Maurice Leblanc

“ Clarisse Mergy is a young woman still and a pretty woman at that."
Lupin shrugged his shoulders:
"You brute!" he mumbled. "You imagine that everybody is like yourself, heartless and pitiless. It takes your breath away, what, to think that a shark like me can waste his time playing the Don Quixote? And you wonder what dirty motive I can have? Don't try to find out: it's beyond your powers of perception. Answer me, instead: do you accept?"
"So you're serious?" asked Daubrecq, who seemed but little disturbed by Lupin's contemptuous tone. ”

“ Whereas, like this, Master Lupin will be compelled to get his little story told in thirty minutes... unless he wants to get himself collared and his accomplices nabbed. What a shock! What a bolt from the blue! Thirty minutes and not a minute more. In thirty minutes from now, you'll have to clear out, scud away like a hare and beat a disordered retreat. Ha, ha, ha, what fun! I say, Polonius, you really are unlucky, each time you come up against Bibi Daubrecq! For it was you who were hiding behind that curtain, wasn't it, my ill-starred Polonius? ”

“ You look as if your nose were out of joint. Come, console yourself and admit that one sometimes comes across a joker who's not quite such a mug as his fellows. So you thought that, because I wear spectacles and eye-glasses, I was blind? Bless my soul, I don't say that I at once suspected Lupin behind Polonius and Polonius behind the gentleman who came and bored me in the box at the Vaudeville. No, no! But, all the same, it worried me. I could see that, between the police and Mme. Mergy, there was a third bounder trying to get a finger in the pie. ”

“ As he closed the gate, a motor-car drove up and a man sprang out briskly, followed by several others.
Lupin recognized Prasville:
"Monsieur le secretaire-general," he muttered, "your humble servant. I have an idea that, some day, fate will bring us face to face: and I am sorry, for your sake; for you do not inspire me with any particular esteem and you have a bad time before you, on that day. Meanwhile, if I were not in such a hurry, I should wait till you leave and I should follow Daubrecq to find out in whose charge he has placed the child whom he is going to hand back to me. ”

“ That constitutes a new factor, which you choose to ignore. You are wrong. Gilbert is my pal. Gilbert is my chum. Gilbert has to be saved from the scaffold. Use your influence to that end, and I swear to you, do you hear, I swear that we will leave you in peace. Gilbert's safety, that's all I ask. You will have no more battles to wage with Mme. Mergy, with me; there will be no more traps laid for you. You will be the master, free to act as you please. ”

“ He expected to find the Growler and the Masher, with whom he was to kidnap Daubrecq that evening. But he had hardly opened the door of his flat, when a cry escaped him: Clarisse stood before him; Clarisse, who had returned from Brittany at the moment of the verdict.
He at once gathered from her attitude and her pallor that she knew. And, at once, recovering his courage in her presence, without giving her time to speak, he exclaimed:
"Yes, yes, yes... but it doesn't matter. We foresaw that. We couldn't prevent it. What we have to do is to stop the mischief. ”

“ He had but one longing, to pocket him, as he put it, to have him at his bidding by fair means or foul, to extract his secret from him. He dreamt of tortures fit to unloose the tongue of the most silent of men. ”

“ He can do nothing more to Mme. Mergy and the kid; and she no longer runs the risk of diverting the struggle through her intervention. By Jingo, we have made blunders enough! First, I have had to disclose myself to Daubrecq. Secondly, I have had to surrender my share of the Enghien movables. True, I shall get those back, sooner or later; of that there is not the least doubt. But, all the same, we are not getting on; and, in a week from now, Gilbert and Vaucheray will be up for trial."
What Lupin felt most in the whole business was Daubrecq's revelation of the whereabouts of the flat. ”

“ Lupin himself opened the double doors:
"Your things are in here, monsieur le depute," he said. "You can go round and look. There is a job-master's yard next door: you have only to ask for a van and a few men. Where is the child?"
Daubrecq first inspected the articles and then took Lupin to the Avenue de Neuilly, where two closely veiled old ladies stood waiting with little Jacques.
Lupin carried the child to his car, where Victoire was waiting for him. ”

“ As you see, there are one hundred and thirteen items. Of those one hundred and thirteen items, sixty-eight, which have a red cross against them, have been sold and sent to America. The remainder, numbering forty-five, are in my possession ... until further orders. They happen to be the pick of the bunch. I offer you them in return for the immediate surrender of the child."
Daubrecq could not suppress a movement of surprise:
"Oho!" he said. "You seem very much bent upon it."
"Infinitely," said Lupin, "for I am persuaded that a longer separation from her son will mean death to Mme. Mergy." ”

“ It was certain because all the efforts of the prosecution, thus supporting Vaucheray's tactics, had tended to link the two prisoners closely together. It was certain, also and above all, because it concerned two of Lupin's accomplices. From the opening of the inquiry before the magistrate until the delivery of the verdict, all the proceedings had been directed against Lupin; and this in spite of the fact that the prosecution, for want of sufficient evidence and also in order not to scatter its efforts over too wide an area, had decided not to include Lupin in the indictment. ”

“ However, to cut a long story short, while I was attending Mme. Mergy, she made a second attempt to poison herself... Yes; the bottle, unfortunately, had been left within her reach. I snatched it from her. We had a struggle. And, railing in her fever, she said to me, in broken words, 'He's the man... He's the man... Daubrecq the deputy... Make him give me back my son. ”

“ Lupin devised another plan. He sent to Marseilles for one of his associates, an elderly retired grocer called Brindebois, who happened to live in Daubrecq's electoral district and interested himself in politics. Old Brindebois wrote to Daubrecq from Marseilles, announcing his visit. Daubrecq gave this important constituent a hearty welcome, and a dinner was arranged for the following week.
The elector suggested a little restaurant on the left bank of the Seine, where the food, he said, was something wonderful. Daubrecq accepted. ”

“ You'll find the car waiting, with Victoire. I'll join you there... What?... My clothes? My knickknacks?... Never mind about all that... You be off. See you presently."
Lupin quietly pushed away the telephone. Then, taking Daubrecq by the arm, he made him sit in a chair by his side and said:
"And now listen to me, Daubrecq."
"Oho!" grinned the deputy. "Calling each other by our surnames, are we?"
"Yes," said Lupin, "I allowed you to." And, when Daubrecq released his arm with a certain misgiving, he said, "No, don't be afraid. We sha'n't come to blows. ”

“ She switched on the electric light and left Lupin alone.
"It's here," he reflected, as he took a seat, "it's here that the crystal stopper ?byes?... Unless Daubrecq always keeps it by him... But no, when people have a good hiding-place, they make use of it. And this is a capital one; for none of us... so far..."
Concentrating all his attention, he examined the objects in the room; and he remembered the note which Daubrecq wrote to Prasville:
"Within reach of your hand, my dear Prasville!... You touched it! ”