i8 
LAiND & WATER 
Deccmbtr 28, 1916 
The Golden Triangle 
By Maurice Leblanc 
(Translated by Alexander Tcixcira de Mattosl 
Synopsis : Trt />/<(/■;( Pn/ricc Bd.-id, u a<'uihiid French 
officer, prevents in a Paris street the abduction oj a nurse 
leho is known to her patients as " Little Mother Coralie." 
Feeling that the fact of having been maimed in the service 
of his country is an honour rather than a dtsability. Belval 
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 
be danger for him in a friendship with herself. That 
night, after Coralie has left him, Belval has sent to him 
anonymously a box containing a large rusty key, by means 
of which he gains access to a house, in xvhich he finds five 
men torturing another f}ian,Essares, obviously mlh a view 
to extracting information from him. Just as Belval is 
about to rescue the victim he sees that Coralie, horror stricken, 
is also ic-atching the torturers at their zeork. Essares manages 
to get hold of a revolver, with 'which he shoots Colonel Fakhi, 
one of the five men, dead. He buys off his other four assail- 
ants for a million francs apiece, with which they leave the 
house. From an altercation between Essares and Coralie 
Belval learns that Essares is Coralie's husband, and that 
he has betrayed State secrits to the enemies of his country, 
and then has attempted to betray his associates in treachery. 
Belval returns home to think out the best way of helping 
Coralie, who obviously hates her traitor husband, when he /s . 
rung up on the telephone and hears an t!;^il,:tcd voice in- 
quiring whether he received the rusty key and a letter. The 
voice then mentions in incoherent fashion an amethyst 
pendant, and after that the speaker is obviously murdered 
by somebody before the telephone receiver is replaced. The 
next day Belval, following Coralie to her house, finds that 
Essares, who had cohiemplatcd flight from Paris, has been 
brutally murdered. An examining magistrate, after inter- 
viciving Coralie, calls Belval in and proceeds to read the 
following letter which has been found on Essares' desk fust 
after the discovery of his body 
c 
CH.IPTER VII {continued) 
|ORALIE, — You were wrong yesterday to attri- 
bute my departure to reasons which I dared 
.not acknowledge ; and perhaps I also was wrong 
I not to defend myself more convincingly against 
your accusation. The only motive for' my departure is the 
liatred with which I am surrounded. You have seen how 
fierce it is. In the face of these enemies you are seeking to 
■ desjjoil me by every possible means, my only hope of salva- 
tion lies in flight. That is why I am going away. 
" But let me remind you, Coralie, of my clearly expressed 
wish. You are to join me at tlie first summons. If you do 
not leave Paris then, nothing shall protect you against my 
lawful resentment ; nothing, not even my death. I have 
made all my arrangements so that, even in the con- 
tingency ..." 
'■ Tile letter ends there," said M. Masseron, handing it 
back to Coralie, " and we know by an unimpeachable sign 
that the last lines were written immediately before M. 
Essaros' death, bccausfe, in falling, he 4ipset a little clock, 
whicli stood on his desk and which marked twenty-three 
minutts past twelve. I assume tnat he felt unwell, and that 
on trying to rise, he was seized with a fit of giddiness and 
fell to tlie floor. Unfortunately, the fireplace was near, with 
a fierce fire blazing in it ; his head stnick the grate ; and the 
wound that resulted was so deep — the surgeon testified to 
this— that he fainted. Then the fire close at hand did its 
work . . _. with the effects which you have seen. . . '." 
I'atrice had listened in amazement to this unexpected 
explanation : 
" Tlien in your opinion," he asked, " M. Essares died of 
an accident. He was not murdered ? 
" Murdered ? Certainly not 1 We have no clue to support 
any such theory." 
•"■Still. ..." 
" Captain Belval, you are the victim of an association of 
ideas which, I admit, is perfectly justifiable. Ever since 
yesterday you ha\e been witnessing a series of tragic incidents ; 
and your imagination naturally leads you to the most tragic 
solution, that of murder. Only— reflect— why should a 
mm^der Jiave been committed ? .\nd l)y wlioni ? By 
Bournef and his friends ? With what object ? They were 
crammed full with bank-notes ; and, even admitting tliat the 
man called Gregoire recovered those milUons from them, they 
would certainly not liave got them back by killing M. Essares. 
Thi'H again, liow would they have entereid the house ? And 
how can they ha\'e gone out? . . . No, ca])tain, you 
must excuse me, but M. Essares died an accidental death. 
The facts are undeniable ; and this is the opinion of the 
divisional surgeon, who will draw up his report in that sense ! " 
Patrice turned to Coralie : 
" Is it Mme. Essares' opinion also ? " 
She reddened slightly and answered : 
" Yes." 
" And old Simeon's ? " 
"Oh," replied the magistrate, "old Simeon is wandering 
in his mind ! To listen to him, you would think that every- 
thing was about to happen alt over again, that Mme. lissarcs 
is threatened with danger and that she ought to take to flight 
at once. That is all that I have been able to get out of him. 
However, he took us to an old disused door that opens out of 
a lane running alright angles with the Rue Raynouard ; and 
here he showed me first the watch-dog's dead body and next 
some footprints between the door and the flight of steps near 
the library. But you know those footprints, do you not ? 
They belong to you and your Senegalese. As for the death 
of the watch-dog, I can put that down to your Senegalese, 
can't 1 ? " 
Patrice was beginning to understand. . The magistrate's 
reticence, his explanations, his agreement with Coralie : all 
this was gradually becoming plain, lie put the tjuestion 
frankly : 
" So there was no murder ? " 
"No." 
" Then there will be no magistrate's examination ? 
" No." 
" And no talk about the matter : it will all be kept quiet, 
in short, and forgotten ? " 
" Just so." 
Captain Belval began to walk up and down, as was his 
habit. He now remembered Essares' prophecy : 
" I shan't be arrested. . . . If I am, I shall be let 
go. . . . The matter will be hushed up. . . ." 
Essares was right., The hand of justice was arrested ; and 
there was no way for Coralie to escape silent complicity. 
Patriae was intensely annoyed by the manner in which the 
case was being handled. It was certain that a compact had 
been concluded between Coralie and M. Masseron. He sus- 
pected the magistrate of circumventing CoraUc and inducing 
her to sacrifice her own interests to other considerations. To 
effect this, the first thing was to get rid of him, Patrice. 
" Ugh ! " said Patrice to hims.-'lf. " I'm fairly sick of this 
sportsman, with his cool ironical ways. It looks iis if he were 
doing a considerable piece of thimblerigging at my expense." 
He restrained himself, however, and, with a pretence of 
waiiting to keep on good terms with the magistrate, came 
and sat beside liim : 
" You must forgive me, sir," he said, " for insisting in 
what may appear to you an indiscreet fashion. But iny con- 
duct is explained not only by such sympathy of feeling as I 
entertain for Mme. Essares at a moment in her life when she is 
more lonely than ever, a symjiathy and feeling which she 
seems to repulse even more firmly than she did before. It 
is also explained by certain mysterious links which unite us 
to each other and "which go back to a period too remote for 
our eyes to focus. Has Mme. Essares told you those details ? 
In my opinion, they are most important ; and I cannot help 
associating them with the events that interest us." 
M. Masseron glanced at Coralie, who ' nodded. He . 
answered : ,, 
■' Yes, Mme. Essares has informed mc and even . . • 
He hesitated once more and again consulted Coralie, who 
flushed and seemed put out of countenance. M. Masseron, 
however, waited for a reply which would enable him to pro- 
ceed. She ended by saving, in a low voice : 
"Captain Belval" is entitled to know what wo have <lis- 
covered. The truth belongs as niiicli to him as to me ; and 
I have no right to keep it fronr hfm. Pray speak, monsieur." 
" I doubt if it is even necessary to speak," said tl.e 
(Continued on page 20) 
