20 
LAND & WATER 
March i, 1917 
The Golden Triangle 
By Maurice Leblanc 
(Translated by Alexander Tcixcira dc MattosI 
I 
CHAPTER XVI {continued) 
■'M going to count three," said Patrice, pointin'^ his 
revol.erat the head of Vachorot, the porter of the 
fiats where Simeon dwelt; •■ If. by that time, you 
.don't make up your mind to speak, you shall see the 
Mjrt uf man tiiat Captain Belval is ! " 
The porter gave a start : 
" Captain Belval, did you say ? Arc you Captain Belval ? " 
" At your service ; and, if in two seconds from this you 
haven't told me . . ." 
" Patrice Belval ! And you are M. Simeon's enemy -■ 
And you want to . . . ? " 
" I want to do him in like the cur that he is, your black- 
i;iiard of a Simeon . . . and you, his accomphcc, v.ith 
him. A nice pair of rascals ! . . . Well, have you made 
up your mind .' " 
" Unhappy man ! '• gasped the porter. " Unhappy man ! 
You don't know what you're doing. Kill M. Simeon ! You ? 
You ? ^^'hy, you're the last man who could commit a crime 
like that! " ' 
" What about it ? Speak, will vou, you old numskull ! " 
" You, kill M. Simeon ? You," Patrice ? Y'ou, Captain 
Belval ? You ? " 
" And. why not ? Speak, damn it ! Why not ? " 
" Y'ou are his son." 
All Patrice's fury, all his anguish at the thought that 
Coralie was in Simeon's power or else lying in some pit, 
all his agonized grief, all his alarm : all this gave way, for a 
moment, in a terrible fit of merriment, which revealed itself 
in a long burst of laughter. 
" Simeon's son ! What the devil are you talking about ? 
Oh, this beats everything '. Upon my word you're full of 
ideas, when you're trying to save him ! You old ruffian ! 
Of -course, it's most convenient : -don't kill that man, he's 
\our father. He my father, that putrid Simeon ! Simoon 
biodokis, Patrice Belval's father ! Oh, it's enough to make 
a chap spUt his sides ! " 
Don Luis had listened in silence. He made a sign to 
Patrice : 
" Will you allow me to clear up this business, captain ? 
It won't take me more than a few minutes ; and that cer- 
tainly won't delay us." And, without waiting for the officer's 
reply, he turned to the old man and said slowly, " Let's have 
llus out, M. Vacherot. It's of the highest importance. The 
great thing is to speak plainly and not to lose yourself in 
superfluous words. Besides, you have said too much not to 
finish your revelation. Simeon Diodokis is not your bene- 
lactor's real name, is it ? " 
■ No, that's so." 
" He is Armand Belval ; and the woman who loved him used 
lo call him Patrice ? " 
" Yes, his son's name." 
" Nevertheless, this Armand Belval was a victim of the 
same murderous attempt as the woman he loved, who was 
Coralie Essares' mother ? " 
" Yes, but Coralie Essares' mother died ; and he did not." 
" That was on the 14th of April, 1895." 
" The fourteenth of April, 1895." 
Patrice caught hold of Don Luis' arm : 
" Come," he spluttered, " Coralie's at death's door. The 
monster has buried her. That's the only thing that matters." 
" Then you don't belie\e th;U monster to be your father ? " 
asked Don Luis. 
" You're mad ! " 
For all that, captain, you're trembling ! . . ." 
" I dare say, I dare say, but it's because of Coralie. . . . 
I can't even hear what the man's saying ! . . . Oh, it's a 
nightmare, every word of it ! Make him stop ! Make him shut 
up ! Why didn't I wring his neck .-' " 
He sank into a chair, with his elbows on tlie table and his 
liead in his hands. It was really a horriblf moment ; and 
no catastrophe would have overwhelmed a man more utterly. 
Don Luis looked at him with feeling and then turned to 
ihe porter : 
" Explain yourself, M. Vacherot," he said. " As briefly 
as possible, won't you ? No details. We can go into them 
later. We were saying, on the fourteenth of April 1895. ." 
" On the fourteenth of April 1895, a solicitor's clerk, 
accompanied by the commissary of police, came to my 
governor's, close by here, and ordered two coffins for immediate 
delivery. The whole shop got to work. At ten o'clock -n 
the evening, the governor, one of my mates and I went to the 
Rue Kaynouard, to a sort of pavilion or lodge, standing in a 
garden." 
" I know. Go on." 
" There were two bodies. We wrapped them in winding- 
sheets and put tiiem into the coffins. At eleven o'clock my 
governor and my fellow-workmen went away and left me 
alone with a sister of mercy. There was nothing more to df> 
except to nail the coffins "down. Well, just then, the nun, 
who had been watching and praying, fell asleep and something 
happened . . . oh, an awful tiling! It made my hair 
stand on end, sir. I shall never forget it as long as I live. 
My knees gave way beneath me, I shook with fright. . . . 
Sir. the man's body had moved. The man was- alive! " 
" Then you didn't know of the murder at that time ? '* 
asked Don Luis. " You hadn't heard of the attempt ? " 
" No, we were told that they had both suff xated them- 
selves with gas. . . . It was many hours before the man 
recovered consciousness entirely. He was in some way 
poisoned." 
" But \vh\' didn't you inform the nun ? " 
■' I couldn't say. I was simply stunned. I looked at the 
man as he slowly came back to life and ended by ojiening 
his eyes. His first words were, ' She's dead, I suppose ? ' 
And then at once he said, ' Not a word about all this. Let 
them think me dead : that will be better.' .\nd I can't 
tell you why, but I consented. The miracle had deprived 
me of all power of will. I obeyed like a child. ... Ho 
ended by getting up. He leant Over the other coffin, drew 
- aside the sheet and kissed the dead woman's face over and 
over again, whispering, ' 1 will a\'enge you. .All my life 
shall be de\'oted to avenging you afid also, as you wished, 
to uniting our children. If I don't kill myself, it will be for 
Patrice and Coralie's sake. Ciood-bye.' Then he told mi 
to help him. Between us, we lifted the woman out of the 
coffin and carried it into the little bedroom next door. Then 
we went into the garden, took some big stones and put them 
into the coffins where the two bodies had been. When this 
was done, I nailed the coffins down, woke the good sister 
and went away. The man had locked himself into the b--d- 
room with the dead woman. Next morning, the undertaker's 
men came and fetched away the two coffins." 
Patrice had unclapsed his liands and thrust his distorted 
features between. Don Luis and the porter. Fixing his 
haggard eyes upon the latter, he asked, struggling witli his 
words : 
" But the graves ? The inscription saying that the remains 
of both lie there, near the lodge where the murder was com- 
mitted ? The cemetery ? " 
" Armand Belval wished it so. At that time, I was living 
in a garret in this house. I took a lodging for him where he 
came and lived by stealth, under the name of Simt'on Diodokis. 
since Armand Belval was dead, and where he stayed for 
several months without going out. Then, in his new name 
and tiirough me, he bought his lodge. And, bit by bit, we 
dug the graves. Coralie's and his. His because. I repeat, 
he wished it so. Patrice and Coralie were both dead. It 
seemed to him, in his way, that he was not leaving her. 
Perhaps also, I confess, despair had upset his balance a little, 
just a very little, only in what concerned his memory 
of the Woman who died on the fourteenth of April 1895 and 
his devotion for her. He wrote her n;mie and his own every- 
where : on the grave and also on the walls, on the trees and 
in the veiy borders of the flower-beds. They were Coralie 
Essares' name and yours. . . . And for this, for all that 
had to do with his revenge upon the murderer and v.'ith h.s 
son and with the dead woman's daughter, oh, for th ^. ■ 
matters he had all his wits about him, believe me, sir ! " 
Patrice stretched his clutching hands and his distraugh; 
face towards the ])orter : 
" Proofs., ptoofs, proofs!" he insisted, in a. stifled voice. 
" Give me proofs at once ! There's some one dying at this 
moment by that scoundrel's criminal intentions, there's 
a woman at the point of death. Give me proofs ! " 
" You need have no fear," said M. 'Vacherot. " My 
, friend has only one thought, that of saving the wf^man, not 
killing her. ..." 
" He lured her and me into the lodge to kill us, as our 
parents were killed before us." 
[Continued on pa^e 22] 
