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Updated: June 4, 2025
I doubt whether she would have come to Paris with that express purpose, or whether the police would have listened to her if she had. "But who assisted her? Some one from whom she has no secrets. Were it not that such a woman is likely to have set up the closest relations with other miscreants in these past years, I should say that her agent and accomplice was Ledantec.
From what remote superannuated, abolished period did they all spring? One did not venture to guess, and by a perfectly natural association of ideas, one seemed to infer that the unfortunate creature herself, was as old as her clothes were. Now, by one, I mean by Ledantec and myself, that is to say, by two men who were abominably drunk and who were arguing with the special logic of intoxication.
Ledantec would not confess to this, but the judge felt certain that he had come upon the track of another dreadful crime. "There is enough against you," he went on slowly, "to convict you a dozen times over, enough to send you to the guillotine. Your only hope will be to make a clean breast of everything. By helping us to convict your accomplice you may save your forfeited life."
It is a base, discreditable plot against a weak, helpless, defenceless woman," said Mrs. Wilders with effrontery; but despair was in her heart. How Ledantec has deceived her! "Is that all you have to say to me?" she went on at length after another pause.
He had spent a miserable night, he was stiff and sore from his strange position, and they had given him little or no food. But his manner was defiant, and his air exulting, as he saw Ledantec and Cyprienne approach. "Have you come to release me? It's about time. You will gain nothing by keeping me here." "Dog! I hate you!" cried Mrs. Wilders, as she struck him a cruel, cowardly blow on the face.
You have no right to the name of Hobson. You are not an Englishman. You may reside in London, but it is only temporarily." "Who am I then?" asked Ledantec with a sneer. "In Paris, at your last visit, you passed as Hippolyte Ledantec, but your real name is Serge Michaelovitch Vasilenikoff. You are a Russian by birth, by profession a gambler, a blackleg, a cheat."
It was apparently satisfactory; for presently the inner door was unlocked, and the old woman returned, followed by a man whom we have seen before. It was Mr. Hobson in person; Ledantec really, as Hyde immediately saw, in spite of the smug, smooth exterior, the British-cut whiskers, and the unmistakable British garb. "Here is the patron," said the old woman; "tell him what you have to say."
With a bound I was up, like Ledantec. "What!" I said to him, while my teeth chattered: "Did you kill her?" "No, no," he replied. "But that makes no difference; let us be off."
He threw himself down, flat on his stomach, and actually pulled out one, two, three, four children, who had hidden under the bed. I do not exactly know whether they were boys or girls, but all, like the sleeping woman, had white hair, the hair of an octogenarian. Was I still drunk, like Ledantec, or was I mad? What was the meaning of this strange hallucination?
Ledantec is still alive; I know that, for I saw him myself on the field of the Alma, rifling the dead. "Ledantec! We have an old score to settle, he and I. What if he should be mixed up in this business that brings me to Paris? It is quite likely. That would explain his presence in the Crimea, which hitherto has seemed so strange.
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