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There is every reason to fear that the poor young girl has been murdered. Isidore Beautrelet completed his journey to Dieppe without moving a limb. Bent in two, with his elbows on his knees and his hands plastered against his face, he sat thinking. At Dieppe, he took a fly. At the door of Ambrumesy, he met the examining magistrate, who confirmed the horrible news.
"It's my photograph, but it was not sent by me. I was not even aware of its existence. It was taken, without my knowledge, in the ruins of Ambrumesy, doubtless by the examining-magistrate's clerk, who, as you know, was an accomplice of Arsene Lupin's." "And then?" "Then this photograph became the passport, the talisman, by means of which they obtained my father's confidence." "But who?
The old chateau came into view once the abbey residence of the priors of Ambrumesy, mutilated under the Revolution, both restored by the Comte de Gesvres, who had now owned it for some twenty years. It consists of a main building, surmounted by a pinnacled clock-tower, and two wings, each of which is surrounded by a flight of steps with a stone balustrade.
"They discovered that they had been tricked, that the order was a forgery and that there was nothing for them to do but return to Ambrumesy." "This they did, accompanied by Sergeant Quevillon. But they were away for an hour and a half and, during this time, the crime was committed." "In what circumstances?" "Very simple circumstances, indeed.
Here we have the first of our two problems solved, at the same time that the Ambrumesy mystery is set forth. Arsene Lupin found, close at hand, in the chateau itself, the assistance which was indispensable to him in order, first, not to be discovered and, secondly, to live. He now lives.
Then Lupin stepped forward and, in muttered tones, with his eyes on Beautrelet's: "You shall go straight to the Grand Journal." "No." "Tear up your article." "No." "See the editor." "No." "Tell him you made a mistake." "No." "And write him another article, in which you will give the official version of the Ambrumesy mystery, the one which every one has accepted." "No."
That is how, last night, after an uneventful period of more than a week, I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of my Rouen colleague; and, this morning, when he heard of the Ambrumesy murder, he very kindly suggested that I should come with him and that we should share the cost of a fly."
It remained to decide which inn the doctor had spoken of: an easy piece of work for a Ganimard, a professional ferret, a patient old stager of the police. The number of inns is limited and this one, given the condition of the wounded man, could only be one quite close to Ambrumesy. Ganimard and Sergeant Quevillon set to work.
I give it as it stood and as it was quoted in the press of the whole world: * I do not intend in these few sentences to set out in detail the mental processes and the investigations that have enabled me to reconstruct the tragedy I should say the twofold tragedy of Ambrumesy.
And we come to the second problem, corresponding with the second Ambrumesy mystery, the study of which served me as a conducting medium. Why does Lupin, alive, free, at the head of his gang, omnipotent as before, why does Lupin make desperate efforts, efforts with which I am constantly coming into collision, to force the idea of his death upon the police and the public?
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