20 
LAND & WATER 
February 5, 1917 
{Conttvued from pa^e t8) 
help you. Shall I mention the name, just bluntly ? Well, 
here poes. captain ! . . Arsene Lupin at your service." 
Patrice was stupefied. He had utterly forgotten Ya-Bon's 
proposal and the unthinking permission which he had given 
him to call in the famous adventurer. And here was Arsdne 
Lupin standing in front of him, Arsene Lupin who, by a 
si ear effort of will that resembled an incredible miracle, had 
dragged him and Coralie out of their hermetically-sealed 
cofiiii. 
He held out his Jiand and said : 
" Thank you ! " 
" Tut ! " said Don Luis, playfully. " No thanks ! Just a 
good hand-shake, that's all. And I'm a man you can shake 
hands with, captain, believe me. I may have a few peccadilloes 
0B my conscience, but, on the other hand, I have committed 
a certain number of good actions which should win me the 
esteem of decent folk . . . beginning with my own. 
And so. ..." 
He interrupted himself again, seemed to reflect and. taking 
Patrice by a button of his jacket, said : 
" Don't move. VVe are being watched." 
" By whom ? 
" Some one on the quay, right at the end of the garden. 
The wall is not high. There's a grating on the top of it. 
They're looking through the bars and trying to see us." 
"Ho A do ou kno.v ? You have your back turned to the 
quay ; and then there are the trees." 
" Listen." 
" I don't hear anything out of the way." 
" Yes, the sovmd of an engine . . . the engine of a 
stopping car. Now what would a car want to stop here for, 
oa the quay, opposite a wall with no house near it ' " 
" Then who do you think it is ? " 
" Why, old Simeon, of course ! " 
" Old' Simeon ! " 
" Certainly. He's looking to see whether I've really 
saved the two of you." 
" Then he's not mad ? " 
" Mad ? No more mad than you or I 1 " 
" And yet. . . ." 
" What you mean is that Simeon used to protect you ; that 
his object was to bring you two together ; that he sent you 
tbe key of the garden-door ; and so on and so on." 
" Do you know all that ? " 
" Well, of course ! If not, how could 1 have rescued you ? " 
" But," said Patrice, anxiously, " suppwse the scoundrel 
returns to the attack. Ought we not to take some pre- 
cautions ? Let's go back to the lodge : CoraUe is all alone." 
" There's no danger." 
" Why ? " 
" Because I'm here." 
Patrice was more astounded than ever : 
" Then Si neon knows you ? " he asked. " He knows 
that you are here ? " 
" Yes, thanks to a letter which I wrote you under cover to 
Ya-Bon, and which he intercepted. I told you that I was 
coming ; and he hurried to get to work. Only, as my habit 
is on these occasions, I hastened my arrival by a few hours, 
so that I caught him in the act." 
" At that moment, you did not know he was the enemy, 
you knew nothing ? 
" Nothing at all." 
" Was it this morning ? " 
" No, this afternoon, at a quarter to two." 
Patrice took out his v atch : 
' And it's now four. So in two hours. . . .'• 
" Not that. I've been here an hour." 
" Did you find out from Ya-Bon ? " 
" Do j'ou think I've no better use for my time ? Ya-Bon 
simply told me that you were not there, which was enough to 
astonish me." 
" After that ? " 
" I looked to see where you were." 
" How ? " 
" I first searched your room and, doing so in my own 
thorough fashion, ended by discovering tliat there was a 
erack at the back of your roll-top desk and tliat this crack 
faced a hole in the wall of the ne.\t room. I was able therefore 
to pull out the book m which you kept your diary and acquaint 
myself with what was going on. This, moreover, was how 
Simion became aware of your least intentions. This was 
how he knew of your plan to come here, on a pilgrimage, on 
tlie fourteenth of April. This was how, last night, seeing 
you write, he preferred, before attacking you, to know what 
you were writing. Knowing it and learning, from your own 
words, that you were on your guard, he refrained. You see 
how simple it all is. If M. Masseron had grown uneasy at 
your absence, he would have been just as successful. Only 
he would have been successful to-morrow." 
" That is to say, too late." 
Yes, too late. This really isn't his business, however, 
nor that of the police. So I would rather that they didn't 
meddle with'it. I asked your wounded soldiers to keep silent 
about anything that may strike them as queer. Therefore, 
if M. Masseron comes to-day, he will think that everything 
is in order. Well, having satisfied my mind in this respect, 
and possessing the necessary information from your diary,^ 
I took Ya-Bon with me and walked across the lane and into 
the garden. 
" Was the door open ? " 
"•No, but Sim 'on happened to be coming out at tliat 
moment. Bad luck for him, wasn't it ? I took advantage of 
it boldly. 1 put my hand on the latch and we went in. with- 
out his daring to protest. He certainly knew wlio I was." 
" But you didn't know at that time tliat he was the 
enemy ? " 
" I didn't know ? And what about your diary ? " 
" I had no notion. . . ." 
" But, captain, every p.iga is an indictment ^ the man. 
There's not an incident in which he did not take.pait, not a 
crime which he did not prepare." 
" In that case, you should have collared him." . 
" And if I had ? What good would it have done me ? 
Should I have compelled him to speak ? No, I shall hold 
him tightest by leaving him his liberty. That will give him 
rope, you know. You see already, he's prowling round the 
house instead of clearing out. Besides, I had something 
better to do : I had first to rescue vou two ... if there 
was still time. Ya-Bon and I therefore rushed to the ('oor 
of the lodge. It was open ; but the other, the door of the 
studio, was locked and bolted. I drew the bolts : and to 
force the lock was, for me, child's play. Then the smell of 
gas was enough to tell me what had happened. Sinvon 
must have fitted an old meter to some outside pipe, probably 
tJie one which supplied the lamps on tlie lane, and he was 
suffocating you. All that remained for us to do was to fetch 
the two of you out and give you the usual treatment : rubbing, 
artificial respiration and so on. You were saved." 
" I suppose he removed all his murderous appUances ? " 
asked Patrice. 
" No, he evidently contemplated coming back and putting 
everything to riglits, so that his share in the business could 
not be proyed, so too that [leople might believe in your 
suicide, a mysterious suicide, death without apparent cause 
in short, the same tragedy that happened to your father 
and Little Mother Coralie's mother." 
"Then you know? . . ." 
" Why, haven't I eyes to read with ? What about the 
inscription on the wall, your father's revelations ? I know 
as much as you do, caj/tain . and perhaps a bit 
more." 
Don Luis hesitated whether to go on : 
" No," he said, " it's better that I shouldn't speak. The 
mystery will be dispelled gradually. Let us wait. l'< r th • 
moment. . . ." 
He again stopped, this time to hsten : 
" There, he must have seen you. And now that he knows 
what he wants to, he's going away." 
Patrice grew excited : 
" He's going away ! You really ought to have collared him. 
Shall we ever find him again, the scoundrel ? Shall we eyer 
be able to take our revenge ? " 
Don Luis smiled : 
" There you go, calling him a scoundrel, the man who 
watched over you for twenty years, who brought you and 
Little Mother Coralie together, who was j'our benefactor ! " 
" Oh, 1 don't know ! All this is so bewildering ! I can't 
help hating him. . . . Tlie idea of his getting away 
maddens me. ... I should hke to torture him and 
yet. . . ." 
He yielded to a feeling of despair and took his head between 
his two hands. , Don Luis comforted him : 
" Have no fear," he said. " He was never nearer his 
downfall than at the present moment. I hold him in my 
hand as I hold this leaf ! " 
" But how ? " 
" The man who's driving him belongs to me." 
" What's that ? What do you mean ? " 
" I mean that I put one of my men on tlie driver's seat of a 
taxi, witii instructions to hang about at the bottom of the 
lane, and that Sim .on did not fail to take the taxi in question." 
" That is to say, you suppose so," Patrice corrected him, 
feeling more and more astounded. 
" I recognised the sound of the engine at the bottom of the 
garden, when I told you." 
" And are you sure of your man ? " 
" Certain." 
" What's the use ? Simeon can dri e far out of Paris, 
(Continued on pa^e 2i, 
