ot mistaken: I know the real truth.... It may be
as unlikely as you please, but it is the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth."

He wiped away the drops of perspiration that trickled down his forehead
and, after a further question from M. Dudouis, pulled himself together,
swallowed a glass of water and began:

"Lupin has often got the better of me...."

"Look here, Ganimard," said M. Dudouis, interrupting him. "Why can't you
come straight to the point? Tell me, in two words, what's happened."

"No, chief," retorted the chief-inspector, "it is essential that you
should know the different stages which I have passed through. Excuse me,
but I consider it indispensable." And he repeated: "I was saying, chief,
that Lupin has often got the better of me and led me many a dance. But,
in this contest in which I have always come out worst ... so far ... I
have at least gained experience of his manner of play and learnt to know
his tactics. Now, in the matter of the tapestries, it occurred to me
almost from the start to set myself two problems. In the first place,
Lupin, who never makes a move without knowing what he is after, was
obviously aware that Colonel Sparmiento had come to the end of his money
and that the loss of the tapestries might drive him to suicide.
Nevertheless, Lupin, who hates the very thought of bloodshed, stole the
tapestries."

"There was the inducement," said M. Dudouis, "of the five or six hundred
thousand francs which they are worth."

"No, chief, I tell you once more, whatever the occasion might be, Lupin
would not take life, nor be the cause of another person's death, for
anything in this world, for millions and millions. That's the first
point. In the second place, what was the object of all that disturbance,
in the evening, during the house-warming party? Obviously, don't you
think, to surround the business with an atmosphere of anxiety and
terror, in the shortest possible time, and also to divert suspicion from
the truth, which, otherwise, might easily have been suspected?... You
seem not to understand, chief?"

"Upon my word, I do not!"

"As a matter of fact," said Ganimard, "as a matter of fact, it is not
particularly plain. And I myself, when I put the problem before my mind
in those same words, did not understand it very clearly.... And yet I
felt that I was on the right track.... Yes, there was no doubt about it
that Lupin wanted to divert suspicions ... to divert them to him