The Blonde Lady Part 60

"You shall have friends," said the Englishman, whom this grief was upsetting, "I promise you that.... I have connections.... I have much influence.... I a.s.sure you that you will not regret your position...."

"Perhaps, but Mme. d'Imblevalle will not be there...."

They exchanged no more words. Holmlock Shears took two or three more turns along the deck and then came back and settled down near his travelling-companion.

The misty curtain lifted and the clouds seemed to part in the sky. Stars twinkled up above.

Shears took his pipe from the pocket of his Inverness cape, filled it and struck four matches, one after the other, without succeeding in lighting it. As he had none left, he rose and said to a gentleman seated a few steps off:

"Could you oblige me with a light, please?"

The gentleman opened a box of fusees and struck one. A flame blazed up.

By its light, Shears saw a.r.s.ene Lupin.

If the Englishman had not given a tiny movement, an almost imperceptible movement of recoil, Lupin might have thought that his presence on board was known to him, so great was the mastery which Shears retained over himself and so natural the ease with which he held out his hand to his adversary:

"Keeping well, M. Lupin?"

"Bravo!" exclaimed Lupin, from whom this self-command drew a cry of admiration.

"Bravo?... What for?"

"What for? You see me reappear before you like a ghost, after witnessing my dive into the Seine, and, from pride, from a miraculous pride which I will call essentially British, you give not a movement of astonishment, you utter not a word of surprise! Upon my word, I repeat, bravo! It's admirable!"

"There's nothing admirable about it. From the way you fell off the boat, I could see that you fell of your own accord and that you had not been struck by the sergeant's shot."

"And you went away without knowing what became of me?"

"What became of you? I knew. Five hundred people were commanding the two banks over a distance of three-quarters of a mile. Once you escaped death, your capture was certain."

"And yet I'm here!"

"M. Lupin, there are two men in the world of whom nothing can astonish me: myself first and you next."

Peace was concluded.

If Shears had failed in his undertakings against a.r.s.ene Lupin, if Lupin remained the exceptional enemy whom he must definitely renounce all attempts to capture, if, in the course of the engagements, Lupin always preserved his superiority, the Englishman had, nevertheless, thanks to his formidable tenacity, recovered the Jewish lamp, just as he had recovered the blue diamond. Perhaps, this time, the result was less brilliant, especially from the point of view of the public, since Shears was obliged to suppress the circ.u.mstances in which the Jewish lamp had been discovered and to proclaim that he did not know the culprit's name.

But, as between man and man, between Lupin and Shears, between burglar and detective, there was, in all fairness, neither victor nor vanquished. Each of them could lay claim to equal triumphs.

They talked, therefore, like courteous adversaries who have laid down their arms and who esteem each other at their true worth.

At Shears's request, Lupin described his escape.

"If, indeed," he said, "you can call it an escape. It was so simple! My friends were on the watch, since we had arranged to meet in order to fish up the Jewish lamp. And so, after remaining a good half-hour under the overturned keel of the boat, I took advantage of a moment when Folenfant and his men were looking for my corpse along the banks and I climbed on to the wreck again. My friends had only to pick me up in their motor-boat and to dash off before the astounded eyes of the five hundred sightseers, Ganimard and Folenfant."

"Very pretty!" cried Shears. "Most successful! And now have you business in England?"

"Yes, a few accounts to settle.... But I was forgetting....

M. d'Imblevalle...?"

"He knows all."

"Ah, my dear maitre, what did I tell you? The harm's done now, beyond repair. Would it not have been better to let me go to work in my own way? A day or two more and I should have recovered the Jewish lamp and the other things from Bresson and sent them back to the d'Imblevalles; and those two good people would have gone on living peacefully together.

Instead of which...."

"Instead of which," snarled Shears, "I have muddled everything up and brought discord into a family which you were protecting."

"Well, yes, if you like, protecting! Is it indispensable that one should always steal, cheat and do harm?"

"So you do good also?"

"When I have time. Besides, it amuses me. I think it extremely funny that, in the present adventure, I should be the good genius who rescues and saves and you the wicked genius who brings despair and tears."

"Certainly! The d'Imblevalle home is broken up and Alice Demun is weeping."

"She could not have remained.... Ganimard would have ended by discovering her ... and through her they would have worked back to Mme. d'Imblevalle."

"Quite of your opinion, maitre; but whose fault was it?"

Two men pa.s.sed in front of them. Shears said to Lupin, in a voice the tone of which seemed a little altered:

"Do you know who those two gentlemen are?"

"I think one was the captain of the boat."

"And the other?"

"I don't know."

"It is Mr. Austin Gilett. And Mr. Austin Gilett occupies in England a post which corresponds with that of your M. Dudouis."

"Oh, what luck! Would you have the kindness to introduce me? M. Dudouis is a great friend of mine and I should like to be able to say as much of Mr. Austin Gilett."

The two gentlemen reappeared.

"And, suppose I were to take you at your word, M. Lupin...?" said Shears, rising.

He had seized a.r.s.ene Lupin's wrist and held it in a grip of steel.

"Why grip me so hard, maitre? I am quite ready to go with you."

He allowed himself, in fact, to be dragged along, without the least resistance. The two gentlemen were walking away from them.