20 
LAND & WATER 
March 15, 1917 
The Golden Triangle 
By Maurice Leblanc 
(Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos] 
CHAPTER XVII (continued) 
THOUGH floundering in the newly-tumcd earth, 
Patrice tried to rise, at the sight of his danger. 
Simeon had taken up 'the iron bar and now had 
struck him a blow on the head with it. Patrice 
gave a cry and moved no more. The stone covered him 
up. Tiie whole incident had lasted but a few seconds. 
Simeon did not lose an instant. He knew that Patrice, 
wounded as he was bound to be and weakened by the position 
to which he was condemned, was incapable of making the 
necessary effort to lift the lid of his tomb. On that side, 
therefore, there was no danger. 
He went back to the lodge and, though he walked with 
some diffifulty, he had no doubt exaggerated his injuries, 
for he did not stop until he reached the door. He even 
scorned to obliterate his footprints and went straight ahead. 
On entering the hall, he hstcncd. Don Luis was tapping 
against the walls and partition inside of the studio and the 
bedroom. 
" Capital ! " said Simeon, with a grin. " His turn now." 
It did not take long. He walked to the kitchen on the 
right, opened the door of the meter and, turning the key, 
released the gas, thus bc;,inning again with Don Luis what he 
had failed to achieve with Patrice and Coralie. 
Not till then did he yield to the immense weariness with 
which he was overcome and allow himself to lie back in a chair 
for two or three minutes. 
His most terrible enemy was now also out of the way. 
But it was still necessary for him to act and ensure his per- 
gonal safety. He walked round the lodge, looked for his 
vellow spectacles and put them on, went through the garden, 
opened the door and closed it behind him. Then he turned 
down the lane to the quay. 
Once more stopping in front of the parapet above Berthou's 
Wharf, he seemed to 1 esitate what to do. But the sight of 
people passing, carmen, market-gardeners and others, put an 
end to his indecision. He hailed a cab and drove to the Rue 
Gu'mird. 
His friend Vacherot was standing at the door of his lodge. 
" Oh, is that you, M. Simeon ? " cried the porter. But what 
a state you're in ! " 
" Hush, no names ! " he whispered, entering the loc'jge. 
" Has anyone seen me ? 
"No. It's only half-past seven and the house is hardly awake. 
But, Lord forgive us, what have the scoundrels done to you ? 
" Has Patrice been here ? " asked Simeon, still spe'aking 
in a whisper. 
" Yes, last night, after you left." 
" And you told him ? " 
" That he was your son." 
" Then that," mumbled the old man, " is why he did not 
seem surprised at what I said." 
" Where are they now ? 
" With Coralie. I was able to save her. I've handed her 
over to them. But it's not a question of her. Quick, 1 must 
see a doctor, there's no time to lose." 
" Turn up Dr. Geradcc." 
' What ? You can't mean that ? " 
" Why not ? He has a private liospital quite close, on the 
Boulevard de Montmorency, with no other house near it." 
" That's so, but haven't you heard ? There are all sorts 
of rumours about him afloat : something to do with passports 
and forged certificates." 
" Never mind that." 
M. Vacherot hunted out the number in the telephone 
directory and rang it up. TheUnewas engaged ; and he wrote 
down the number on the margin of a newspaper. Then he 
telephoned again. The answer was that the doctor had gone 
out and would be back at ten. 
" It's just as well," said Simeon. " I'm not feeUng strong 
enough yet. Say that I'll call at ten o'clock." 
" Shall I give your name as Simeon ? 
" No, my real name, Armand Belval. Say it's urgent, say 
it's a surgical case." 
The porter did so and hung up the instrument, with a moan: 
",0h, my poor M. Sim-'on ! A man like you, so good and 
kind to evervbody ! Tell me what happened ? " 
" Don't worry about tliat. Is my place ready ? " 
" To be sure it is." 
" Take me there without anyone seeing us." 
In the usual way." 
" Be quick. Put your revolver in your pocket. What 
about your lodge ? Can you leave it ? 
" Five minutes won't hurt." 
The lodge opened at the back on a small courtyard, which 
communicated with a long corridor. At the end of this pas- 
sage was another yard, in which stood a little house consisting 
of a ground-floor and an attic. 
They went in. There was an entrance hall followed by 
three rooms leading one into the other. Only the second room 
was furnished. The third had a door opening straight on a 
street that ran parallel with the Rue Guimard. 
They stopped in the second room. 
" Did you shut the hall-door after you ? 
" Yes, M. Simeon." 
" No one saw us come in, I suppose ? " 
" Not a soul." 
" No one suspects that you're here ? " 
" No." 
" Give me your revolver." 
" Here it is." 
" Do you think, if I fired it off, any one would hear :• " 
" No, certainly not. Who is there to hear ? But . . ." 
" But what ? " 
" You're surely not going to fire ? 
" Yes, I am." 
" At yourself, M. Sim 'on, at yourself ? Are you going to 
kill yourself ? 
" Don't be an ass." 
"Well, who then ? 
" You, of course," chuckled Simeon. 
Pressing the trigger, he blew out the luckless man's brains. 
His victim fell in a heap, stone dead. Simeon flung aside the 
revolver and remained impassive, a httle undecided as to 
his next step. He opened out his fingers, one by one, up to 
six, apparently counting the six persons of whom he had 
got rid in a few hours : Gregoire, Coralie, Ya-Bon, Patrice, 
Don Luis, old Vacherot ! 
CHAPTER XVIII 
Simeon's Last Victim 
Dr. Gdradec's hospital had several annexes, each of which 
served a specific purpose, grouped around it in a fine garden. 
The villa itself was used for the big operations. The doctor 
had his consulting-room here also ; and it was to this room 
that Simeon Diodokis was first shown. But, after answering 
a few questions put to him by a male nurse, Simeon was 
taken to another room in a separate wing. 
Here he was received by the doctor, a man of about sixty, 
still young in his movements, clean-shaven and wearing a 
glass screwed into his right eye, which contracted his features 
into a constant grimace. He was wrapped from the shoulders 
to the feet in a large white operating-apron. 
Simeon explained his case with great difficulty, for he 
could hardly speak. A footpad had attacked him the night 
before, taken him by the throat and robbed him, leaving 
him half-dead in the road. 
" It's nothing much, said the do:tor. The fact that you 
are alive shows that there's no fracture. It reduces itself there- 
fore to a contraction of the larynx, which we shall easily get 
rid of bv tubing." 
" That's over," said Dr. Geradec, " and much quicker than 
I expected. Go home now ; and, when you've had a rest, 
you'll forget all about it." 
Simeon asked what the fee was and paid it. But, as the 
doctor was seeing him to the door, he stopped and, without 
further preface, said : 
" I am a friend of Mme. Atbonin's." 
The doctor did not seem to understand what he meant. 
" Perhaps you don't recognise the name," Simeon insisted. 
" When I tell you, however, that it conceals the identity of 
Mme. Mosgranem, I have no doubt that we shall be able to 
arrange something." 
" What about ? " asked the doctor, while his face displayed 
still greater astonishment. 
" Come, doctor, there's no need to be on your guard. We 
are alone. You have sound-proof double doors. Sit dowi> 
and let's talk. " 
He took a chair. The doctor sat down opposite him, 
( Continued on pa^e 22 
