fore that Daubrecq of misfortune and
maintain the most ridiculous attitude in silence. And he felt convinced
in his innermost being that, if he opened his mouth, it would be to spit
words of anger and insult in his victor's face. What was the good? Was
it not essential that he should keep cool and do the things which the
new situation called for?

"Well, M. Lupin, well?" resumed the deputy. "You look as if your nose
were out of joint. Come, console yourself and admit that one sometimes
comes across a joker who's not quite such a mug as his fellows. So you
thought that, because I wear spectacles and eye-glasses, I was blind?
Bless my soul, I don't say that I at once suspected Lupin behind
Polonius and Polonius behind the gentleman who came and bored me in the
box at the Vaudeville. No, no! But, all the same, it worried me. I could
see that, between the police and Mme. Mergy, there was a third bounder
trying to get a finger in the pie. And, gradually, what with the words
let fall by the portress, what with watching the movements of my
cook and making inquiries about her in the proper quarter, I began to
understand. Then, the other night, came the lightning-flash. I heard the
row in the house, in spite of my being asleep. I managed to reconstruct
the incident, to follow up Mme. Mergy's traces, first, to the Rue
Chateaubriand and, afterward, to Saint-Germain... And then... what
then? I put different facts together: the Enghien burglary... Gilbert's
arrest... the inevitable treaty of alliance between the weeping mother
and the leader of the gang... the old nurse installed as cook...
all these people entering my house through the doors or through the
windows... And I knew what I had to do. Master Lupin was sniffing at the
secret. The scent of the Twenty-seven attracted him. I had only to wait
for his visit. The hour has arrived. Good-evening, Master Lupin."

Daubrecq paused. He had delivered his speech with the evident
satisfaction of a man entitled to claim the appreciation of the most
captious critics.

As Lupin did not speak, he took out his watch: "I say! Only twenty-three
minutes! How time flies! At this rate, we sha'n't have time to come to
an explanation." And, stepping still closer to Lupin, "I'm bound to
say, I'm disappointed. I thought that Lupin was a different sort of
gentleman. So, the moment he meets a more or less serious adversary,
the colossus falls to pieces? Poor young man! Have a glass of water, to
brin