Part 18 (1/2)

”Look here,” he said, and he pointed to the middle of one of the empty s.p.a.ces in which a picture had hung.

There, written neatly in blue chalk, were the words:

a.r.s.eNE LUPIN

”This is a job for Guerchard,” said the inspector. ”But I had better get an examining magistrate to take the matter in hand first.” And he ran to the telephone.

The Duke opened the folding doors which led into the second drawing-room. The shutters of the windows were open, and it was plain that a.r.s.ene Lupin had plundered it also of everything that had struck his fancy. In the gaps between the pictures on the walls was again the signature ”a.r.s.ene Lupin.”

The inspector was shouting impatiently into the telephone, bidding a servant wake her master instantly. He did not leave the telephone till he was sure that she had done so, that her master was actually awake, and had been informed of the crime. The Duke sat down in an easy chair and waited for him.

When he had finished telephoning, the inspector began to search the two rooms for traces of the burglars. He found nothing, not even a finger-mark.

When he had gone through the two rooms he said, ”The next thing to do is to find the house-keeper. She may be sleeping still--she may not even have heard the noise of the burglars.”

”I find all this extremely interesting,” said the Duke; and he followed the inspector out of the room.

The inspector called up the two policemen, who had been freeing the concierge and going through the rooms on the ground-floor. They did not then examine any more of the rooms on the first floor to discover if they also had been plundered. They went straight up to the top of the house, the servants' quarters.

The inspector called, ”Victoire! Victoire!” two or three times; but there was no answer.

They opened the door of room after room and looked in, the inspector taking the rooms on the right, the policemen the rooms on the left.

”Here we are,” said one of the policemen. ”This room's been recently occupied.” They looked in, and saw that the bed was unmade. Plainly Victoire had slept in it.

”Where can she be?” said the Duke.

”Be?” said the inspector. ”I expect she's with the burglars--an accomplice.”

”I gather that M. Gournay-Martin had the greatest confidence in her,”

said the Duke.

”He'll have less now,” said the inspector drily. ”It's generally the confidential ones who let their masters down.”

The inspector and his men set about a thorough search of the house.

They found the other rooms undisturbed. In half an hour they had established the fact that the burglars had confined their attention to the two drawing-rooms. They found no traces of them; and they did not find Victoire. The concierge could throw no light on her disappearance.

He and his wife had been taken by surprise in their sleep and in the dark.

They had been gagged and bound, they declared, without so much as having set eyes on their a.s.sailants. The Duke and the inspector came back to the plundered drawing-room.

The inspector looked at his watch and went to the telephone.

”I must let the Prefecture know,” he said.

”Be sure you ask them to send Guerchard,” said the Duke.

”Guerchard?” said the inspector doubtfully.

”M. Formery, the examining magistrate, does not get on very well with Guerchard.”