813. Морис Леблан

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      "You know him, then, do you?"

      "I? No. But Edwards saw him, Gourel saw him; and the man whom they saw is not the man whom the chambermaid saw, on the servants' staircase, dragging Chapman by the hand."

      "Then your idea … "

      "You mean to say, the truth, M. le Président. Here it is, or, at least, here is the truth as far as I know it. On Tuesday, the 16th of April, a man—Lupin—broke into Mr. Kesselbach's room at about two o'clock in the afternoon. … "

      M. Lenormand was interrupted by a burst of laughter. It came from the prefect of police.

      "Let me tell you, M. Lenormand, that you are in rather too great a hurry to state your precise facts. It has been shown that, at three o'clock on that day, Mr. Kesselbach walked into the Crédit Lyonnais and went down to the safe deposit. His signature in the register proves it."

      M. Lenormand waited respectfully until his superior had finished speaking. Then, without even troubling to reply directly to the attack, he continued:

      "At about two o'clock in the afternoon, Lupin, assisted by an accomplice, a man named Marco, bound Mr. Kesselbach hand and foot, robbed him of all the loose cash which he had upon him and compelled him to reveal the cypher of his safe at the Crédit Lyonnais. As soon as the secret was told, Marco left. He joined another accomplice, who, profiting by a certain resemblance to Mr. Kesselbach—a resemblance which he accentuated that day by wearing clothes similar to Mr. Kesselbach's and putting on a pair of gold spectacles—entered the Crédit Lyonnais, imitated Mr. Kesselbach's signature, emptied the safe of its contents and walked off, accompanied by Marco. Marco at once telephoned to Lupin. Lupin, as soon as he was sure that Mr. Kesselbach had not deceived him and that the object of his expedition was attained, went away."

      Valenglay seemed to waver in his mind:

      "Yes, yes … we'll admit that. … But what surprises me is that a man like Lupin should have risked so much for such a paltry profit: a few bank-notes and the hypothetical contents of a safe."

      "Lupin was after more than that. He wanted either the morocco envelope which was in the traveling-bag, or else the ebony box which was in the safe. He had the ebony box, because he has sent it back empty. Therefore, by this time, he knows, or is in a fair way for knowing, the famous scheme which Mr. Kesselbach was planning, and which he was discussing with his secretary a few minutes before his death."

      "What was the scheme?"

      "I don't exactly know. The manager of Barbareux's agency, to whom he had opened his mind about it, has told me that Mr. Kesselbach was looking for a man who went by the name of Pierre Leduc, a man who had lost caste, it appears. Why and how the discovery of this person was connected with the success of his scheme, I am unable to say."

      "Very well," said Valenglay. "So much for Arsène Lupin. His part is played. Mr. Kesselbach is bound hand and foot, robbed, but alive! … What happens up to the time when he is found dead?"

      "Nothing, for several hours, nothing until night. But, during the night, some one made his way in."

      "How?"

      "Through room 420, one of the rooms reserved by Mr. Kesselbach. The person in question evidently possessed a false key."

      "But," exclaimed the prefect of police, "all the doors between that room and Mr. Kesselbach's flat were bolted; and there were five of them!"

      "There was always the balcony."

      "The balcony!"

      "Yes; the balcony runs along the whole floor, on the Rue de Judée side."

      "And what about the spaces in between?"

      "An active man can step across them. Our man did. I have found marks."

      "But all the windows of the suite were shut; and it was ascertained, after the crime, that they were still shut."

      "All except one, the secretary's window, Chapman's, which was only pushed to. I tried it myself."

      This time the prime minister seemed a little shaken, so logical did M. Lenormand's version seem, so precise and supported by such sound facts. He asked, with growing interest:

      "But what was the man's object in coming?"

      "I don't know."

      "Ah, you don't know!"

      "Any more than I know his name."

      "But why did he kill Mr. Kesselbach?"

      "I don't know. This all remains a mystery. The utmost that we have the right to suppose is that he did not come with the intention of killing, but with the intention, he too, of taking the documents contained in the morocco note-case and the ebony box; and that, finding himself by accident in the presence of the enemy reduced to a state of helplessness, he killed him."

      Valenglay muttered:

      "Yes, strictly speaking, that is possible. … And, according to you, did he find the documents?"

      "He did not find the box, because it was not there; but he found the black morocco note-case. So that Lupin and … the other are in the same position. Each knows as much as the other about the Kesselbach scheme."

      "That means," remarked the premier, "that they will fight."

      "Exactly. And the fight has already begun. The murderer, finding a card of Arsène Lupin's, pinned it to the corpse. All the appearances would thus be against Arsène Lupin … therefore, Arsène Lupin would be the murderer."

      "True … true," said Valenglay. "The calculation seemed pretty accurate."

      "And the stratagem would have succeeded," continued M. Lenormand, "if in consequence of another and a less favorable accident, the murderer had not, either in coming or going, dropped his cigarette-case in room 420, and if the floor-waiter, Gustave Beudot, had not picked it up. From that moment, knowing himself to be discovered, or on the point of being discovered … "

      "How did he know it?"

      "How? Why, through M. Formerie, the examining-magistrate, himself! The investigation took place with open doors. It is certain that the murderer was concealed among the people, members of the hotel staff and journalists, who were present when Gustave Beudot was giving his evidence; and when the magistrate sent Gustave Beudot to his attic to fetch the cigarette-case, the man followed and struck the blow. Second victim!"

      No one protested now. The tragedy was being reconstructed before their eyes with a realism and a probable accuracy which were equally striking.

      "And the third victim?" asked Valenglay.

      "He himself gave the ruffian his opportunity. When Beudot did not return, Chapman, curious to see the cigarette-case for himself, went upstairs with the manager of the hotel. He was surprised by the murderer, dragged away by him, taken to one of the bedrooms and murdered in his turn."

      "But why did he allow himself to be dragged away like that and to be led by a man whom he knew to be the murderer of Mr. Kesselbach and of СКАЧАТЬ