I&i 
LAND & WATER 
January 35, 1917 
The Golden Triangle 
By Maurice Leblanc 
[Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattosl 
Synopsis; Captain Patrice Belval, a wounded French 
officer, prevents in a Paris street the abduction of a nurse 
ic'ho is hnoTJin to her patients as " Little Mother Curalic." 
Belval declares his love to Coralie only to be told by her 
that she is already married, and that fie must make no 
further effort to retain her friendship. Belval gains access 
to a house, in which he finds five men torturing another 
mail, Essares, who turns out to be Coralie's husband, 
Essares shoots one man, Fakhi, and buys off his other four 
assailants for a million francs a piece, with which they 
leave the house. The next day Belval, following Coralie 
to her house, finds that Essares, who had contemplated 
flight from Paris, has been brutally murdered. An 
examining magistrate explains to Belval that Essares 
'uus prime mover in a plot for exporting gold from France. 
In order to recover some 300 million francs which Essares 
had concealed, the authorities consider it necessary 
to hush tip the circumstances of the financier's death. 
The only possible clue to the whereabouts of the gold 
is a paper found in Essares dead hand, bearing the words, 
"Golden Triangle." Ya-Bon, Belval's Soiegalese servant, 
promises to call in Arsenc Lupin to unravel the mystery, 
and Belval, with seven wounded and convalescent soldiers, 
takes up residence in Essares' house to protect Coralie from 
a mysterious threatened vengeance on her. Belval ascertains 
that Simeon, Essares' attendant, has mysteriously befriended 
both himself and Coralie, and also obtains evidence that 
twenty years before, Essares had been responsible for the 
murder of Coralie's mother and his{Belval' s) father and that 
an unknown friend had tried to protect Coralie and himself. 
Through Bournef, one of Essares' accomplices, the authorities 
ascertain definitely that the gold is concealed either in 
Essares' house or in the grounds. Belval saves Coralie from 
strangling, and sets a trap for her would-be assassin which 
fails in its object. Later, searching the Jiouse, he finds a 
rope ladder and some lead pipes and a soldering lamp in 
Simeon's room 
T" 
1; 
CHAPTER XI (continued) 
IHIS all seems devilish odd," Patrice said to him- 
self. " How did the things get in there ? Did 
Simeon collect them without any definite object, 
mechanically ? Or am I to assume that Simeon 
is merely an instrument of the enemy's ? He used to know 
the enemy before he lost his reason ; and he may be under his 
influence at present." 
Simi^on was sitting at the window, with his back to the 
room. Patrice went up to him and gave a start. In his 
hands the old man held a funeral-wreath made of black artd 
wliite beads. It bore a date, " 14th April, 1915," and made 
the twentieth, the one which Simeon was preparing to lay 
on the grave of his dead friends. 
" He will lay it there," said Patrice, aloud. " His instinct 
as an avenging friend, which has guided his steps through 
life, continues in spite of his insanity. He will lay it on the 
grave. That's so, Simeon, isn't it : you will take it there 
to-morrow ? For to-morrow is the fourteenth of April, the 
sacred anniversary . . 
He leant over the incomprehensible being who held the 
key to all the plots and counterplots, to all the treachery 
;ind benevolence that constituted the inextricable drama. 
Simeon thought that Patrice wanted to take the wreath from 
liini and pressed it to his chest with a startled gesture. 
" Don't be afraid," said Patrice. " You can keep it. To- 
morrow, Simeon, to-morrow, Coralie and I will be faithful to 
the appointment which you gave us. And to-morrow per- 
haps the memory of the horrible past will unseal your brain." 
The day seemed long to Patrice, who was eager for sonu- 
tliing that would provide a glinuner in the surrounding dark- 
ness. And now this glimmer seemed about to be kindled 
by the arrival of this twentieth anniversary of the fourteenth 
of April. 
At a late hour in the afternoon, M. Masseron called at the 
Rue Raynouard. 
'■ Look what I've just received," he said to Patrice. " It's 
rather curious : an anonymous letter in a disguised hand. 
Listen • V 
' Sir, Be warned. They're going away. Take care. 
To-morrow evening the 1,800 bags will be on their way 
out of the coimtry. — A Friend or Ficvnce.' " 
" And to-morrow is the fourteenth of April," said Patrice, 
at once connecting the two trains of thought in his mind. 
" Yes. What makes you say that ? " 
" Nothing . . . Something has just occurred to 
me ..." 
He was nearly telling M. Masseron all the facts associated 
with the fourteenth of April and all those concerning the 
strange personality of old Simeon. If he did not speak, it 
was for obscure reasons, perhaps because he wished to work 
out this part of the case alone, perhaps also because of a 
sort of shyness which prevented liim from admitting M. 
Masseron into all the secrets of the past. He said nothing 
about it, therefore, and asked : 
" What do you think of the letter ? " 
" Upon my word, I don't know what to think. It may 
be a warning with something to back it, or it may be a trick 
to make us adopt one course of conduct rather than another. 
I'll talk about it to Bournef.'' 
" Nothing fresh on his side ? " 
"No; and I don't expect anything in particular, llie 
alibi which he has submitted is genuine. His friends and he 
arc so many supers. Their parts are played." 
The coincidence of dates was all that stuck in Patrice's 
mind. The two roads which M. Masseron and he were follow- 
ing suddenly met on this day so long since marked out by 
fate. The past and the present were about to unite. Thi- 
catastrophe was at hiuid. The fourteenth of April was the 
day on w'.iicli the gold was to disappear for good and also 
the day on which an unknown voice had simmioned Patrice 
and CoraUe to the same tryst which his father and her motlicr 
had kept twenty years ago. 
.:\iid the next day was the fourteenth of April. 
» * « 
At nine o'clock in the morning, Patrice asked after old 
Simeon. 
" Gone out" sir. You had countermanded your orders." 
Patrice entered the room and looked for the wreath. It 
was not there. Moreover, the three things in the cupboard, 
the rope-ladder, the coil of lead and the glazier's lamp were 
not there either. 
" Did Simeon take any tiling with liim ? " 
" Yes, sir, a wreath." 
" Nothing else ? " 
■' No, sir." 
The window was open. Patrice came to the conclusion 
that the things had gone by this way, thus confirming his 
theory that the old fellow was an unconscious confederate. 
Shortly before ten o'clock, Coralie joined him in the garden. 
Patrice had told her the latest events. She looked pale and 
anxious. 
They went round the lawns, and, without' being seen, 
reached the clumps of dwarf shrubs which hid the door on the 
lane. Patrice opened the door. As he started to open the 
other, his hand hesitated. He felt sony that he had not told 
M. Masseron and that he and Coralie were performing by 
themselves a pilgrimage which certain signs warned him to be 
dangerous. He shook off the obsession, however. He had 
two revolvers with him. Wiat had he to fear ? 
" You're coming in, aren't you, Coralie ? " 
" Yes," she said. 
" I somehow thought you seemed undecided, anxious . . ." 
" It's quite true," said Coralie. " I feel a sort of nervous- 
ness." 
" Why ? Are you afraid ? " 
" No. Or rather yes. I'm not afraid for to-day, but in 
some way for the past. I think of my poor mother, who went 
through this door, as I am doing, one .\pril morning. She 
was perfectly happy, she was going to meet her love . . . 
.And then I feel as if I wanted to hold, her back and cry, 
' Don't go on . . . Death is lying in wait for you . . . 
Don't go on . . .' And it's I who hear those words of 
terror, they ring in my ears ; it's I who hear them and J 
dare not go on. I'm afraid." 
" Let's go back, Coralie." 
She only took his arm : 
{Continued on -bage 20> 
