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The news of the inquiry into the case of Gilbert and Vaucheray was becoming worse and worse, the days were slipping by, and not an hour passed without his asking himself, in anguish, whether all his efforts granting that he succeeded would not end in farcical results, absolutely foreign to the aim which he was pursuing.
He glanced through the paper, which was still clutched in Clarisse' hand, and read the following lines: "The strictest measures have been taken to keep order at the execution of Gilbert and Vaucheray, lest Arsene Lupin should make an attempt to rescue his accomplices from the last penalty. At twelve o'clock to-night a cordon of troops will be drawn across all the approaches to the Sante Prison.
Lupin moved to the curtain and was drawing the hanging aside when, suddenly, at four steps on the left, a door opened and a head appeared, a pallid man's head, with terrified eyes. "Help! Murder!" shouted the man. And he rushed back into the room. "It's Leonard, the valet!" cried Gilbert. "If he makes a fuss, I'll out him," growled Vaucheray.
For, after all, supposing that he did fathom Daubrecq's underhand dealings, would that give him the means of rescuing Gilbert and Vaucheray? That day an incident occurred which put an end to his indecision. After lunch Victoire heard snatches of a conversation which Daubrecq held with some one on the telephone.
"Quite impossible." "No matter, we must look sharp. Vaucheray, take the lamp and let's go upstairs." He took Gilbert by the arm and, as he dragged him to the first floor: "You ass," he said, "is that the way you make inquiries? Wasn't I right to have my doubts?" "Look here, governor, I couldn't know that he would change his mind and come back to dinner."
And this was happening four days, five days at most, before the inevitable execution of Gilbert and Vaucheray. It was a bad and painful night for Lupin. The more he studied the situation the more terrible it appeared to him. On every side he was faced with uncertainty, darkness, confusion, helplessness. True, he knew the secret of the crystal stopper.
Arsene Lupin left the summer-house where he was smoking a cigar and, bending forward at the end of the pier: "Growler?" he asked. "Masher?... Are you there?" A man rose from each of the boats, and one of them answered: "Yes, governor." "Get ready. I hear the car coming with Gilbert and Vaucheray."
"You'll jolly well do nothing of the sort, do you hear, Vaucheray?" said Lupin, peremptorily. And he darted off in pursuit of the servant. He first went through a dining-room, where he saw a lamp still lit, with plates and a bottle around it, and he found Leonard at the further end of a pantry, making vain efforts to open the window: "Don't move, sportie! No kid! Ah, the brute!"
Tried policemen, always the same men, watched Gilbert and Vaucheray, day and night, and never let them out of their sight. After a fortnight of fruitless endeavours, he was obliged to bow. * See 813, by Maurice Leblanc, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos. He did so with a raging heart and a growing sense of anxiety.
He knew those problems too well to hope that this one could be solved other than in the course of events. But, feeling very much put out and exceedingly uneasy, he then and there locked up his entresol flat in the Rue Matignon and swore that he would never set foot in it again. And he applied himself forthwith to the question of corresponding with Vaucheray or Gilbert.
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