pin declared.

"Yes, Daubrecq," said Madame Mergy, whose excitement was momentarily
increasing. "Alexis Daubrecq, who, for six months, disguised beyond
recognition, had acted as Germineaux's secretary. It does not matter
how he discovered that Germineaux was the possessor of the paper in
question. The fact remains that he broke open the chest on the night
before the death. So much was proved at the inquiry; and Daubrecq's
identity was established."

"But he was not arrested?"

"What would have been the use? They knew well enough that he must have
deposited the list in a place of safety. His arrest would have involved
a scandal, the reopening of the whole case..."

"So..."

"So they made terms."

Lupin laughed:

"That's funny, making terms with Daubrecq!"

"Yes, very funny," said Madame Mergy, bitterly. "During this time he
acted and without delay, shamelessly, making straight for the goal. A
week after the theft, he went to the Chamber of Deputies, asked for my
husband and bluntly demanded thirty thousand francs of him, to be paid
within twenty-four hours. If not, he threatened him with exposure and
disgrace. My husband knew the man he was dealing with, knew him to be
implacable and filled with relentless hatred. He lost his head and shot
himself."

"How absurd!" Lupin could not help saying. "How absurd! Daubrecq
possesses a list of twenty-seven names. To give up any one of those
names he is obliged, if he would have his accusation believed, to
publish the list itself--that is to say, to part with the document, or
at least a photograph of it. Well, in so doing, he creates a scandal, it
is true, but he deprives himself, at the same time, of all further means
of levying blackmail."

"Yes and no," she said.

"How do you know?"

"Through Daubrecq himself. The villain came to see me and cynically
told me of his interview with my husband and the words that had passed
between them. Well, there is more than that list, more than that famous
bit of paper on which the secretary put down the names and the amounts
paid and to which, you will remember, the chairman of the company,
before dying, affixed his signature in letters of blood. There is more
than that. There are certain less positive proofs, which the people
interested do not know of: the correspondence between the chairman
and the secretary, between the chairman and his counsel, and so on. Of
course, the list scribbled on the bit of paper is the only eviden