followed by his servant and by a man carrying a bag of tools under his arm.
And the count said to the man:
"You know what you have to do?"
"Yes," said the workman. "It's to cut a ring that's grown too small… That's easily done… A touch of the nippers…"
"And then you will see," said the count, "if the inscription inside the ring was the one you engraved."
Yvonne looked at the clock. It was ten minutes to eleven. She seemed to hear, somewhere in the house, a sound of voices raised in argument; and, in spite of herself, she felt a thrill of hope. Perhaps Velmont has succeeded… But the sound was renewed; and she perceived that it was produced by some costermongers passing under her window and moving farther on.
It was all over. Horace Velmont had been unable to assist her. And she understood that, to recover her child, she must rely upon her own strength, for the promises of others are vain.
She made a movement of recoil. She had felt the workman's heavy hand on her hand; and that hateful touch revolted her.
The man apologized, awkwardly. The count said to his wife:
"You must make up your mind, you know."
Then she put out her slim and trembling hand to the workman, who took it, turned it over and rested it on the table, with the palm upward. Yvonne felt the cold steel. She longed to die, then and there; and, at once attracted by that idea of death, she thought of the poisons which she would buy and which would send her to sleep almost without her knowing it.
The operation did not take long. Inserted on the slant, the little steel pliers pushed back the flesh, made room for themselves and bit the ring. A strong effort … and the ring broke. The two ends had only to be separated to remove the ring from the finger. The workman did so.
The count exclaimed, in triumph:
"At last! Now we shall see!.. The proof is there! And we are all witnesses…"
He snatched up the ring and looked at the inscription. A cry of amazement escaped him. The ring bore the date of his marriage to Yvonne: "23rd of October"!..
We were sitting on the terrace at Monte Carlo. Lupin finished his story, lit a cigarette and calmly puffed the smoke into the blue air.
I said:
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Why, the end of the story…"
"The end of the story? But what other end could there be?"
"Come … you're joking …"
"Not at all. Isn't that enough for you? The countess is saved. The count, not possessing the least proof against her, is compelled by his mother to forego the divorce and to give up the child. That is all. Since then, he has left his wife, who is living happily with her son, a fine lad of sixteen."
"Yes … yes … but the way in which the countess was saved?"
Lupin burst out laughing:
"My dear old chap" – Lupin sometimes condescends to address me in this affectionate manner – "my dear old chap, you may be rather smart at relating my exploits, but, by Jove, you do want to have the i's dotted for you! I assure you, the countess did not ask for explanations!"
"Very likely. But there's no pride about me," I added, laughing. "Dot those i's for me, will you?"
He took out a five-franc piece and closed his hand over it.
"What's in my hand?"
"A five-franc piece."
He opened his hand. The five-franc piece was gone.
"You see how easy it is! A working jeweller, with his nippers, cuts a ring with a date engraved upon it: 23rd of October. It's a simple little trick of sleight-of-hand, one of many which I have in my bag. By Jove, I didn't spend six months with Dickson, the conjurer,3 for nothing!"
"But then …?"
"Out with it!"
"The working jeweller?"
"Was Horace Velmont! Was good old Lupin! Leaving the countess at three o'clock in the morning, I employed the few remaining minutes before the husband's return to have a look round his study. On the table I found the letter from the working jeweller. The letter gave me the address. A bribe of a few louis enabled me to take the workman's place; and I arrived with a wedding-ring ready cut and engraved. Hocus-pocus! Pass!.. The count couldn't make head or tail of it."
"Splendid!" I cried. And I added, a little chaffingly, in my turn, "But don't you think that you were humbugged a bit yourself, on this occasion?"
"Oh! And by whom, pray?"
"By the countess?"
"In what way?"
"Hang it all, that name engraved as a talisman!.. The mysterious Adonis who loved her and suffered for her sake!.. All that story seems very unlikely; and I wonder whether, Lupin though you be, you did not just drop upon a pretty love-story, absolutely genuine and … none too innocent."
Lupin looked at me out of the corner of his eye:
"No," he said.
"How do you know?"
"If the countess made a misstatement in telling me that she knew that man before her marriage – and that he was dead – and if she really did love him in her secret heart, I, at least, have a positive proof that it was an ideal love and that he did not suspect it."
"And where is the proof?"
"It is inscribed inside the ring which I myself broke on the countess's finger … and which I carry on me. Here it is. You can read the name she had engraved on it."
He handed me the ring. I read:
"Horace Velmont."
There was a moment of silence between Lupin and myself; and, noticing it, I also observed on his face a certain emotion, a tinge of melancholy.
I resumed:
"What made you tell me this story … to which you have often alluded in my presence?"
"What made me …?"
He drew my attention to a woman, still exceedingly handsome, who was passing on a young man's arm. She saw Lupin and bowed.
"It's she," he whispered. "She and her son."
"Then she recognized you?"
"She always recognizes me, whatever my disguise."
"But since the burglary at the Château de Thibermesnil,4 the police have identified the two names of Arsène Lupin and Horace Velmont."
"Yes."
"Therefore she knows who
