Part 30 (1/2)
”Oh, nothing serious as yet. Still....”
”Still what...?”
”Well, he is on our track.”
”Shears?”
”Yes. It was he who set Ganimard at me at the Restaurant Hongrois. It was he who posted the two policemen in the Rue Chalgrin last night. The proof is that Ganimard searched the house this morning and Shears was with him. Besides....”
”Besides what?”
”Well, there is something more: one of our men is missing, Jeanniot.”
”The concierge?”
”Yes.”
”Why, I sent him to the Rue Chalgrin this morning to pick up some garnets which had fallen from my brooch.”
”There is no doubt about it, Shears has caught him in a trap.”
”Not at all. The garnets were brought to the jeweler in the Rue de la Paix.”
”Then what has become of Jeanniot since?”
”Oh, Maxime, I'm so frightened!”
”There's no cause for alarm. But I admit that the position is very serious. How much does he know? Where is he hiding? His strength lies in his isolation. There is nothing to betray him.”
”Then what have you decided on?”
”Extreme prudence, Clotilde. Some time ago I made up my mind to move my things to the refuge you know of, the safe refuge. The intervention of Shears hastens the need. When a man like Shears is on a trail, we may take it that he is bound to follow that trail to the end. So I have made all my preparations. The removal will take place on the day after to-morrow, Wednesday. It will be finished by midday. By two o'clock I shall be able myself to leave, after getting rid of the last vestige of our occupation, which is no small matter. Until then ...”
”Yes...?”
”We must not see each other and no one must see you, Clotilde. Don't go out. I fear nothing for myself. But I fear everything where you're concerned.”
”It is impossible for that Englishman to get at me.”
”Everything is possible to him and I am not easy in my mind. Yesterday, when I was nearly caught by your father, I had come to search the cupboard which contains M. Destange's old ledgers. There is danger there. There is danger everywhere. I feel that the enemy is prowling in the shade and drawing nearer and nearer. I know that he is watching us ... that he is laying his nets around us. It is one of those intuitions which never fail me.”
”In that case,” said she, ”go, Maxime, and think no more about my tears.
I shall be brave and I will wait until the danger is over. Good-bye, Maxime.”
She gave him a long kiss. And she herself pushed him outside. Shears heard the sound of their voices grow fainter in the distance.
Boldly, excited by the need of action, toward and against everything, which had been stimulating him since the day before, he made his way to a pa.s.sage, at the end of which was a staircase. But, just as he was going down, he heard the sound of a conversation below and thought it better to follow a circular corridor which brought him to another staircase. At the foot of this staircase, he was greatly surprised to see furniture the shape and position of which he already knew. A door stood half open. He entered a large round room. It was M. Destange's library.
”Capital! Splendid!” he muttered. ”I understand everything now. The boudoir of Clotilde, that is to say, the blonde lady, communicates with one of the flats in the next house and the door of that house is not in the Place Malesherbes, but in an adjoining street, the Rue Montchanin, if I remember right.... Admirable! And now I see how Clotilde Destange slips out to meet her sweetheart while keeping up the reputation of a person who never leaves the house. And I also see how a.r.s.ene Lupin popped out close to me, yesterday evening, in the gallery: there must be another communication between the flat next door and this library....”