"There is always the commutation of sentence," he suggested.

"The commutation? Do you imagine that they will commute the sentence of
Arsene Lupin's accomplices?"

She ejaculated the words with a violence and a bitterness which he
pretended not to notice; and he said:

"Vaucheray perhaps not... But they will take pity on Gilbert, on his
youth..."

"They will do nothing of the sort."

"How do you know?"

"I have seen his counsel."

"You have seen his counsel! And you told him..."

"I told him that I was Gilbert's mother and I asked him whether, by
proclaiming my son's identity, we could not influence the result... or
at least delay it."

"You would do that?" he whispered. "You would admit..."

"Gilbert's life comes before everything. What do I care about my name!
What do I care about my husband's name!"

"And your little Jacques?" he objected. "Have you the right to ruin
Jacques, to make him the brother of a man condemned to death?"

She hung her head. And he resumed:

"What did the counsel say?"

"He said that an act of that sort would not help Gilbert in the remotest
degree. And, in spite of all his protests, I could see that, as far
as he was concerned, he had no illusions left and that the pardoning
commission are bound to find in favour of the execution."

"The commission, I grant you; but what of the president of the
Republic?"

"The president always goes by the advice of the commission."

"He will not do so this time."

"And why not?"

"Because we shall bring influence to bear upon him."

"How?"

"By the conditional surrender of the list of the Twenty-seven!"

"Have you it?"

"No, but I shall have it."

His certainty had not wavered. He made the statement with equal calmness
and faith in the infinite power of his will.

She had lost some part of her confidence in him and she shrugged her
shoulders lightly:

"If d'Albufex has not purloined the list, one man alone can exercise any
influence; one man alone: Daubrecq."

She spoke these words in a low and absent voice that made him shudder.
Was she still thinking, as he had often seemed to feel, of going back to
Daubrecq and paying him for Gilbert's life?

"You have sworn an oath to me," he said. "I'm reminding you of it. It
was agreed that the struggle with Daubrecq should be directed by me and
that there would never be a possibility of any arrangement between you
and him."

She retorted:

"I don't even know where he is. If