you know anything?"
"Yes, monsieur le baron."
"About the murder of that poor Lavernoux?"
"Yes, monsieur le baron, and about madame le baronne also."
"Do you really mean it? Quick, I entreat you…"
He pushed forward a chair. Lupin sat down and began:
"Monsieur le baron, the circumstances are very serious. I will be brief."
"Yes, do, please."
"Well, monsieur le baron, in a few words, it amounts to this: five or six hours ago, Lavernoux, who, for the last fortnight, had been kept in a sort of enforced confinement by his doctor, Lavernoux – how shall I put it? – telegraphed certain revelations by means of signals which were partly taken down by me and which put me on the track of this case. He himself was surprised in the act of making this communication and was murdered."
"But by whom? By whom?"
"By his doctor."
"Who is this doctor?"
"I don't know. But one of M. Lavernoux's friends, an Englishman called Hargrove, the friend, in fact, with whom he was communicating, is bound to know and is also bound to know the exact and complete meaning of the communication, because, without waiting for the end, he jumped into a motor-cab and drove to the Prefecture of Police."
"Why? Why?.. And what is the result of that step?"
"The result, monsieur le baron, is that your house is surrounded. There are twelve detectives under your windows. The moment the sun rises, they will enter in the name of the law and arrest the criminal."
"Then is Lavernoux's murderer concealed in my house? Who is he? One of the servants? But no, for you were speaking of a doctor!.."
"I would remark, monsieur le baron, that when this Mr. Hargrove went to the police to tell them of the revelations made by his friend Lavernoux, he was not aware that his friend Lavernoux was going to be murdered. The step taken by Mr Hargrove had to do with something else…"
"With what?"
"With the disappearance of madame la baronne, of which he knew the secret, thanks to the communication made by Lavernoux."
"What! They know at last! They have found the baroness! Where is she? And the jewels? And the money she robbed me of?"
Baron Repstein was talking in a great state of excitement. He rose and, almost shouting at Lupin, cried:
"Finish your story, sir! I can't endure this suspense!"
Lupin continued, in a slow and hesitating voice:
"The fact is … you see … it is rather difficult to explain … for you and I are looking at the thing from a totally different point of view."
"I don't understand."
"And yet you ought to understand, monsieur le baron… We begin by saying – I am quoting the newspapers – by saying, do we not, that Baroness Repstein knew all the secrets of your business and that she was able to open not only that safe over there, but also the one at the Crédit Lyonnais in which you kept your securities locked up?"
"Yes."
"Well, one evening, a fortnight ago, while you were at your club, Baroness Repstein, who, unknown to yourself, had converted all those securities into cash, left this house with a travelling-bag, containing your money and all the Princesse de Berny's jewels?"
"Yes."
"And, since then, she has not been seen?"
"No."
"Well, there is an excellent reason why she has not been seen."
"What reason?"
"This, that Baroness Repstein has been murdered…"
"Murdered!.. The baroness!.. But you're mad!"
"Murdered … and probably that same evening."
"I tell you again, you are mad! How can the baroness have been murdered, when the police are following her tracks, so to speak, step by step?"
"They are following the tracks of another woman."
"What woman?"
"The murderer's accomplice."
"And who is the murderer?"
"The same man who, for the last fortnight, knowing that Lavernoux, through the situation which he occupied in this house, had discovered the truth, kept him imprisoned, forced him to silence, threatened him, terrorized him; the same man who, finding Lavernoux in the act of communicating with a friend, made away with him in cold blood by stabbing him to the heart."
"The doctor, therefore?"
"Yes."
"But who is this doctor? Who is this malevolent genius, this infernal being who appears and disappears, who slays in the dark and whom nobody suspects?"
"Can't you guess?"
"No."
"And do you want to know?"
"Do I want to know?.. Why, speak, man, speak!.. You know where he is hiding?"
"Yes."
"In this house?"
"Yes."
"And it is he whom the police are after?"
"Yes."
"And I know him?"
"Yes."
"Who is it?"
"You!"
"I!.."
Lupin had not been more than ten minutes with the baron; and the duel was commencing. The accusation was hurled, definitely, violently, implacably.
Lupin repeated:
"You yourself, got up in a false beard and a pair of spectacles, bent in two, like an old man. In short, you, Baron Repstein; and it is you for a very good reason, of which nobody has thought, which is that, if it was not you who contrived the whole plot, the case becomes inexplicable. Whereas, taking you as the criminal, you as murdering the baroness in order to get rid of her and run through those millions with another woman, you as murdering Lavernoux, your agent, in order to suppress an unimpeachable witness, oh, then the whole case is explained! Well, is it pretty clear? And are not you yourself convinced?"
The baron, who, throughout this conversation, had stood bending over his visitor, waiting for each of his words with feverish avidity, now drew himself up and looked at Lupin as though he undoubtedly had to do with a madman. When Lupin had finished speaking, the baron stepped back two or three paces, seemed on the point of uttering words which he ended by not saying, and then, without taking his eyes from his strange visitor, went to the fireplace and rang the bell.
Lupin did not make a movement. He waited smiling.
