The Crystal Stopper Part 46

"The newspapers..."

"You haven't read the newspapers and you are not to read them. Nothing that they can say matters in the least. One thing alone matters: our interview with Prasville. Besides..."

He took a little bottle from a cupboard and, putting his hand on Clarisse's shoulder, said:

"Lie down here, on the sofa, and take a few drops of this mixture."

"What's it for?"

"It will make you sleep for a few hours... and forget. That's always so much gained."

"No, no," protested Clarisse, "I don't want to. Gilbert is not asleep.

He is not forgetting."

"Drink it," said Lupin, with gentle insistence. She yielded all of a sudden, from cowardice, from excessive suffering, and did as she was told and lay on the sofa and closed her eyes. In a few minutes she was asleep.

Lupin rang for his servant:

"The newspapers... quick!... Have you bought them?"

"Here they are, governor."

Lupin opened one of them and at once read the following lines:

"a.r.s.eNE LUPIN'S ACCOMPLICES"

"We know from a positive source that a.r.s.ene Lupin's accomplices, Gilbert and Vaucheray, will be executed to-morrow, Tuesday, morning. M. Deibler has inspected the scaffold. Everything is ready."

He raised his head with a defiant look.

"a.r.s.ene Lupin's accomplices! The execution of a.r.s.ene Lupin's accomplices! What a fine spectacle! And what a crowd there will be to witness it! Sorry, gentlemen, but the curtain will not rise. Theatre closed by order of the authorities. And the authorities are myself!"

He struck his chest violently, with an arrogant gesture:

"The authorities are myself!"

At twelve o'clock Lupin received a telegram which the Masher had sent from Lyons:

"All well. Goods will arrive without damage."

At three o'clock Clarisse woke. Her first words were:

"Is it to be to-morrow?"

He did not answer. But she saw him look so calm and smiling that she felt herself permeated with an immense sense of peace and received the impression that everything was finished, disentangled, settled according to her companion's will.

They left the house at ten minutes past four. Prasville's secretary, who had received his chief's instructions by telephone, showed them into the office and asked them to wait. It was a quarter to five.

Prasville came running in at five o'clock exactly and, at once, cried:

"Have you the list?"

"Yes."

"Give it me."

He put out his hand. Clarisse, who had risen from her chair, did not stir.

Prasville looked at her for a moment, hesitated and sat down. He understood. In pursuing Daubrecq, Clarisse Mergy had not acted only from hatred and the desire for revenge. Another motive prompted her. The paper would not be handed over except upon conditions.

"Sit down, please," he said, thus showing that he accepted the discussion.

Clarisse resumed her seat and, when she remained silent, Prasville said:

"Speak, my friend, and speak quite frankly. I do not scruple to say that we wish to have that paper."

"If it is only a wish," remarked Clarisse, whom Lupin had coached in her part down to the least detail, "if it is only a wish, I fear that we shall not be able to come to an arrangement."

Prasville smiled:

"The wish, obviously, would lead us to make certain sacrifices."

"Every sacrifice," said Mme. Mergy, correcting him.

"Every sacrifice, provided, of course, that we keep within the bounds of acceptable requirements."

"And even if we go beyond those bounds," said Clarisse, inflexibly.

Prasville began to lose patience:

"Come, what is it all about? Explain yourself."

"Forgive me, my friend, but I wanted above all to mark the great importance which you attach to that paper and, in view of the immediate transaction which we are about to conclude, to specify--what shall I say?--the value of my share in it. That value, which has no limits, must, I repeat, be exchanged for an unlimited value."

"Agreed," said Prasville, querulously.

"I presume, therefore, that it is unnecessary for me to trace the whole story of the business or to enumerate, on the one hand, the disasters which the possession of that paper would have allowed you to avert and, on the other hand, the incalculable advantages which you will be able to derive from its possession?"

Prasville had to make an effort to contain himself and to answer in a tone that was civil, or nearly so:

"I admit everything. Is that enough?"

"I beg your pardon, but we cannot explain ourselves too plainly. And there is one point that remains to be cleared up. Are you in a position to treat, personally?"

"How do you mean?"

"I want to know not, of course, if you are empowered to settle this business here and now, but if, in dealing with me, you represent the views of those who know the business and who are qualified to settle it."