orked out during this scene.

The plan was simple enough: to scramble, by means of his rope, to the
bottom of the cliff, take his friends with him, jump into the motor-car
and attack d'Albufex and Sebastiani on the deserted road that leads to
Aumale Station. There could be no doubt about the issue of the contest.
With d'Albufex and Sebastiani prisoners; it would be an easy matter to
make one of them speak. D'Albufex had shown him how to set about it; and
Clarisse Mergy would be inflexible where it was a question of saving her
son.

He took the rope with which he had provided himself and groped about to
find a jagged piece of rock round which to pass it, so as to leave two
equal lengths hanging, by which he could let himself down. But, when he
found what he wanted, instead of acting swiftly--for the business was
urgent--he stood motionless, thinking. His scheme failed to satisfy him
at the last moment.

"It's absurd, what I'm proposing," he said to himself. "Absurd and
illogical. How can I tell that d'Albufex and Sebastiani will not escape
me? How can I even tell that, once they are in my power, they will
speak? No, I shall stay. There are better things to try... much better
things. It's not those two I must be at, but Daubrecq. He's done for; he
has not a kick left in him. If he has told the marquis his secret, there
is no reason why he shouldn't tell it to Clarisse and me, when we employ
the same methods. That's settled! We'll kidnap the Daubrecq bird."
And he continued, "Besides, what do I risk? If the scheme miscarries,
Clarisse and I will rush off to Paris and, together with Prasville,
organize a careful watch in the Square Lamartine to prevent d'Albufex
from benefiting by Daubrecq's revelations. The great thing is for
Prasville to be warned of the danger. He shall be."

The church-clock in a neighbouring village struck twelve. That gave
Lupin six or seven hours to put his new plan into execution. He set to
work forthwith.

When moving away from the embrasure which had the window at the bottom
of it, he had come upon a clump of small shrubs in one of the hollows
of the cliff. He cut away a dozen of these, with his knife, and whittled
them all down to the same size. Then he cut off two equal lengths from
his rope. These were the uprights of the ladder. He fastened the twelve
little sticks between the uprights and thus contrived a rope-ladder
about six yards long.

When he returned to this post, there was only