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Updated: June 4, 2025
Five minutes later he was in a public telephone-box speaking to the receiver of stolen goods. Then, without returning to the Hôtel Ombrone, we took a taxi direct to the Gare de Lyon. As Duperré took three first-class tickets to Fontainebleau, the undersized, grave-faced old man whom I had seen at the moment of our arrest followed him, and also took a ticket to the same destination.
It was found that not a tittle of evidence could be brought against us, and, even though the magistrate expressed his strong suspicions, we were at last released. As we walked out into the sunlight of the boulevard, Duperré glanced at his watch, and exclaimed: "I wonder if we shall be in time to catch the train? I must telephone to Heydenryck at once."
His outstanding cleverness, however, was that he never revealed his own identity to those who actually carried out his devilish schemes. The circle of cosmopolitan malefactors who were his cat's-paws only knew Monsieur and Madame Duperré under other names but of Rudolph Rayne's very existence they were nearly all ignorant.
Meanwhile the elder of the three detectives told us that they had reason to believe that jewelry stolen from a London hotel was in our possession, and that the place would be searched. "Messieurs, you are quite at liberty to search," laughed Duperré, treating the affair as a joke. "Here are my keys!"
I think Duperré was, after all, a sportsman, even though he was a practiced crook, for on that night he and his wife allowed me to be alone with Lola. "Do you know a friend of your father, an old man named Tarrant?" I asked her suddenly. "Tarrant Morley Tarrant?" she asked. "Oh! yes. He's such a funny old fellow.
"I shall be fast asleep," Rayne went on, and turning to Duperré, he said: "Here's the old fellow's master-key. It opens everything." "By Jove!" whispered Vincent. "That was a clever ruse of yours to contrive the old man to faint and then take an impression of the key upon his chain." "It was the only way to get possession of it," Rayne declared with an evil grin.
"May I be forgiven for uttering those ill-words," exclaimed the monk, as though speaking to himself. "We are taught to forgive our enemies. But I cannot forgive her!" "Why?" I asked. "She has desecrated the house of God," he replied in a low tense voice. Two hours later I was back with Lola and Madame Duperré at the Hôtel Victoria at Pisa.
"I think that remark is entirely uncalled for," Rayne said resentfully. "You have thrown in your lot with us, as I have told you before, and with your eyes wide open have become one of my trusted assistants. As such you will receive my instructions and act upon them without question. That is your position. And now," he added, turning to Duperré, "please explain."
The brown-uniformed conductor was asleep no doubt he had taken a drink with Duperré. Besides, the corridor at each end of the sleeping-saloon was closed and locked. At last, at five minutes to three, I very cautiously opened my door and stepped into the empty corridor. The train was again in a tunnel, the noise deafening and the atmosphere stifling.
An hour after I had read the report in the paper, Duperré rang me up. "I'm going to Overstow by the nine-thirty from King's Cross to-night," he said. "If you can join me, do. The air is better in Yorkshire than in London, don't you think so, old chap?" "Right-oh!" I replied. "I'll travel up with you." We met, and early next morning we were back at Overstow.
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