go again."
"Who knows?"
"Come, this is madness. Every outlet is watched." ”

“ We shall have to begin all over again, Dubreuil ... and upon a new plan, of course, for it never does to repeat one's self. Confound that Shears!"
"He's not come back, I suppose?"
"How could he? There's only one boat from Southampton, which leaves at midnight. From the Havre, there's only one train, which leaves at eight in the morning and arrives at eleven three. Once he has not taken the midnight steamer—and he has not, for my orders to the captain were formal—he can't reach France till this evening, via Newhaven and Dieppe."
"If he comes back!"
"Shears never throws up the game. ”

“ Well, I understood later that the dressmaker was yourself. And, last night, in the boat, thanks to an effort of memory which is perhaps one of the things of which I am most proud, I succeeded in recollecting the last two figures of your telephone number: 73. In this way, as I possessed the list of the houses which you had 'touched up,' it was easy for me, on my arrival in Paris at eleven o'clock this morning, to look through the telephone directory until I discovered the name and address of M. Félix Davey. The name and address once known, I called in the aid of M. Ganimard. ”

“ He walked away quietly and sat down on a bench in the cross alley which intersects the Avenue du Bois, opposite the Rue Pergolèse. Beside him sat a young woman, clad in the costume of the lower middle-class and reading her paper, while a child played with its spade in the sand beside her. ”

“ THE SECOND ARREST OF ARSÈNE LUPIN
By eight o'clock on Wednesday morning, a dozen pantechnicon vans were blocking the Rue Crevaux from the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne to the Avenue Bougeaud. M. Félix Davey was leaving the flat which he occupied on the fourth floor of No. 8. And, by a sheer coincidence—for the two gentlemen were not acquainted—M. Dubreuil, the expert, who had knocked into one the fifth-floor flat of No. ”