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Then another, followed by a triumphant chuckle. And a woman's wail and moans. And, soon after, two more shots. Lupin thought of Clarisse, wounded, dead perhaps; of Daubrecq, fleeing victoriously; of d'Albufex; of the crystal stopper, which one or other of the two adversaries would recover unresisted. Then a sudden vision showed him the Sire de Tancarville falling with the woman he loved.
The Marquis d'Albufex had been very deeply involved in the business of the canal, so deeply that Prince Napoleon was obliged to remove him from the management of his political campaign in France; and he kept up his very extravagant style of living only by dint of constant loans and makeshifts.
"By giving me, to-morrow, those particulars about the Marquis d'Albufex which it would take me personally several days to collect." Prasville seemed to hesitate and turned his head toward Mme. Mergy. Clarisse said: "I beg of you to accept M. Nicole's services. He is an invaluable and devoted ally. I will answer for him as I would for myself."
He did not use the list, but he had it. And, having it, he killed your husband. He built up his fortune on the ruin and the disgrace of the Twenty-seven. Only last week, one of the gamest of the lot, d'Albufex, cut his throat in a prison. No, take it from me, as the price of handing over that list, we could ask for anything we pleased. And we are asking for what?
"How was it that d'Albufex did not foresee that it was possible to escape this way?" "The cliff is perpendicular." "And you were able to..." "Well, your cousins insisted... And then one has to live, you know, and they were free with their money." "The dear, good souls!" said Daubrecq. "Where are they?" "Down below, in a boat." "Is there a river, then?" "Yes, but we won't talk, if you don't mind.
"What! Twenty seconds? No longer?" "No longer." "What time was it?" "Ten o'clock." "Could he have known of the Marquis d'Albufex' suicide by then?" "Yes. I saw the special edition of the Paris-Midi in his pocket." "That's it, that's it," said Lupin. And he asked, "Did M. Prasville give you no special instructions in case Daubrecq should return?" "No.
D'Albufex had shown him how to set about it; and Clarisse Mergy would be inflexible where it was a question of saving her son. He took the rope with which he had provided himself and groped about to find a jagged piece of rock round which to pass it, so as to leave two equal lengths hanging, by which he could let himself down.
It took them over forty minutes to reach the platform of the ledge formed by the cliff; and Lupin had several times to help his companion, whose wrists, still bruised from the torture, had lost all their strength and suppleness. Over and over again, he groaned: "Oh, the swine, they've done for me!... The swine!... Ah, d'Albufex, I'll make you pay dear for this!..." "Ssh!" said Lupin.
But, when he found what he wanted, instead of acting swiftly for the business was urgent he stood motionless, thinking. His scheme failed to satisfy him at the last moment. "It's absurd, what I'm proposing," he said to himself. "Absurd and illogical. How can I tell that d'Albufex and Sebastiani will not escape me? How can I even tell that, once they are in my power, they will speak?
"Let us mount and get back to the hounds," said d'Albufex. So things were going as Lupin had supposed. During these runs, d'Albufex, taking a line of his own, would push off to Mortepierre, without anybody's suspecting his trick.
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