December 7, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
^i 
The Golden Triangle 
By Maurice Leblanc 
[Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos] 
Synopsis : Captain Patrice Belval, a wounded French 
officer, overhears in a restaurant in Paris the details of a 
plot between two men for the abduction of a nurse who is 
known to her patients as " Little Mother Coralic." Belval 
gathers together seven wounded soldiers in the Rue Pierre 
Charron, and defeats the plan of the abductors, who try 
to get Little Mother Coralie away in a taxicab. Belval 
takes Coralie to his house, ivhither one of his seven men 
brings one of the abductors, who, before he can be questioned, 
is strangled by his confederates in the room in which he 
has been confined. Belval, feeling that the fact of having 
been maimed in the service of his country is an honour 
rather than a disability, declares his love to Coralie, only 
to be told by her that she is already married, and that he 
must make no further effort even to retain her friendship 
— she suggests that there might bz danger for him in a friend- 
ship with herself. That night, after Coralie has left him, 
Belval has sent to him anonymously a bo.x containing 
a large rusty key, and later he sees in the skv a rain of 
sparks, which had bsen mentioned by Coralie's would-be 
abductors as a signal possessing mysterious significance. 
He goes out with his servant, Ya-Bon, to try to ascertain 
the source of the rain of sparks, and quite by accident, sees 
one of Coralie's would-be abductors, in company with four 
other men, break into a house in the Rue Raynouard. By 
means of the rusty key, Belval gains access to the house, 
in which he finds the five men torturing another man, 
obviously with a view to extracting information from him. 
Just as Belval is about to rescue the victim, he sees that 
Coralie, horror-stricken, is also watching the torturers at 
their work. 
CHAPTER IV 
Before the Flames 
LITTLE Mother Coralie ! Coralie concealed in this 
house into which her assailants had forced their 
way and in which she herself was hiding, through 
force of circumstances which were incapable of 
explanation. 
His first idea, which would at least have solved one of the 
riddles, was that she also had entered from the lane, gone inti 
the house by the steps and in this way opened a passage for 
him. But, in that case, how had she procured the means of 
carrj'ing out this enterprise ? And, above all, what brought 
her here ? 
All these questions occurred to Captain Belval's mind 
without his trying to reply to them. He was far too much 
impressed by the absorbed expression on Coralie's face. 
Moreover, a second cry, even wilder than the first, came from 
below ; and he saw the victim's face writhing before the red 
curtain of fire from the hearth. 
But, this time, Patrice, held back by Coralie's presence, 
had no inclination to go to the sufferer's assistance. He 
decided to model himself entirely upon her and not to move or 
do anything to attract her attention 
" Easy ! " the leader commanded. " Pull him back. I 
expect he's had enough." 
He went up to the victim : 
" Well, my dear Essares," he asked, " what do you think 
of it ? Are you happy ? And, you know, we're only beginning. 
If you don't speak, we shall go on to the end, as the real 
chaujieurs used to do in the days of the Revolution. So it's 
settled, I presume : you're going to speak ? 
There was no anwser. The leader rapped out an oath and 
went on : 
" What do you mean ? Do you refuse ? But, you obstinate 
brute, don't you understand the situation ? Or have you a 
glimmer of hope ? Hope, indeed ! You're mad. Who would 
rescue you ? Your servants ? The porter, the footman and 
the butler are in my pay. I gave them a week's notice. 
They're gone by now. The housemaid ? The cook ? They 
sleep at the othwr end of the house ; and you yourself have told 
me, time after time, that one can't hear anything over there. 
Who else ? Your wife ? Her room also is far away : and she 
hasn't heard anything either ? Simeon, your old secretary ? 
We made him fast when he opened the front-door to us just 
now. Besides, we may as well finish the job liere. Bournef ! " 
The man with the big moustache, who was still holding the 
chair, drew himself up. 
" Bournef, where did you lock up the secretary ? " 
" In the porter's lodge." 
" You know where to find Mme. Essares' bedroom ? " 
" Yes, you told me the way." 
" Go, all four of you, and bring the lady and the secretary 
here ! " " 
The four men went out by a door below the spot wliere 
Coralie was standing. They were hardly out of sight when 
the leader stooped eagerly over his victim and said : 
" We're alone, Essares. It's what I intended. Let's make 
the most of it." 
He bent still lower and whispered so that Patrice found it 
difficult to hear what he said : 
" Those men are fools. I twist them round my finger and 
tell them no more of my plans than I can help. You and I, 
on the other hand, Essares, are the men to come to terms. 
That is what you refused to admit ; and you see where it has 
landed you. Come, Essares, don't be obstinate and don't 
shuffle. You are caught in a trap, you are helpless, you are 
absolutely in my power. Well, rather than allow yourself 
to be broken down by tortures which would certainly end by 
overcoming your resistance, strike a bargain with me. We'll 
go halves, shall we ? Let's make peace and treat upon that 
basis. I'll give you a hand in my game and you'll give me one 
in yours. As allies, we are bound to win. As enemies, who 
knows whether the victor will surmount all the obstacles that 
will still stand in his path ? That's why I say again, halves ! 
Answer me. Yes or no." 
He loosened the gag and listened. This time, Patrice did 
not hear the few words which the victim uttered. But the 
other, the leader, almost immediately burst into a rage : 
" Eh ? What's that you're proposing ? Upon my word, 
but you're a cool hand ! An offer of this kind to me ! That's 
all very well for Bournef or his fellows. They'll understand, 
they will. But it won't do for me, it won't do for Colonel 
Fakhi. No, no, my friend, I open my mouth wider ! 1 11 
consent to go halves, but accept an alms, never ! " 
Patrice listened eagerly and, at the same time, kept his 
eyes on Coralie, whose face, still contorted with anguish, wore 
an expression of the same rapt attention. And he looked 
back at the victim, part of whose body was reflected in the 
glass above the mantelpiece. The man wa; dressed in a 
braided brown-velvet smoking-suit and appeared to be about 
fifty years of age, quite bald, with a fleshy face, a large hook 
nose, eyes deepset under a pair of thick eyebrows and puffy 
cheeks, covered with a thick grizzled beard. Patrice wa'^ also 
able to examine his features more closely in a portrait of him 
which hung to the left of the fireplace, between the first and 
second windows, and which represented a strong, powerful 
countenance with an almost fierce expression. 
" It's an Eastern face," said Patrice to himself. " I've seen 
heads Hke that in Egypt and Turkey." 
The names of all these men too— Colonel Fakhi, Mustapha, 
Bournef, Essares— thpir accent in talking, their way of holding 
themselves, their features, their figures, all recalled impressions 
which he had gathered in the Near East, in the hotels at 
Alexandria or on the banks of the Bosphorus, in the bazaars 
of Adrianople or in the Greek boats that plough the ^Egean 
Sea. They were Levantine types, but Levantines who 
had taken root in Paris. Essares Bey was a name which 
Patrice recognised as well-known in the financial world, even 
as he knew that of Colonel Fakhi, whose speech and intonation 
marked him for a seasoned Parisian. 
But a sound of voices came from outside the door. It 
was flung open violently and the four men appeared, dragging 
in a bound man, whom they dropped to the floor as they 
entered. 
" Here's old Simeon," cried the one whom Fakhi had 
addressed as Bournef. 
" And the wife ? " asked the leader. " I hope you've got 
her too ! " 
1; Well, no ! " 
" What is that ? Has she escaped ? " 
" Yes, through her window." 
" But you must run after her. She can only be in the 
