The Arsene Lupin MEGAPACK ®. Морис Леблан

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      “Ah! you closed it?” he said.

      “No, I left it partly open.”

      Holmes tried the gate; then, alarmed, he examined the lock. An oath escaped him:

      “Good God! it is locked! locked with a key!”

      He shook the gate with all his strength; then, realizing the futility of his efforts, he dropped his arms, discouraged, and muttered, in a jerky manner:

      “I can see it all now—it is Lupin. He fore-saw that I would leave the train at Creil, and he prepared this neat little trap for me in case I should commence my investigation this evening. Moreover, he was kind enough to send me a companion to share my captivity. All done to make me lose a day, and, perhaps, also, to teach me to mind my own business.”

      “Do you mean to say we are prisoners?”

      “Exactly. Sherlock Holmes and Wilson are the prisoners of Arsène Lupin. It’s a bad beginning; but he laughs best who laughs last.”

      Wilson seized Holmes’ arm, and exclaimed:

      “Look!… Look up there!… A light.…”

      A light shone through one of the windows of the first floor. Both of them ran to the house, and each ascended by the stairs he had used on coming out a short time before, and they met again at the entrance to the lighted chamber. A small piece of a candle was burning in the center of the room. Beside it there was a basket containing a bottle, a roasted chicken, and a loaf of bread.

      Holmes was greatly amused, and laughed heartily.

      “Wonderful! we are invited to supper. It is really an enchanted place, a genuine fairy-land. Come, Wilson, cheer up! this is not a funeral. It’s all very funny.”

      “Are you quite sure it is so very funny?” asked Wilson, in a lugubrious tone.

      “Am I sure?” exclaimed Holmes, with a gaiety that was too boisterous to be natural, “why, to tell the truth, it’s the funniest thing I ever saw. It’s a jolly good comedy! What a master of sarcasm this Arsène Lupin is! He makes a fool of you with the utmost grace and delicacy. I wouldn’t miss this feast for all the money in the Bank of England. Come, Wilson, you grieve me. You should display that nobility of character which rises superior to misfortune. I don’t see that you have any cause for complaint, really, I don’t.”

      After a time, by dint of good humor and sarcasm, he managed to restore Wilson to his normal mood, and make him swallow a morsel of chicken and a glass of wine. But when the candle went out and they prepared to spend the night there, with the bare floor for a mattress and the hard wall for a pillow, the harsh and ridiculous side of the situation was impressed upon them. That particular incident will not form a pleasant page in the memoirs of the famous detective.

      Next morning Wilson awoke, stiff and cold. A slight noise attracted his attention: Sherlock Holmes was kneeling on the floor, critically examining some grains of sand and studying some chalk-marks, now almost effaced, which formed certain figures and numbers, which figures he entered in his notebook.

      Accompanied by Wilson, who was deeply interested in the work, he examined each room, and found similar chalk-marks in two other apartments. He noticed, also, two circles on the oaken panels, an arrow on a wainscot, and four figures on four steps of the stairs. At the end of an hour Wilson said:

      “The figures are correct, aren’t they!”

      “I don’t know; but, at all events, they mean something,” replied Holmes, who had forgotten the discomforts of the night in the joy created by his new discoveries.

      “It is quite obvious,” said Wilson, “they represent the number of pieces in the floor.”

      “Ah!”

      “Yes. And the two circles indicate that the panels are false, as you can readily ascertain, and the arrow points in the direction in which the panels move.”

      Sherlock Holmes looked at Wilson, in astonishment.

      “Ah! my dear friend, how do you know all that? Your clairvoyance makes my poor ability in that direction look quite insignificant.”

      “Oh! it is very simple,” said Wilson, inflated with pride; “I examined those marks last night, according to your instructions, or, rather, according to the instructions of Arsène Lupin, since he wrote the letter you sent to me.”

      At that moment Wilson faced a greater danger than he had during his struggle in the garden with Sherlock Holmes. The latter now felt a furious desire to strangle him. But, dominating his feelings, Holmes made a grimace which was intended for a smile, and said:

      “Quite so, Wilson, you have done well, and your work shows commendable progress. But, tell me, have you exercised your powers of observation and analysis on any other points? I might profit by your deductions.”

      “Oh! no, I went no farther.”

      “That’s a pity. Your début was such a promising one. But, since that is all, we may as well go.”

      “Go! but how can we get out?”

      “The way all honest people go out: through the gate.”

      “But it is locked.”

      “It will be opened.”

      “By whom?”

      “Please call the two policemen who are strolling down the avenue.”

      “But—”

      “But what?”

      “It is very humiliating. What will be said when it becomes known that Sherlock Holmes and Wilson were the prisoners of Arsène Lupin?”

      “Of course, I understand they will roar with laughter,” replied Sherlock Holmes, in a dry voice and with frowning features, “but we can’t set up housekeeping in this place.”

      “And you will not try to find another way out?”

      “No.”

      “But the man who brought us the basket of provisions did not cross the garden, coming or going. There is some other way out. Let us look for it, and not bother with the police.”

      “Your argument is sound, but you forget that all the detectives in Paris have been trying to find it for the last six months, and that I searched the house from top to bottom while you were asleep. Ah! my dear Wilson, we have not been accustomed to pursue such game as Arsène Lupin. He leaves no trail behind him.”

      * * * *

      At eleven o’clock, Sherlock Holmes and Wilson were liberated, and conducted to the nearest police station, where the commissary, after subjecting them to a severe examination, released them with an affectation of good-will that was quite exasperating.

      “I am very sorry, messieurs, that this unfortunate incident has occurred. You will have a very poor opinion of French hospitality. Mon Dieu! what a night you must have passed! Ah! that rascally Lupin is no respecter of persons.”

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