The Misadventure of Shelrock Holmes (8 page)

"It all depends upon whether he recognized me. If so, does he intend to take his advantage? . . ."

When the last horseman had passed, Holmlock Shears drew himself up and, without saying a word, brushed the dust from his clothes. The strap of his bag had caught in a branch of thorns. Arsene Lupin hastened to release him. They looked at each other for another second. And if anyone could have surprised them at that moment he would have beheld a stimulating sight in the first meeting of these two men, both so out of the common, so powerfully armed, both really superior characters, and inevitably destined by their special aptitudes to come into collision, like two equal forces which the order of things drives one against the other in space. Then the Englishman said: "I am much obliged to you." "At your service," replied Lupin. They went their respective ways — Lupin to the station, Holmlock

Shears to the castle.

The examining magistrate and the public prosecutor had left, after a long but fruitless investigation, and the others were awaiting Holmlock Shears with an amount of curiosity fully justified by his reputation. They were a little disappointed by his very ordinary appearance, which was so different from the pictures which they had

formed of him. There was nothing of the novel hero about him, nothing of the enigmatic and diabolical personality which the idea of Holmlock Shears evokes in us. However, Devanne exclaimed, with exuberant delight:

"So you have come at last! This is indeed a joy! I have so long been hoping ... I am almost glad of what has happened, since it gives me the pleasure of seeing you. But, by the way, how did you come?"

"By train."

"What a pity! I sent my motor to the landing stage to meet you

"An official arrival, I suppose," growled the Englishman, "with a brass band marching ahead! An excellent way of helping me in my

business." .

This uninviting tone disconcerted Devanne, who, making an t

fort to jest, retorted: "The business, fortunately, is easier than I wrote to you."

"Why so?"

"Because the burglary took place last night."

"If you had not announced my visit beforehand, the burglary would probably have not taken place last night." "When would it?" "Tomorrow, or some other day." "And then?"

"Arsene Lupin would have been caught in a trap." "And my things . . ." "Would not have been carried off." "My things are here." "Here?" "They were brought back at three o'clock."

"By Lupin?"

"By a quartermaster sergeant, in two military wagons!' 1 Holmlock Shears violently thrust his cap down upon his head and adjusted his bag; but Devanne, in a fever of excitement, exclaimed: "What are you doing?" "I am going." "Why should you?" "Your things are here. Arsene Lupin is gone. There is nothing

left for me to do."

"Why, my dear sir, I simply can't get on without you. What happened last night may be repeated tomorrow, seeing that we know nothing of the most important part: how Arsene Lupin effected his entrance, how he left, and why, a few hours later, he proceeded to restore what he had stolen."

"Oh, I see; you don't know . . ." The idea of a secret to be discovered mollified Holmlock Shears. "Very well, let's look into it. But at once, please, and, as far as possible, alone."

The phrase clearly referred to the bystanders. Devanne took the hint, and showed the Englishman into the guardroom. Shears put a number of questions to him touching the previous evening, the guests who were present, and the inmates and frequenters of the castle. He next examined the two volumes of the Chronicle, compared the plans of the underground passage, made Devanne repeat the two sentences noted by the Abbe Gelis, and asked:

"You're sure it was yesterday that you first spoke of those two quotations?"

"Yesterday."

"You had never mentioned them to Monsieur Horace Velmont?"

"Never."

"Very well. You might order your car. I shall leave in an hour."

"In an hour?"

"Arsene Lupin took no longer to solve the problem which you put to him."

"I! . . . Which I put.to him?"

"Why, yes, Arsene Lupin or Velmont, it's all the same."

"I thought as much. . . . Oh, the rascal! . . ."

"Well, at ten o'clock last night you supplied Lupin with the facts which he lacked, and which he had been seeking for weeks. And during the course of the night Lupin found time to grasp these facts, to collect his gang, and to rob you of your property. I propose to be no less expeditious."

He walked from one end of the room to the other, thinking as he went, then sat down, crossed his long legs, and closed his eyes.

Devanne waited in some perplexity.

"Is he asleep? Is he thinking?"

In any case, he went out to give his instructions. When he returned

he found the Englishman on his knees at the foot of the staircase in the gallery, exploring the carpet. "What is it?"

"Look at these candle stains." "I see ... they are quite fresh . . ."

"And you will find others at the top of the stairs, and more still around this glass case which Arsene Lupin broke open, and from which he removed the curiosities and placed them on this chair." "And what do you conclude?"

"Nothing. All these facts would no doubt explain the restitution which he effected. But that is a side of the question which I have no time to go into. The essential thing is the map of the underground passage."

"You still hope . . ."

"I don't hope; I know. There's a chapel at two or three hundred yards from the castle, is there not?" "Yes, a ruined chapel, with the tomb of Duke Rollo." "Tell your chauffeur to wait near the chapel." "My chauffeur is not back yet. . . . They are to let me know. . . . So, I see, you consider that the underground passage ends at the chapel. What indication — "

Holmlock Shears interrupted him: "May I ask you to get me a ladder and a lantern?" "Oh, do you want a ladder and a lantern?" "I suppose so, or I wouldn't ask you for them." Devanne, a little taken aback by this cold logic, rang the bell. The ladder and the lantern were brought.

Orders succeeded one another with the strictness and precision of military commands: "Put the ladder against the bookcase, to the left of the word

THIBERMESNIL . . ."

Devanne did as he was asked, and the Englishman continued:

"More to the left ... to the right. . . . Stop! ... Go up. ... Good. . . . The letters are all in relief, are they not?"

"Yes."

"Catch hold of the letter H, and tell me whether it turns in either

direction."

Devanne grasped the letter H, and exclaimed:

"Yes, it turns! A quarter of a circle to the right! How did you discover that ? . . ."

Shears, without replying, continued:

"Can you reach the letter R from where you stand ? Yes. . . . Move it about, as you would a bolt which you were pushing or drawing."

Devanne moved the letter R. To his great astonishment, something became unlatched inside.

"Just so," said Holmlock Shears. "All that you now have to do is to push your ladder to the other end; that is to say, to the end of the word THIBERMESNIL. . . . Good. . . . Now, if I am not mistaken, if things go as they should, the letter L will open like a shutter."

With a certain solemnity, Devanne took hold of the letter L. The letter L opened, but Devanne tumbled off his ladder, for the whole section of the bookcase between the first and last letters of the word swung round upon a pivot and disclosed the opening of the tunnel.

Holmlock Shears asked, phlegmatically:

"Have you hurt yourself?"

"No, no," said Devanne, scrambling to his feet. "I'm not hurt, but flurried, I admit. . . . Those moving letters. . . . that yawning tunnel . . ."

"And what then ? Doesn't it all fit in exactly with the Sully quotation?"

"How do you mean?"

"Why, I'H tournoie, I'R jremit, et I'L s'ouvre . . ." l

"But what about Louis XVI?"

"Louis XVI was a really capable locksmith. I remember reading a Treatise on Combination-loc\s which was ascribed to him. On the part of a Thibermesnil, it would be an act of good courtiership to show his sovereign this masterpiece of mechanics. By the way of a memorandum, the king wrote down 2-6-12 — that is to say, the second, sixth, and twelfth letters of die word: H, R, L."

"Oh, of course. ... I am beginning to understand. . . . Only, look here ... I can see how you get out of this room, but I can't see how Lupin got in; for, remember, he came from the outside."

1 It can hardly be necessary to explain to modern English readers that, in French, the letter H is pronounced hache, an ax; R, air, the air; and L, aile, a wing.— TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

Holmlock Shears lit the lantern, and entered the underground passage.

"Look, you can see the whole mechanism here, like the works of a watch, and all the letters are reversed. Lupin, therefore, had only to move them from this side of the wall."

"What proof have you?"

"What proof? Look at this splash of oil. He even foresaw that the wheels would need greasing," said Shears, not without admiration.

"Then he knew the other outlet?"

"Just as I know it. Follow me."

"Into the underground passage?"

"Are you afraid?"

"No; but are you sure you can find your way?"

"I'll find it with my eyes shut."

They first went down twelve steps, then twelve more, and again twice twelve more. Then they passed through a long tunnel whose brick walls showed traces of successive restorations, and oozed, in places, with moisture. The ground underfoot was damp.

"We are passing under the pond," said Devanne, who felt far from comfortable.

The tunnel ended in a flight of twelve steps, followed by three other flights of twelve steps each, which they climbed with difficulty, and they emerged in a small hollow hewn out of the solid rock. The way did not go any farther.

"Hang it all!" muttered Holmlock Shears. "Nothing but bare walls. This is troublesome."

"Suppose we go back," suggested Devanne, "for I don't see the use of learning any more. I have seen all I want to."

But on raising his eyes the Englishman gave a sigh of relief: above their heads the same mechanism was repeated as at the entrance. He had only to work the three letters. A block of granite turned on a pivot. On the other side it formed Duke Hollo's tombstone, carved with the twelve letters in relief, THIBERMESNIL. And they found themselves in the little ruined chapel of which Holmlock Shears had spoken.

" 'And you go to God' . . . that is to say, to the chapel," said Shears, quoting the end of the sentence.

"Is it possible — " cried Devanne, amazed at the other's perspicacity

and keenness — "is it possible that this simple clue told you all that you wanted to know?"

"Tush!" said the Englishman. "It was even superfluous. In the copy belonging to the Bibliotheque Nationale the drawing of the tunnel ends on the left, as you know, in a circle, and on the right, as you do not know, in a little cross, which is so faintly marked that it can only be seen through a magnifying glass. This cross obviously points to the chapel."

Poor Devanne could not believe his ears.

"It's wonderful, marvelous, and just as simple as A B C! How is it that the mystery was never seen through?"

"Because nobody ever united the three or four necessary elements; that is to say, the two books and the quotations . . . nobody, except Arsene Lupin and myself."

"But I also," said Devanne, "and the Abbe Gelis ... we both of us knew as much about it as you, and yet . . ."

Shears smiled.

"Monsieur Devanne, it is not given to all the world to succeed in solving riddles."

"But I have been hunting for ten years. And you, in ten minutes . . ."

"Pooh! It's a matter of habit."

They walked out of the chapel, and the Englishman exclaimed:

"Hullo, a motorcar waiting!"

"Why, it's mine!"

"Yours? But I thought the chauffeur hadn't returned?"

"No more he had ... I can't make out . . ."

They went up to the car, and Devanne said to the chauffeur:

"Victor, who told you to come here?"

"Monsieur Velmont, sir," replied the man.

"Monsieur Velmont? Did you meet him?"

"Yes, sir, near the station, and he told me to go to the chapel."

"To go to the chapel! What for?"

"To wait for you, sir ... and your friend."

Devanne and Holmlock Shears exchanged glances. Devanne said:

"He saw that the riddle would be child's play to you. He has paid you a delicate compliment."

A smile of satisfaction passed over the detective's thin lips. The compliment pleased him. He jerked his head and said:

"He's a man, that! I took his measure the moment I saw him."

"So you've seen him?"

"We crossed on my way here."

"And you knew that he was Horace Velmont — I mean to say, Arsene Lupin?"

"No, but it did not take me long to guess as much . . . from a certain irony in his talk."

"And you let him escape?"

"I did . . . although I had only to put out my hand . . . five gendarmes rode past us."

"But, bless my soul, you'll never get an opportunity like that again . . ."

"Just so, Monsieur Devanne," said the Englishman, proudly. "When Holmlock Shears has to do with an adversary like Arsene Lupin, he does not take opportunities ... he creates them . . ."

But time was pressing, and as Lupin had been so obliging as to send the motor, Devanne and Shears settled themselves in their seats. Victor started the engine, and they drove off. Fields, clumps of trees sped past. The gentle undulations of the Caux country leveled out before them. Suddenly Devanne's eyes were attracted to a little parcel in one of the carriage pockets.

"Hullo! What's this? A parcel! Whom for? Why, it's for you!"

"For me?"

"Read for yourself: Holmloc\ Shears, Esq., from Arsene Lupin!"

The Englishman took the parcel, untied the string, and removed the two sheets of paper in which it was wrapped. It was a watch.