himself flat on the floor, on seeing Leonard raise his arm
at him. Three shots were fired in the dusk of the pantry; and then the
valet came tumbling to the ground, seized by the legs by Lupin, who
snatched his weapon from him and gripped him by the throat:

"Get out, you dirty brute!" he growled. "He very nearly did for me...
Here, Vaucheray, secure this gentleman!"

He threw the light of his pocket-lantern on the servant's face and
chuckled:

"He's not a pretty gentleman either... You can't have a very clear
conscience, Leonard; besides, to play flunkey to Daubrecq the deputy...!
Have you finished, Vaucheray? I don't want to hang about here for ever!"

"There's no danger, governor," said Gilbert.

"Oh, really?... So you think that shots can't be heard?..."

"Quite impossible."

"No matter, we must look sharp. Vaucheray, take the lamp and let's go
upstairs."

He took Gilbert by the arm and, as he dragged him to the first floor:

"You ass," he said, "is that the way you make inquiries? Wasn't I right
to have my doubts?"

"Look here, governor, I couldn't know that he would change his mind and
come back to dinner."

"One's got to know everything when one has the honour of breaking into
people's houses. You numskull! I'll remember you and Vaucheray... a nice
pair of gossoons!..."

The sight of the furniture on the first floor pacified Lupin and he
started on his inventory with the satisfied air of a collector who has
looked in to treat himself to a few works of art:

"By Jingo! There's not much of it, but what there is is pucka! There's
nothing the matter with this representative of the people in
the question of taste. Four Aubusson chairs... A bureau signed
'Percier-Fontaine,' for a wager... Two inlays by Gouttieres... A genuine
Fragonard and a sham Nattier which any American millionaire will swallow
for the asking: in short, a fortune... And there are curmudgeons who
pretend that there's nothing but faked stuff left. Dash it all, why
don't they do as I do? They should look about!"

Gilbert and Vaucheray, following Lupin's orders and instructions, at
once proceeded methodically to remove the bulkier pieces. The first boat
was filled in half an hour; and it was decided that the Growler and the
Masher should go on ahead and begin to load the motor-car.

Lupin went to see them start. On returning to the house, it struck him,
as he passed through the hall, that he heard a voice in the pantry. He
went there