No news of the Masher and the Growler?"

"No, governor, none."

"That's all right," he said to Clarisse, in a casual tone. "It's only
seven o'clock and we mustn't reckon on seeing them before eight or nine.
Prasville will have to wait, that's all. I will telephone to him to
wait."

He did so and was hanging up the receiver, when he heard a moan behind
him. Clarisse was standing by the table, reading an evening-paper. She
put her hand to her heart, staggered and fell.

"Achille, Achille!" cried Lupin, calling his man. "Help me put her on my
bed... And then go to the cupboard and get me the medicine-bottle marked
number four, the bottle with the sleeping-draught."

He forced open her teeth with the point of a knife and compelled her to
swallow half the bottle:

"Good," he said. "Now the poor thing won't wake till to-morrow...
after."

He glanced through the paper, which was still clutched in Clarisse'
hand, and read the following lines:

"The strictest measures have been taken to keep order at the
execution of Gilbert and Vaucheray, lest Arsene Lupin should make
an attempt to rescue his accomplices from the last penalty. At
twelve o'clock to-night a cordon of troops will be drawn across
all the approaches to the Sante Prison. As already stated, the
execution will take place outside the prison-walls, in the square
formed by the Boulevard Arago and the Rue de la Sante.

"We have succeeded in obtaining some details of the attitude of
the two condemned men. Vaucheray observes a stolid sullenness and
is awaiting the fatal event with no little courage:

"'Crikey,' he says, 'I can't say I'm delighted; but I've got to
go through it and I shall keep my end up.' And he adds, 'Death
I don't care a hang about! What worries me is the thought that
they're going to cut my head off. Ah, if the governor could only
hit on some trick to send me straight off to the next world before
I had time to say knife! A drop of Prussic acid, governor, if you
please!'

"Gilbert's calmness is even more impressive, especially when we
remember how he broke down at the trial. He retains an unshaken
confidence in the omnipotence of Arsene Lupin:

"'The governor shouted to me before everybody not to be afraid,
that he was there, that he answered for everything. Well, I'm not
afraid. I shall rely on him until the last day, until the last
minute, at the very foot of the scaffold. I know the governor!
There's no