“We are quits, sir,” he said simply.

  The Englishman seemed to be delighted with this admission. They were silent. Then Lupin continued, already in control of himself again and smiling:

  “And I’m not angry about it! It would be tedious to win every time. I only had to stretch out my arm to hit you full in the chest. So now, it’s my turn. Touché, Maestro!”

  And he laughed heartily.

  “At least this is going to be amusing! Lupin is caught in a mouse trap. How’s he going to get out of it? In a mouse trap!… What an adventure!… Oh, Maestro, you’ve given me a terrible fright. But that’s life!”

  He pressed his temples with two closed fists, as though trying to compress the muddled joy bubbling up inside him, and he was making gestures like a child who is playing with something which is definitely beyond its capabilities.

  Finally he went up to the Englishman.

  “And now, what are you waiting for?”

  “What I’m waiting for?”

  “Yes, Ganimard is there, with his men. Why doesn’t he come in?”

  “I asked him not to.”

  “And he agreed?”

  “I asked for his services only on the formal condition that he would allow himself to be led by me. What is more, he believes that Monsieur Félix Davey is only an accomplice of Lupin!”

  “Then I’ll repeat my question in another form. Why did you come in alone?”

  “I wanted to talk to you first.”

  “Ah! Ah! You want to talk to me about something.”

  This idea seemed to give special pleasure to Lupin. There are certain circumstances in which one prefers by far words to actions.

  “Mr Sholmes, I am sorry that I don’t have any chair to offer you. Will this old, half-broken crate be acceptable to you? Or perhaps this window ledge? I’m sure that a glass of beer would be welcome… Dark or light?… But do sit down, please…”

  “There’s no point. Let’s talk.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “I will be brief. The purpose of my visit to Paris is not to arrest you. If I was drawn into pursuing you, it is because no other means presented itself of attaining my real goal.”

  “Which was?”

  “To recover the blue diamond!”

  “The blue diamond!”

  “That’s right, because the one found in Consul Bleichen’s small bottle was not the real one.”

  “Indeed. The real one was dispatched by the Blonde Woman. I had it copied exactly, and so, as I had some plans concerning other jewels belonging to the countess, and Consul Bleichen was already a suspect, the aforementioned Blonde Woman, so as not to come under suspicion herself, slipped the false diamond into the luggage of the aforesaid consul.”

  “While you kept the real one.”

  “Of course.”

  “And that’s the diamond I’m after.”

  “That’s impossible. I’m awfully sorry.”

  “I promised it to the Countess de Crozon. And I shall get it.”

  “How will you be able to, since it’s in my possession?”

  “I shall get it precisely because it is in your possession.”

  “I’ll just give it to you then?”

  “Yes.”

  “Willingly?”

  “I shall buy it off you.”

  Lupin had a fit of mirth.

  “You are really typical of your country. You treat it as business deal.”

  “It is a business deal.”

  “And what are you offering me?”

  “Mlle Destange’s freedom.”

  “Her freedom? But I am not aware that she has been arrested.”

  “I shall provide Monsieur Ganimard with the necessary information. Deprived of your protection, she will also be caught.”

  Lupin guffawed again.

  “My dear sir, you offer me that which you do not possess. Mademoiselle Destange is in a safe place and has nothing to fear. I must ask for something else.”

  The Englishman hesitated, visibly embarrassed, and a little red around the cheeks. Then, quickly, he put his hand on his opponent’s shoulder.

  “And if I offered…”

  “My freedom?”

  “No… but I could just go out of this room, and consult with Monsieur Ganimard.”

  “And leave me to think things over?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh God, and how would that help me? This damned mechanism doesn’t work any more,” said Lupin, pushing irritably the moulding of the fireplace.

  He stifled a cry of amazement: this time, as chance would have it, by an unhoped-for twist of fate, the block of marble had moved at the touch of his fingers.

  It meant salvation, and possible escape. In this case, why should he submit to Sholmes’s conditions?

  He walked to and fro, as if mulling over his response. Now it was his turn to put his hand on the Englishman’s shoulder.

  “All things considered, Mr Sholmes, I prefer to deal with my little business affairs alone.”

  “Yet—”

  “No, I don’t need anyone else.”

  “When Ganimard catches you, it’ll all be over. They won’t let you go.”

  “Who knows!”

  “Look, it’s madness. All the exits are covered.”

  “There’s one other.”

  “Which?”

  “The one that I shall choose.”

  “Mere words! Your arrest is as good as done.”

  “It isn’t.”

  “And so?”

  “So I’ll keep the blue diamond.”

  Sholmes pulled out his watch.

  “It’s ten to three. At three o’clock I’ll call Ganimard.”

  “So we have ten minutes ahead of us to have a chat. Let’s take advantage of it, Mr Sholmes, and to satisfy the curiosity which consumes me, tell me how you acquired my address and my name Félix Davey.”

  While observing Lupin attentively, whose good mood worried him, Sholmes willingly took part in such a little explanation which contributed something to his self-esteem, and he continued:

  “Your address? I got it from the Blonde Woman.”

  “Clotilde!”

  “The very person. Do you recall… yesterday morning… when I wanted to take her away in a car, and she telephoned her dressmaker?”

  “Indeed.”

  “Well, I understood later that the dressmaker was you. And on the boat, that night, by an effort of memory, which is perhaps one of the things which I can permit myself to be vain about, I managed to reconstruct the two last numbers of your telephone number… 73. So that, as I was in possession of the list of houses ‘modified’ by you, it was easy, after my arrival in Paris this morning, at eleven o’clock, to look for and find the name and address of Monsieur Félix Davey in the telephone directory. Once I knew this name and this address, I sought the help of Monsieur Ganimard.”

  “Admirable! First rate! I can only bow in respect to you. But what I don’t grasp is how you took the train from Le Havre. How did you manage to escape from the Hirondelle?”

  “I didn’t escape.”

  “But…”

  “You ordered the captain not to arrive at Southampton until one o’clock in the morning. They put me ashore at midnight. So that I was able to catch the ship to Le Havre.”

  “So the captain betrayed me? That’s intolerable.”

  “He didn’t betray you.”

  “Then what?”

  “It was his watch.”

  “His watch?”

  “Yes, his watch, which was going fast by one hour.”

  “How?”

  “The way you make a watch go forward, by turning the winder. We were chatting, sitting next to each other, and I was telling some stories which he found interesting… God, he didn’t notice a thing.”

  “Well done, well done, that’s a good trick! I’ll remember it. But what about the clock which was hanging on the bulkhead of the cabin?”

  “Oh, the clock! That was more difficult, because my legs were tied, but the sailor who was guarding me when the captain wasn’t there gave a shove to the hands.”

  “He did? Come on… He just agreed to do it?”

  “Oh, he didn’t understand the importance of his action! I told him that at all costs I had to get the first train to London, and… he let himself be persuaded.”

  “In return for what?”

  “In return for a little gift… which, moreover, the excellent fellow intends to loyally pass on to you.”

  “Which gift?”

  “Nothing special.”

  “But what then?”

  “The blue diamond.”

  “The blue diamond!”

  “Yes, the false one, the one you substituted for the countess’s diamond, and which she entrusted to me.”

  There was a sudden outburst of laughter, like a storm bursting. Lupin went into raptures, his eyes moist with tears.

  “God, that’s funny! My false diamond handed over to the sailor! And the captain’s watch! And the hands on the clock!…”

  Never before had Sholmes felt the conflict between them to be so intense. With his remarkable instinct, he could guess that beneath this excessive cheerfulness, there was tremendous concentration of thought, as though gathering together all his faculties.

  Gradually Lupin had moved towards him. The Englishman moved back and, absent-mindedly, slipped his fingers into his fob-watch pocket.

  “It’s three o’clock, Monsieur Lupin.”

  “Three o’clock already? What a pity!… We were enjoying ourselves so much!”

  “I’m waiting for your reply.”

  “My reply? God, how demanding you are! Very well then, the little game we’re playing is over. And what’s at stake is my freedom.”

  “Or the blue diamond.”

  “Right… You play first. What are you putting down?”

  “I’ll show the king,” said Sholmes, firing a shot with his revolver.

  “And I score one point,” retorted Arsène, shooting his fist out at the Englishman.

  Sholmes had shot into the air, to give a signal to Ganimard, whose intervention he now felt to be urgently needed. But Arsène’s fist had struck him right in the stomach, and Sholmes went pale and staggered. With one bound Lupin reached the fireplace, and the marble plate was already moving… but it was too late! The door opened.

  Ganimard, who was no doubt stationed nearer than Lupin thought, was there, with ten or twenty men jostling each other, sturdy strapping men without scruples, who would have struck him down as if he were a dog at the least sign of resistance.

  He made a gesture, very calmly.

  “Lower your hands! I give up.”

  And he crossed his hands over his chest.

  They were all dumbfounded. In the room stripped of its furniture and its draperies, Arsène Lupin’s words resounded like an echo: “I give up”. Unbelievable words! They expected that he would suddenly vanish through a trap door, or that a panel in the wall would collapse before him and that once more he would hide himself away from his attackers. But he gave himself up!

  Ganimard moved forward and, very touched, and with all the gravity that such an act entailed, he stretched out his hand towards his opponent, and he had the infinite pleasure of saying:

  “I arrest you, Lupin.”

  “Brr!” Lupin shuddered. “You impress me, Ganimard, old chap. What a mournful expression! One would think you were speaking over a friend’s grave. Don’t look so gloomy.”

  “I arrest you.”

  “And that amazes you? In the name of the law, of which he is the faithful executor, Ganimard, the chief inspector, arrests the nasty Lupin. A historic moment, the extreme importance of which you have grasped… and it is the second time that such an event has occurred. Well done, Ganimard, you will go far in your career!”

  And he presented his wrists to be handcuffed.

  It was an event which was conducted in a rather solemn manner. The officers, in spite of their usual brusqueness and the fierceness of their resentment against Lupin, acted in a reserved manner, surprised at being allowed to touch this inviolable being.

  “My poor Lupin,” he sighed, “what would your friends in the elegant suburbs say if they saw you humiliated in this way?”

  He parted his wrists with a continuous and increasing effort of all his muscles. The veins on his forehead swelled up. The links in the chain penetrated into his skin.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  The chain came off: it was broken.

  “Another one please, my friend. This one’s no good.”

  He was given two pairs. He approved of them.

  “Well done! You cannot be too careful.”

  Then, counting the officers, he said:

  “How many of you are there, my friends? Twenty-five? Thirty? That’s a lot… Well, nothing we can do about it. Oh, if there had only been fifteen of you!”

  He really has style, the style of the great actor who plays his role from instinct and with eloquence, with impertinence and lightness. Sholmes looked at him as one watches a good show, appreciating all the flourishes and nuances. And he really had the strange impression that the struggle was an equal one between these thirty men, on the one side, supported by the formidable apparatus of justice, and, on the other side, this single person, unarmed and in chains. The two sides were equal.

  “Well, Maestro,” Lupin said to him, “this is your work. Thanks to you, Lupin is going to rot on damp straw in a dungeon. Won’t you admit that your conscience is not completely clear, and that remorse is gnawing at you?”

  In spite of himself, the Englishman shrugged his shoulders, as if to say: “It’s up to you.”

  “Never! Never!” exclaimed Lupin. “Hand over the blue diamond? Oh no, it has cost me too much trouble already. I insist. At the time of the first visit I shall have the honour of making to you in London, probably next month, I shall tell you the reasons why… But will you be in London next month? Do you prefer Vienna? St Petersburg?”

  He started. Suddenly there was a sound coming from the ceiling. And it was not the alarm bell, but the ringing of the telephone, the leads of which ended up in his office, between the two windows, from where the receiver had not yet been removed.

  The telephone! Oh, who was going to fall into the trap provided by this horrible coincidence? Arsène Lupin reacted with rage against the instrument, as if he would have broken it, smashed it to bits, and by this means have smothered the mysterious voice which asked to speak to him. But Ganimard picked up the receiver and bent over it.

  “Hello… hello… this is 64873… yes, this is it.”

  Swiftly, and authoritatively, Sholmes pushed him aside, seized the two receivers and placed his handkerchief on the cap to make the sound of his voice more indistinct.

  At the same moment he raised his eyes to Lupin. And the look they exchanged revealed to them that the same thought had struck them both, and that both of them could foretell what would be the ultimate consequences of this possible, probable and indeed almost certain hypothesis: that it was the Blonde Woman who was calling. She thought she was calling Félix Davey, or rather Maxime Bermond, and it was Sholmes that she was going to confide in.

  The Englishman chanted:

  “Hello… Hello!…”

  There was a silence, and Sholmes said:

  “Yes, it’s me, Maxime.”

  Suddenly the drama was taking shape, with a tragic precision. Lupin, the indomitable and mocking Lupin, did not even think of hiding his anxiety and, his face pale with anguish, he forced himself to listen, and to guess what was being said. Sholmes continued, in reply to the mysterious voice:

  “Hello… Hello… Yes of course, everything is finished, and I’m getting ready at the moment to join you, as agreed… Where?… But at the place where you are. Don’t you think that it’s…”

  He hesitated, trying find the right words, and then he stopped. It was clear that he was trying to question the young woman without giving away too much himself, and that he had absolutely no idea where she was. What is more, Ganimard’s presence seemed to embarrass… Oh, if only some miracle had been able to cut the line of the devilish conversation! Lupin was appealing with all his strength and his nerves tense.

  And Sholmes said:

  “Hello! Hello!… Can’t you hear me?… No I can’t either… very bad… I can hardly make out… Are you listening?… Fine, all right… When I think about it… it would be better if you went back to your house… What danger? None… But he’s in England! I got a telegram from Southampton, confirming his arrival.”

  The irony of these words! Sholmes uttered them with an inexpressible sense of well-being. And he added:

  “And so, don’t waste time, my dear. I’ll join you soon.”

  He hung up the receiver.

  “Monsieur Ganimard, I want you to let me have three of your men.”

  “It’s for the Blonde Woman, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “You know who it is, and where she is?”

  “Yes.”

  “My God! What a great catch! With Lupin… What a great day! Folenfant, take two men and accompany this gentleman.”

  The Englishman went away, followed by the three officers.

  It was over. The Blonde Woman was also going to succumb to the power of Sholmes. Thanks to his admirable stubbornness, thanks to the coming-together of fortunate circumstances, the fight was ending in victory for him, and for Lupin in irreparable disaster.

  “Mr Sholmes!”

  The Englishman stopped.