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"This evening the marquis will put Daubrecq to the question a little brutally, but indispensably as I intended to do myself." "And Daubrecq will give up his secret," said Clarisse, already quite upset. "I'm afraid so." "Then..." "I am hesitating between two plans," said Lupin, who seemed very calm. "Either to prevent the interview..." "How?" "By forestalling d'Albufex.
Now d'Albufex, having sold everything that he ever had, possessed neither country-houses nor landed estates. They turned their attention to the marquis' relations and intimate friends. Was he able on this side to dispose of some safe retreat in which to imprison Daubrecq? The result was equally fruitless. And the days passed. And what days for Clarisse Mergy!
Ten minutes passed. Some one tapped at their door. It was one of the men from the box-office. "Are you M. le Depute Daubrecq, sir?" he asked. "Yes," said Daubrecq, in a voice of surprise. "But how do you know my name?" "There's a gentleman asking for you on the telephone. He told me to go to Box 22." "But who is it?" "M. le Marquis d'Albufex." "Eh?" "What am I to say, sir?"
"What particulars do you require, monsieur?" asked Prasville. "Everything that concerns the Marquis d'Albufex: the position of his family, the way in which he spends his time, his family connections, the properties which he owns in Paris and in the country."
But the image of his dire adversary haunted him; and he reconstituted the various phases of the escape, the descent of the cliff.... One day, struck by a terrible memory, he exclaimed: "The list! The list of the Twenty-seven! Daubrecq must have it by now... or else d'Albufex. It was on the table!" Clarisse reassured him: "No one can have taken it," she declared.
At the stage which he has reached, it won't be difficult." And, taking the huntsman aside, "Did you hear what he said? What did he mean by that word, 'Marie'? He repeated it twice." "Yes, twice," said the huntsman. "Perhaps he entrusted the document to a person called Marie." "Not he!" protested d'Albufex. "He never entrusts anything to anybody. It means something different."
He heard them again, about the middle of the afternoon, not quite so distinctly; and that was all. But suddenly, amid the silence, the sound of galloping horses reached his ears; and, a few minutes later, he saw two riders climbing the river-path. He recognized the Marquis d'Albufex and Sebastiani.
But he reflected that he himself would then be none the wiser and that it was better to trust to events in the hope of making the most of them. Meanwhile the confession continued beneath him, indistinctly, interrupted by silences and mingled with moans. D'Albufex clung to his prey: "Go on!... Finish, can't you?..."
Lupin lunched quietly, hired a bicycle and came in view of the house at the moment when the guests were going into the park, in motor-cars or mounted. The Marquis d'Albufex was one of the horsemen. Thrice, in the course of the day, Lupin saw him cantering along. And he found him, in the evening, at the station, where d'Albufex rode up, followed by a huntsman.
In addition to the ancient chains that had been used to fasten him to his bed and to fasten the bed to an iron hook in the wall, his wrists and ankles were girt with leather thongs; and an ingenious arrangement caused his least movement to set in motion a bell hung to the nearest pillar. A lamp placed on a stool lit him full in the face. The Marquis d'Albufex was standing beside him.
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