e story which he dished up to us was dictated to
him under the threat of terrible reprisals. The doctor has a wife. The
doctor has a daughter. He is too fond of them to disobey people of
whose formidable power he has seen proofs. And that is why he has
assisted your efforts by supplying the most precise clues."

"So precise that the inn is nowhere to be found."

"So precise that you have never ceased looking for it, in the face of
all probability, and that your eyes have been turned away from the only
spot where the man can be, the mysterious spot which he has not left,
which he has been unable to leave ever since the moment when, wounded
by Mlle. de Saint-Veran, he succeeded in dragging himself to it, like a
beast to its lair."

"But where, confound it all?--In what corner of Hades--?"

"In the ruins of the old abbey."

"But there are no ruins left!--A few bits of wall!--A few broken
columns!"

"That's where he's gone to earth. Monsieur le Juge d'Instruction!"
shouted Beautrelet. "That's where you will have to look for him! It's
there and nowhere else that you will find Arsene Lupin!"

"Arsene Lupin!" yelled M. Filleul, springing to his feet.

There was a rather solemn pause, amid which the syllables of the famous
name seemed to prolong their sound. Was it possible that the vanquished
and yet invisible adversary, whom they had been hunting in vain for
several days, could really be Arsene Lupin? Arsene Lupin, caught in a
trap, arrested, meant immediate promotion, fortune, glory to any
examining magistrate!

Ganimard had not moved a limb. Isidore said to him:

"You agree with me, do you not, M. Inspector?"

"Of course I do!"

"You have not doubted either, for a moment have you, that he managed
this business?"

"Not for a second! The thing bears his signature. A move of Arsene
Lupin's is as different from a move made by another man as one face is
from another. You have only to open your eyes."

"Do you think so? Do you think so?" said M. Filleul.

"Think so!" cried the young man. "Look, here's one little fact: what
are the initials under which those men correspond among themselves? 'A.
L. N.,' that is to say, the first letter of the name Arsene and the
first and last letters of the name Lupin."

"Ah," said Ganimard, "nothing escapes you! Upon my word, you're a fine
fellow and old Ganimard lays down his arms before you!"

Beautrelet flushed with pleasure and pressed the hand which the
chief-inspector