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Updated: June 15, 2025
Fandor made as if to rise to emphasise his statement; but Corporal Vinson, far from imitating the movement, sank deeper and deeper in the large arm-chair, into which he had literally fallen a few minutes before, and with an accent of profound anguish, for he understood Fandor's desire to shorten the conversation, he cried with a groan: "Ah, Monsieur, do not send me away!
The talk began with an abrupt question from de Loubersac: "And the V. affair?" "The V. affair?... Peuh!" "What the deuce does he refer to?" Juve was asking himself. Unsuspecting, de Loubersac came to his aid. "Our corporal must have returned to Verdun to-day?" "Ah!" thought Juve, "our corporal is Vinson!"
Before saying that you recognise a person you must begin by looking at that person! Look at the corporal!" The two soldiers obeyed: they turned with precision and stared at Fandor. "Is that man Corporal Vinson?" "Yes, Commandant." "You are sure of that?" "No, Commandant."
He had foreseen that he was going to learn what the connecting link was, which united the adventures of Corporal Vinson with the drama of the Place de l'Étoile, but his expectations were not fulfilled.... True enough, Vinson, through the mysterious intervention of his redoubtful friends, was to enter into relations with Captain Brocq, to whom he had been recommended, how or in what terms he did not know.
After a hand-to-mouth existence, but still a free one, in England, he had allowed himself to be nabbed by the police, like the veriest simpleton! The papers would be full of it! Vinson, who had been led into criminal ways by his love for a bad woman, troubled himself much less regarding the punishment to be meted out to him than about the dreadful distress his arrest would cause his mother.
The telegram Juve had received at Dieppe must have been false!... Vinson and Bobinette, discovering that they were under observation, had found means to send Juve a telegram announcing that Vinson had been met in London: having thus drawn Juve over to England they had returned to Paris.... The traitors must have separated: this would lessen their chances of being recognised.... They must have arrested Vinson as he was leaving the train.... Bobinette, become unrecognisable when her cassock was hidden, must have escaped!"
Fandor could personate Vinson with every chance of success, because the 257th of the line had never set eyes on the corporal. After a week of perplexity, Fandor had come to a decision the previous night. Wishing to let his "dear master" know of his audacious project, he had telephoned to Juve on the Sunday evening to ask him to come to the flat. Then Vagualame had appeared on the scene.
Of course I shall miss my rendezvous; but they will not be put off so easily. They will write at once, making a new appointment. Then I shall go as Corporal Vinson, if I think it the wisest thing to do." Fandor ran down the rickety stairs. He learned from Octave, the hotel porter, that his room had been paid for three days in advance.
The big bushranger had, however, already got to a considerable distance, and although both fired, he continued his course, apparently uninjured. While they were reloading, the fourth man, whom I took to be Vinson, had disappeared. We all three immediately rushed out to stop the horses, and succeeded in catching our own and two others.
At Verdun, along the entire frontier, there were nests of these noxious vermin. Fandor was, of course, still stationed at Verdun. He had arrived early at the ball, hoping to pick up information from some friend as to how the Second Bureau was taking the disappearance of Corporal Vinson. Did the Second Bureau suspect anything?... What?... Had Nichoune's murder been explained?
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