The Crystal Stopper | Page 5

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 and found Leonard lying flat on his stomach, quite alone,
with his hands tied behind his back:
"So it's you growling, my confidential flunkey? Don't get excited: it's
almost finished. Only, if you make too much noise, you'll oblige us to
take severer measures... Do you like pears? We might give you one,
you know: a choke-pear!..."

As he went upstairs, he again heard the same sound and, stopping to
listen, he caught these words, uttered in a hoarse, groaning voice, which
came, beyond a doubt, from the pantry:
"Help!... Murder!... Help!... I shall be killed!... Inform the
commissary!"
"The fellow's clean off his chump!" muttered Lupin. "By Jove!... To
disturb the police at nine o'clock in the evening: there's a notion for
you!"
He set to work again. It took longer than he expected, for they
discovered in the cupboards all sorts of valuable knick-knacks which it
would have been very wrong to disdain and, on the other hand,
Vaucheray and Gilbert were going about their investigations with signs
of laboured concentration that nonplussed him.
At long last, he lost his patience:
"That will do!" he said. "We're not going to spoil the whole job and
keep the motor waiting for the sake of the few odd bits that remain. I'm
taking the boat."
They were now by the waterside and Lupin went down the steps.
Gilbert held him back:
"I say, governor, we want one more look round five minutes, no
longer."
"But what for, dash it all?"
"Well, it's like this: we were told of an old reliquary, something
stunning..."
"Well?"
"We can't lay our hands on it. And I was thinking... There's a cupboard
with a big lock to it in the pantry... You see, we can't very well..." He
was already on his way to the villa. Vaucheray ran back too.

"I'll give you ten minutes, not a second longer!" cried Lupin. "In ten
minutes, I'm off."
But the ten minutes passed and he was still waiting.
He looked at his watch:
"A quarter-past nine," he said to himself. "This is madness."
And he also remembered that Gilbert and Vaucheray had behaved
rather queerly throughout the removal of the things, keeping close
together and apparently watching each other. What could be
happening?
Lupin mechanically returned to the house, urged by a feeling of anxiety
which he was unable to explain; and, at the same time, he listened to a
dull sound which rose in the distance, from the direction of Enghien,
and which seemed to be coming nearer... People strolling about, no
doubt...
He gave a sharp whistle and then went to the main gate, to take a
glance down the avenue. But, suddenly, as he was opening the gate, a
shot rang out, followed by a yell of pain. He returned at a run, went
round the house, leapt up the steps and rushed to the dining-room:
"Blast it all, what are you doing there, you two?"
Gilbert and Vaucheray, locked in a furious embrace, were rolling on the
floor, uttering cries of rage. Their clothes were dripping with blood.
Lupin flew at them to separate them. But already Gilbert had got his
adversary down and was wrenching out of his hand something which
Lupin had no time to see. And Vaucheray, who was losing blood
through a wound in the shoulder, fainted.
"Who hurt him? You, Gilbert?" asked Lupin, furiously.
"No, Leonard."
"Leonard? Why, he was tied up!"

"He undid his fastenings and got hold of his revolver."
"The scoundrel! Where is he?"
Lupin took the lamp and went into the pantry.
The man-servant was lying on his back, with his arms outstretched, a
dagger stuck in his throat and a livid face. A red stream