s just the reason why she won't try again."

"Well, then..."

"No."

Lupin, after a moment, went on:

"I expected that. Also, I thought, on my way here, that you would hardly
tumble to the story of Dr. Vernes and that I should have to use other
methods."

"Lupin's methods."

"As you say. I had made up my mind to throw off the mask. You pulled it
off for me. Well done you! But that doesn't change my plans."

"Speak."

Lupin took from a pocketbook a double sheet of foolscap paper, unfolded
it and handed it to Daubrecq, saying:

"Here is an exact, detailed inventory, with consecutive numbers, of the
things removed by my friends and myself from your Villa Marie-Therese on
the Lac d'Enghien. As you see, there are one hundred and thirteen items.
Of those one hundred and thirteen items, sixty-eight, which have a red
cross against them, have been sold and sent to America. The remainder,
numbering forty-five, are in my possession... until further orders. They
happen to be the pick of the bunch. I offer you them in return for the
immediate surrender of the child."

Daubrecq could not suppress a movement of surprise:

"Oho!" he said. "You seem very much bent upon it."

"Infinitely," said Lupin, "for I am persuaded that a longer separation
from her son will mean death to Mme. Mergy."

"And that upsets you, does it... Lothario?"

"What!"

Lupin planted himself in front of the other and repeated:

"What! What do you mean?"

"Nothing... Nothing... Something that crossed my mind... Clarisse Mergy
is a young woman still and a pretty woman at that."

Lupin shrugged his shoulders:

"You brute!" he mumbled. "You imagine that everybody is like yourself,
heartless and pitiless. It takes your breath away, what, to think that a
shark like me can waste his time playing the Don Quixote? And you wonder
what dirty motive I can have? Don't try to find out: it's beyond your
powers of perception. Answer me, instead: do you accept?"

"So you're serious?" asked Daubrecq, who seemed but little disturbed by
Lupin's contemptuous tone.

"Absolutely. The forty-five pieces are in a shed, of which I will give
you the address, and they will be handed over to you, if you call there,
at nine o'clock this evening, with the child."

There was no doubt about Daubrecq's reply. To him, the kidnapping of
little Jacques had represented only a means of working upon Clarisse
Mergy's feelings and perhaps also a warning for her to cease the con