the sound of
your voice."

Don Luis turned the cripple over and over and was pretty rough about it.
Then he resumed:

"I wish to impress upon you, my dear sir, that the upshot would have been
exactly similar if I had attacked you directly and from the start in the
open air. But, having said this, I confess that chance favoured me to
some purpose. It has often failed me, in the course of our struggle, but
this time I had no cause to complain.

"I felt myself in such luck that I never doubted for a second that,
having found the entrance to the subterranean passage, I should also find
the way out. As a matter of fact, I had only to pull gently at the slight
obstacle of a few stacked bricks which hid the opening in order to make
my exit amid the remains of the castle keep.

"Guided by the sound of your voice, I slipped through the stones and thus
reached the back of the grotto in which Florence lay. Amusing, wasn't it?

"You can imagine what fun it was to hear you make your little speeches:
'Answer me, yes or no, Florence. A movement of your head will decide your
fate. If it's yes, I shall release you. If it's no, you die. Answer me,
Florence! A sign of your head: is the answer yes or no?' And the end,
above all, was delicious, when you scrambled to the top of the grotto and
started roaring from up there: 'It's you who have asked to die, Florence.
You asked for it and you've got it!'

"Just think what a joke it was: at that moment there was no one in the
grotto! Not a soul! With one effort, I had drawn Florence toward me and
put her under shelter. And all that you were able to crush with your
avalanche of rocks was one or two spiders, perhaps, and a few flies
dozing on the flagstones.

"The trick was done and the farce was nearly finished. Act first: Arsene
Lupin saved. Act second: Florence Levasseur saved. Act third and last:
the monster vanquished ... absolutely and with a vengeance!"

Don Luis stood up and contemplated his work with a satisfied eye.

"You look like a sausage, my son!" he cried, yielding at last to his
sarcastic nature and his habit of treating his enemies familiarly. "A
regular sausage! A bit on the thin side, perhaps: a saveloy for poor
people! But there, you don't much care what you look like, I suppose?
Besides, you're rather like that at all times; and, in any case, you're
just the thing for the little display of indoor gymnastics which I have
in mind for you. You'll see: it's an idea of m