22 
LAND & WATER 
February 8, 191 7 
{Continued from page 20) 
Stab the man in the back . . . and then when shaU we 
L'et to know ? " ' , ti • 1 
" Do you imagine that people can get out oi Pans and go 
nmning about the high-roads without a special permit ? 
Ko if Simeon leaves I'aris, he will have to drive to some 
railway-station or other and we shall know of it twenty 
minutes after. And then we'll be oil." 
"How?" 
" By motor." 
" Then you have a pass ? 
" Yes. valid for the whole of Fra;ice." 
" You don't mean it ? " . 
" I do • and a genuine pass at that ! Made out m the name 
«f Don Luis Perenna, signed by the Minister of the Interior 
and countersigned. . . ." 
" Bv whom ? 
" By the President of the Republic." 
Patrice felt his bewilderment change all at once into 
violent excitement. Hitherto, in the terrible adventure in 
^•hich he was engaged, he had undergone the enemy's im- 
placable will and had known little besides defeat and the 
horrors of ever-threatening death. But now a more power- 
ful will suddenly arose in his favour. And everything was 
abruptly altered. Fate seemed to be changing its course, 
like a ship which an unexpected fair wind brings back into 
harbour. ,. ■, j., u^ 
" Upon my word, captain," said Don Luis, I thought 
you were going to cry hke Little Mother Coralie. Your 
nerves are overstrung. And I daresay you're hungiy. We 
must find you something to eat. Come along." 
He led him slowly towards the lodge and, speaking in a 
rather serious voice : , , ,• 
" I must ask you," he said, " to be absolutely discreet in 
this whole matter. With the exception of a few old friends 
and of Ya-Bon, whom I met in Africa, where- he saved my 
life no one in France knows me by my real name. I caU 
myself Don Luis Perenna. In Morocco, where I was soldier- 
ing, I had occasion to do a service to the very gracious 
sovereign of a neighbouring neutral nation, who, though 
obliged to conceal his true feelings, is ardently on our side. 
He sent for me ; and, in return, I asked him to give me my 
credentials and to obtain a pass for me. Officially, therefore, 
I am on a secret mission, which expires in two days. 
They came to the settee on which Coralie lay sleeping. 
Don Luis laid his hand on Patrice's arm : 
" One word more, captain. I swore to myself and I gave 
my word of honour to him who trusted me that, while I 
was on this mission, my time should be devoted exclusively 
to defending the interests of my country to the best of my 
power. I must warn you, therefore, that, notwithstanding 
all my symapthy for vou, I shall not be able to prolong my 
stay for a single minute after I have discovered the eighteen 
hundred bags of gold. They were the one and only reason 
why I came in answer to Ya- Bon's appeal. When the bags of 
gold are in our possession, that is to say, to-morrow evening at 
latest, I shall go away. However, the two quests are joined. 
The clearing up of the one will mean the end of the other. 
And now enough of words. Introduce me to Little Mother 
Coralie and let's get to work ! Make no mystery with her, 
he added, laughing. " Tell her my real name. I have 
nothing to fear: Arsene Lupin has every woman on his side. 
* * * • * 
Forty minutes later, Coralie was back in her room, well- 
cared for and well watched. Patrice had taken a substantial 
meal, while Don Luis walked up and down the terrace smoking 
cigarettes. 
" Finished, captain ? Then we'll make a start. 
He looked at his watch : 
" Half-past five. We have more than an hour of daylight 
kft. That'll be enough." 
" Enough ? You surely don't pretend that you will achieve 
vour aim in an hour ? " 
" My definite aim, no, but the aim which I am setting 
mvself at the moment, yes . . . and even earlier. An 
hour ? What for ? To do what ? Why, you'll be a good deal 
wiser in a few minutes ! " ' , ,., 
Don Luis asked to be taken to the cellar under the hbrary, 
where Essares Bey used to keep the bags of gold until the 
time had come to send them off. 
" Was it through this ventilator that the bags were let 
d'Avn ? 
■ Yes." 
" Is there no other outlet ? " 
" None except the staircase leading to the library and the 
other ventilator." 
■' Op.-'iiing on the terrace ? " 
" Yes." 
" Tiien that's clear. The bags used to come in by the first 
and go out by the second." 
Tiicy returned to the terrace. Don Luis took up his 
positKm nuar the ventilator'and inspected the ground imme- 
diately around. It did not take long. Four yards away, 
outside the windows of the library, was the basin with the 
statue of a child spouting a jet of water through a shell. 
Don Luis went up, examined the basin and, leaning for- 
wards, reached the httle statue, which he turned upon its 
axis from riglit to left. At the same time the pedestal 
described a quarter of a circle. 
" That's it," he said, drawing himself up again. 
" What ? " 
" The basin will empty itself." 
He was rig'nt. Tlu water sank very quickly and the bottom 
of the fountain appeared. 
Don Luis stepped into it and squatted on his haunches. 
The inner wall was lined with a marble mosaic composing a 
wide red-and-white fretwork pattern. In the middle of 
one of the frets was a ring, which Don Luis lifted and pulled. 
All that portion of the wall which formed the pattern yielded 
to his effort and carrie down, leaving an opening of about 
twelve inches by ten. 
" That's where the bags of gold went," said Don Luis 
" It was the second stage. Tliey were dispatched in the 
same manner, on a hook sliding along a wire. Look, here is 
the wire, in this groove at the top." 
" By Jove ! " cried Captain Belval. " But you've un- 
ravelled this in a masterly fashion ! What about the wire ? 
Can't we follow it ? " 
" No, but it will serve our purpose if we know where it 
finishes. I say, captain, go to the end of the garden, by 
the wall, taking a line at right angles to the house. When 
you get there, cut off a branch of a tree, rather high up. 
Oh, I was forgetting ! I shall have to go out by the lane. 
Have you the key of the door ? Give it me, pleasje." 
Patrice handed him the key and then went down to the 
wall beside the quay. 
" A little farther to the right," Don Luis instructed hrm. 
" A little more still. That's better. Now wait." 
He left the garden by the lane, reached the quay and 
called out from the other side of the wall : 
■ " Fix your branch so that I can see it from here. Capital. 
Patrice now joined Don Luis, who was crossing the road. 
(To be continued.) 
Sir Edward Holden who presided at the annual general meeting of 
the London Ci,y and Midland Bank, Ltd., in the course of his address, 
said tliat as we stood to-day we were in the midst of great economic 
phenomena. Our country was overflowing with money and credit. 
Large prolits were bdng made, due greatly to increised prices and 
our working classes were earning larger wages than ever before ; some 
were spending freely, others were saving. The same conditions pre- 
vailed in Germany, and reviewing the position one was inclinod to ask 
how was this credit created, and where did the money come from ? 
He went on to show in detail how bankers were great manufacturers ol 
credit and explained how nearly all the loan transactions of banks 
created credit. There was no disorganisation of banks' reserves when 
the C.overnment borrowed on Treasury Bills, Exchequer Bonds and 
other short-term securities, because the amounts lent on them, although 
withdrawn from the banks, were not of sufficient weekly magtiitude 
to inconvenience the reserves of the banks before they were again rt- 
plenished by the return of the withdrawals. When bank depositors 
used their derosits to subscribe for loans, these deposits were merely 
transferred to ihe overnment, and. after disbursement by the ' overn- 
meat found their way back to the joint stock banks through the accounts 
of the overnment Contractors. There was here no creation of credit . 
but merely a transfer from the subscriber to the oovernraent, from th.- 
Government to the contractors, from the contractors to the banks. 
Mr Walter Leaf, Deputy Chairman, who presided at the annual 
general meeting of the London County and Westminster Bank, said 
tliat the state of affairs shown in the report was one of which the bank 
might be proud. So far as the internal affairs of the bank were 
concerned the year 1916 had been one of steady and v^ry profitable 
prosperity. The most striking change in the course of the 2 J years 
was the increase in investments in >, overnment Stock, these had 
risen from about loj millions to nearly 32* millions. This wa-s due 
to the part played by the banks in subscribing for the 4J per cent. War 
Loan eighteen months ago. Their gross profits for the y«ar we,« a 
record Peace -victorious peace— would bring with it fresh problems 
on every hand and for losses and difficulties which might then arise it 
behoved them to make preparation beforehand. The necessity of 
making the new Loan an entire success was patent to everyone. 
There was however, one serious obstacle in the way. That was the 
idea that seemed to have got about that success was already as.sured 
and that the small investor, therefore, need not trouble himself about 
what was sufficiently dealt with by the big men. Such an idea was 
completely baseless. The Loan was not already an assured success- 
far from it. It had got to be made so in t,,e next three weeks and every 
one in the Unite! Kingdom had got to put his back into the task or 
there would be no success at all. It was impossible not to feel some 
^■ense of rhame when thev saw the way in which the 1 erman nation had 
rcsponde.l to the a-p .als for loans made to them. If all their customer 
arcording to their means. wo)ild come to them ready to lend not only 
their savings in the past, but with the bank's assistance their savings 
in the future and above all determined to increase those future 
savings to their uttermost power, then woull the Loan be an assured 
success. It all lav in the hand; of the small man. 
