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СКАЧАТЬ you say to Bresson?”

      “The letters employed…what did I say.…”

      Suddenly she burst into laughter:

      “Ah! that is it! I understand! I am an accomplice in the crime! There is a Monsieur Bresson who stole the Jewish lamp and who has now committed suicide. And I am the friend of that gentleman. Oh! how absurd you are!”

      “Whom did you go to see last night on the second floor of a house in the avenue des Ternes?”

      “Who? My modiste, Mademoiselle Langeais. Do you suppose that my modiste and my friend Monsieur Bresson are the same person?”

      Despite all he knew, Holmes was now in doubt. A person can feign terror, joy, anxiety, in fact all emotions; but a person cannot feign absolute indifference or light, careless laughter. Yet he continued to question her:

      “Why did you accost me the other evening at the Northern Railway station? And why did you entreat me to leave Paris immediately without investigating this theft?”

      “Ah! you are too inquisitive, Monsieur Holmes,” she replied, still laughing in the most natural manner. “To punish you I will tell you nothing, and, besides, you must watch the patient while I go to the pharmacy on an urgent message. Au revoir.”

      She left the room.

      “I am beaten…by a girl,” muttered Holmes. “Not only did I get nothing out of her but I exposed my hand and put her on her guard.”

      And he recalled the affair of the blue diamond and his first interview with Clotilde Destange. Had not the blonde Lady met his question with the same unruffled serenity, and was he not once more face to face with one of those creatures who, under the protection and influence of Arsène Lupin, maintain the utmost coolness in the face of a terrible danger?

      “Holmes…Holmes.…”

      It was Wilson who called him. Holmes approached the bed, and, leaning over, said:

      “What’s the matter, Wilson? Does your wound pain you?”

      Wilson’s lips moved, but he could not speak. At last, with a great effort, he stammered:

      “No…Holmes…it is not she…that is impossible—”

      “Come, Wilson, what do you know about it? I tell you that it is she! It is only when I meet one of Lupin’s creatures, prepared and instructed by him, that I lose my head and make a fool of myself.… I bet you that within an hour Lupin will know all about our interview. Within an hour? What am I saying?… Why, he may know already. The visit to the pharmacy…urgent message. All nonsense!… She has gone to telephone to Lupin.”

      Holmes left the house hurriedly, went down the avenue de Messine, and was just in time to see Mademoiselle enter a pharmacy. Ten minutes later she emerged from the shop carrying some small packages and a bottle wrapped in white paper. But she had not proceeded far, when she was accosted by a man who, with hat in hand and an obsequious air, appeared to be asking for charity. She stopped, gave him something, and proceeded on her way.

      “She spoke to him,” said the Englishman to himself.

      If not a certainty, it was at least an intuition, and quite sufficient to cause him to change his tactics. Leaving the girl to pursue her own course, he followed the suspected mendicant, who walked slowly to the avenue des Ternes and lingered for a long time around the house in which Bresson had lived, sometimes raising his eyes to the windows of the second floor and watching the people who entered the house.

      At the end of an hour he climbed to the top of a tramcar going in the direction of Neuilly. Holmes followed and took a seat behind the man, and beside a gentleman who was concealed behind the pages of a newspaper. At the fortifications the gentleman lowered the paper, and Holmes recognized Ganimard, who thereupon whispered, as he pointed to the man in front:

      “It is the man who followed Bresson last night. He has been watching the house for an hour.”

      “Anything new in regard to Bresson?” asked Holmes.

      “Yes, a letter came to his address this morning.”

      “This morning? Then it was posted yesterday before the sender could know of Bresson’s death.”

      “Exactly. It is now in the possession of the examining magistrate. But I read it. It says: He will not accept any compromise. He wants everything—the first thing as well as those of the second affair. Otherwise he will proceed.”

      “There is no signature,” added Ganimard. “It seems to me those few lines won’t help us much.”

      “I don’t agree with you, Monsieur Ganimard. To me those few lines are very interesting.”

      “Why so? I can’t see it.”

      “For reasons that are personal to me,” replied Holmes, with the indifference that he frequently displayed toward his colleague.

      The tramcar stopped at the rue de Château, which was the terminus. The man descended and walked away quietly. Holmes followed at so short a distance that Ganimard protested, saying:

      “If he should turn around he will suspect us.”

      “He will not turn around.”

      “How do you know?”

      “He is an accomplice of Arsène Lupin, and the fact that he walks in that manner, with his hands in his pockets, proves, in the first place, that he knows he is being followed and, in the second place, that he is not afraid.”

      “But I think we are keeping too close to him.”

      “Not too close to prevent his slipping through our fingers. He is too sure of himself.”

      “Ah! Look there! In front of that café there are two of the bicycle police. If I summon them to our assistance, how can the man slip through our fingers?”

      “Well, our friend doesn’t seem to be worried about it. In fact, he is asking for their assistance himself.”

      “Mon Dieu!” exclaimed Ganimard, “he has a nerve.”

      The man approached the two policemen just as they were mounting their bicycles. After a few words with them he leaped on a third bicycle, which was leaning against the wall of the café, and rode away at a fast pace, accompanied by the two policemen.

      “Hein! one, two, three and away!” growled Holmes. “And through, whose agency, Monsieur Ganimard? Two of your colleagues.… Ah! but Arsène Lupin has a wonderful organization! Bicycle policemen in his service!… I told you our man was too calm, too sure of himself.”

      “Well, then,” said Ganimard, quite vexed, “what are we to do now? It is easy enough to laugh! Anyone can do that.”

      “Come, come, don’t lose your temper! We will get our revenge. But, in the meantime, we need reinforcements.”

      “Folenfant is waiting for me at the end of the avenue de Neuilly.”

      “Well, go and get him and join me later. СКАЧАТЬ