"He's laughed! He's laughed!" cried Lupin, jumping for joy. "You see, baby, what you fall short in is the power of smiling; you're a trifle serious for your age. You're a very likeable boy, you have a charming candor and simplicity-but you have no sense of humor." He placed himself in front of him. "Look here, bet you I make you cry! Do you know how I was able to follow up all your inquiry, how I knew of the letter Ma.s.siban wrote you and his appointment to meet you this morning at the Chateau de Velines? Through the prattle of your friend, the one you're staying with. You confide in that idiot and he loses no time, but goes and tells everything to his best girl. And his best girl has no secrets for Lupin.-What did I tell you? I've made you feel, anyhow; your eyes are quite wet!-Friendship betrayed: that upsets you, eh? Upon my word, you're wonderful! I could take you in my arms and hug you! You always wear that look of astonishment which goes straight to my heart.-I shall never forget the other evening at Gaillon, when you consulted me.-Yes, I was the old notary!-But why don't you laugh, youngster? As I said, you have no sense of a joke. Look here, what you want is-what shall I call it?-imagination, imaginative impulse. Now, I'm full of imaginative impulse."

A motor was heard panting not far off. Lupin seized Beautrelet roughly by the arm and in a cold voice, looking him straight in the eyes:

"You're going to keep quiet now, aren't you? You can see there's nothing to be done. Then what's the use of wasting your time and energy? There are plenty of highway robbers in the world. Run after them and let me be-if not!-It's settled, isn't it?"

He shook him as though to enforce his will upon him. Then he grinned:

"Fool that I am! You leave me alone? You're not one of those who let go! Oh, I don't know what restrains me! In half a dozen turns of the wrist, I could have you bound and gagged-and, in two hours, safe under lock and key, for some months to come. And then I could twist my thumbs in all security, withdraw to the peaceful retreat prepared for me by my ancestors, the Kings of France, and enjoy the treasures which they have been good enough to acc.u.mulate for me. But no, it is doomed that I must go on blundering to the end. I can't help it, we all have our weaknesses-and I have one for you. Besides, it's not done yet. From now until you put your finger into the hollow of the Needle, a good deal of water will flow under the bridges. Dash it all, it took me ten days! Me! Lupin! You will want ten years, at least! There's that much distance between us, after all!"

The motor arrived, an immense closed car. Lupin opened the door and Beautreiet gave a cry. There was a man inside and that man was Lupin, or rather Ma.s.siban. Suddenly understanding, he burst out laughing. Lupin said:

"Don't be afraid, he's sound asleep. I promised that you should see him. Do you grasp the situation now? At midnight, I knew of your appointment at the castle. At seven in the morning, I was there. When Ma.s.siban pa.s.sed, I had only to collect him-give him a tiny p.r.i.c.k with a needle-and the thing-was done. Sleep old chap, sleep away. We'll set you down on the slope. That's it-there-capital-right in the sun, then you won't catch cold-good! And our hat in our hand.-Spare a copper, kind gentleman!-Oh. my dear old Ma.s.siban, so you were after a.r.s.ene Lupin!"

It was really a huge joke to see the two Ma.s.sibans face to face, one asleep with his head on his chest, the other seriously occupied in paying him every sort of attention and respect:

"Pity a poor blind man! There, Ma.s.siban, here's two sous and my visiting-card. And now, my lads, off we go at the fourth speed. Do you hear, driver? You've got to do seventy-five miles an hour. Jump in, Isidore. There's a full sitting of the Inst.i.tute to-day, and Ma.s.siban is to read a little paper, on I don't know what, at half-past three. Well, he'll read them his little paper. I'll dish them up a complete Ma.s.siban, more real than the real one, with my own ideas, on the lacustrine inscriptions. I don't have an opportunity of lecturing at the Inst.i.tute ever day!-Faster, chauffeur: we're only doing seventy-one and a half!-Are you afraid? Remember you're with Lupin!-Ah, Isidore, and then people say that life is monotonous! Why, life's an adorable thing, my boy; only one has to know-and I know-. Wasn't it enough to make a man jump out of his skin for joy, just now, at the castle, when you were chattering with old Velines and I, up against the window, was tearing out the pages of the historic book? And then, when you were questioning the Dame de Villemon about the Hollow Needle! Would she speak? Yes, she would-no, she wouldn't-yes-no. It gave me gooseflesh, I a.s.sure you.-If she spoke, I should have to build up my life anew, the whole scaffolding was destroyed.-Would the footman come in time? Yes-no-there he is.-But Beautrelet will unmask me! Never! He's too much of a flat! Yes, though-no-there, he's done it-no, he hasn't-yes-he's eyeing me-that's it-he's feeling for his revolver!-Oh, the delight of it!-Isidore, you're talking too much, you'll hurt yourself!-Let's have a snooze, shall we?-I'm dying of sleep.-Good night."

Beautrelet looked at him. He seemed almost asleep already. He slept.

The motor-car, darting through s.p.a.ce, rushed toward a horizon that was constantly reached and as constantly retreated. There was no impression of towns, villages, fields or forests; simply s.p.a.ce, s.p.a.ce devoured, swallowed up.

Beautrelet looked at his traveling companion, for a long time, with eager curiosity and also with a keen wish to fathom his real character through the mask that covered it. And he thought of the circ.u.mstances that confined them, like that, together, in the close contact of that motor car. But, after the excitement and disappointment of the morning, tired in his turn, he too fell asleep.

When he woke, Lupin was reading. Beautrelet leant over to see the t.i.tle of the book. It was the Epistolae ad Lucilium of Seneca the philosopher.

CHAPTER EIGHT

FROM CAESAR TO LUPIN

Dash it all, it took me ten days! Me! Lupin!

You will want ten years, at least!-

These words, uttered by Lupin after leaving the Chateau de Velines, had no little influence on Beautrelet's conduct.

Though very calm in the main and invariably master of himself, Lupin, nevertheless, was subject to moments of exaltation, of a more or less romantic expansiveness, at once theatrical and good-humored, when he allowed certain admissions to escape him, certain imprudent speeches which a boy like Beautrelet could easily turn to profit.

Rightly or wrongly, Beautrelet read one of these involuntary admissions into that phrase. He was ent.i.tled to conclude that, if Lupin drew a comparison between his own efforts and Beautrelet's in pursuit of the truth about the Hollow Needle, it was because the two of them possessed identical means of attaining their object, because Lupin had no elements of success different from those possessed by his adversary. The chances were alike. Now, with the same chances, the same elements of success, the same means, ten days had been enough for Lupin.

What were those elements, those means, those chances? They were reduced, when all was said, to a knowledge of the pamphlet published in 1815, a pamphlet which Lupin, no doubt, like Ma.s.siban, had found by accident and thanks to which he had succeeded in discovering the indispensable doc.u.ment in Marie Antoinette's book of hours.

Therefore, the pamphlet and the doc.u.ment were the only two fundamental facts upon which Lupin had relied. With these he had built up the whole edifice. He had had no extraneous aid. The study of the pamphlet and the study of the doc.u.ment-full stop-that was all.

Well, could not Beautrelet confine himself to the same ground? What was the use of an impossible struggle? What was the use of those vain investigations, in which, even supposing that he avoided the pitfalls that were multiplied under his feet, he was sure, in the end, to achieve the poorest of results?

His decision was clear and immediate; and, in adopting it, he had the happy instinct that he was on the right path. He began by leaving his Janson-de-Sailly schoolfellow, without indulging in useless recriminations, and, taking his portmanteau with him, went and installed himself, after much hunting about, in a small hotel situated in the very heart of Paris. This hotel he did not leave for days. At most, he took his meals at the table d'hote. The rest of the time, locked in his room, with the window-curtains close-drawn, he spent in thinking.

"Ten days," a.r.s.ene Lupin had said.

Beautrelet, striving to forget all that he had done and to remember only the elements of the pamphlet and the doc.u.ment, aspired eagerly to keep within the limit of those ten days. However the tenth day pa.s.sed and the eleventh and the twelfth; but, on the thirteenth day, a gleam lit up his brain and, very soon, with the bewildering rapidity of those ideas which develop in us like miraculous plants, the truth emerged, blossomed, gathered strength. On the evening of the thirteenth day, he certainly did not know the answer to the problem, but he knew, to a certainty, one of the methods which Lupin had, beyond a doubt, employed.

It was a very simple method, hinging on this one question: Is there a link of any sort uniting all the more or less important historic events with which the pamphlet connects the mystery of the Hollow Needle?

The great diversity of these events made the question difficult to answer. Still, the profound examination to which Beautrelet applied himself ended by pointing to one essential characteristic which was common to them all. Each one of them, without exception, had happened within the boundaries of the old kingdom of Neustria, which correspond very nearly with those of our present-day Normandy. All the heroes of the fantastic adventure are Norman, or become Norman, or play their part in the Norman country.

What a fascinating procession through the ages! What a rousing spectacle was that of all those barons, dukes and kings, starting from such widely opposite points to meet in this particular corner of the world! Beautrelet turned the pages of history at haphazard: it was Rolf, or Rou, or Rollo, first Duke of Normandy, who was master of the secret of the Needle, according to the treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte!

It was William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and King of England, whose bannerstaff was pierced like a needle!

It was at Rouen that the English burnt Joan of Arc, mistress of the secret!

And right at the beginning of the adventure, who is that chief of the Caleti who pays his ransom to Caesar with the secret of the Needle but the chief of the men of the Caux country, which lies in the very heart of Normandy?

The supposition becomes more definite. The field narrows. Rouen, the banks of the Seine, the Caux country: it really seems as though all roads lead in that direction. Two kings of France are mentioned more particularly, after the secret is lost by the Dukes of Normandy and their heirs, the kings of England, and becomes the royal secret of France; and these two are King Henry IV., who laid siege to Rouen and won the battle of Arques, near Dieppe, and Francis I., who founded the Havre and uttered that suggestive phrase:

"The kings of France carry secrets that often decide the fate of towns!"

Rouen, Dieppe, the Havre: the three angles of the triangle, the three large towns that occupy the three points. In the centre, the Caux country.

The seventeenth century arrives. Louis XIV. burns the book in which a person unknown reveals the truth. Captain de Larbeyrie masters a copy, profits by the secret thus obtained, steals a certain number of jewels and dies by the hand of highway murderers. Now at which spot is the ambush laid? At Gaillon! At Gaillon, a little town on the road leading from Havre, Rouen or Dieppe to Paris!

A year later, Louis XIV. buys a domain and builds the Chateau de l'Aiguille. Where does he select his site? In the Midlands of France, with the result that the curious are thrown off the scent and do not hunt about in Normandy.

Rouen, Dieppe, the Havre-the Cauchois triangle-everything lies there. On one side, the sea; on another, the Seine: on the third, the two valleys that lead from Rouen to Dieppe.

A light flashed across Beautrelet's mind. That extent of ground, that country of the high tablelands which run from the cliffs of the Seine to the cliffs of the Channel almost invariably const.i.tuted the field of operations of a.r.s.ene Lupin. For ten years, it was just this district which he parcelled out for his purposes, as though he had his haunt in the very centre of the region with which, the legend of the Hollow Needle was most closely connected.

The affair of Baron Cahorn?[3] Or the banks of the Seine, between Rouen and the Havre.

[3] The Seven of Hearts, by Maurice Leblanc. II; a.r.s.ene Lupin in Prison

The Thibermenil case?[4] At the other end of the tableland, between Rouen and Dieppe.

[4] The Seven of Hearts. IX: Holmlock Shears Arrives Too Late.

The Gruchet, Montigny, Crasville burglaries? In the midst of the Caux country.

Where was Lupin going when he was attacked and bound hand and foot, in his compartment by Pierre Onfrey, the Auteuil murderer?[5] To Rouen.

[5]The Seven of Hearts. IV: The Mysterious Railway-pa.s.senger.

Where was Holmlock Shears, Lupin's prisoner, put on board ship?[6] Near the Havre.

[6] a.r.s.ene Lupin versus Holmlock Shears, by Maurice Leblanc, Chapter V: Kidnapped.