The Crystal Stopper | Page 7

loud din arose outside:
"Too late!" he said.
At that moment, blows shook the hall-door at the back of the house. He
ran to the front steps: a number of men had already turned the corner of
the house at a rush. He might have managed to keep ahead of them,
with Gilbert, and reach the waterside. But what chance was there of
embarking and escaping under the enemy's fire?
He locked and bolted the door.
"We are surrounded... and done for," spluttered Gilbert.
"Hold your tongue," said Lupin.
"But they've seen us, governor. There, they're knocking."
"Hold your tongue," Lupin repeated. "Not a word. Not a movement."

He himself remained unperturbed, with an utterly calm face and the
pensive attitude of one who has all the time that he needs to examine a
delicate situation from every point of view. He had reached one of
those minutes which he called the "superior moments of existence,"
those which alone give a value and a price to life. On such occasions,
however threatening the danger, he always began by counting to
himself, slowly --"One... Two... Three... Four.... Five... Six"--until the
beating of his heart became normal and regular. Then and not till then,
he reflected, but with what intensity, with what perspicacity, with what
a profound intuition of possibilities! All the factors of the problem were
present in his mind. He foresaw everything. He admitted everything.
And he took his resolution in all logic and in all certainty.
After thirty or forty seconds, while the men outside were banging at the
doors and picking the locks, he said to his companion:
"Follow me."
Returning to the dining-room, he softly opened the sash and drew the
Venetian blinds of a window in the side-wall. People were coming and
going, rendering flight out of the question.
Thereupon he began to shout with all his might, in a breathless voice:
"This way!... Help!... I've got them! ... This way!"
He pointed his revolver and fired two shots into the tree-tops. Then he
went back to Vaucheray, bent over him and smeared his face and hands
with the wounded man's blood. Lastly, turning upon Gilbert, he took
him violently by the shoulders and threw him to the floor.
"What do you want, governor? There's a nice thing to do!"
"Let me do as I please," said Lupin, laying an imperative stress on
every syllable. "I'll answer for everything... I'll answer for the two of
you... Let me do as I like with you... I'll get you both out of prison ...
But I can only do that if I'm free."

Excited cries rose through the open window.
"This way!" he shouted. "I've got them! Help!"
And, quietly, in a whisper:
"Just think for a moment... Have you anything to say to me?...
Something that can be of use to us?"
Gilbert was too much taken aback to understand Lupin's plan and he
struggled furiously. Vaucheray showed more intelligence; moreover, he
had given up all hope of escape, because of his wound; and he snarled:
"Let the governor have his way, you ass!... As long as he gets off, isn't
that the great thing?"
Suddenly, Lupin remembered the article which Gilbert had put in his
pocket, after capturing it from Vaucheray. He now tried to take it in his
turn.
"No, not that! Not if I know it!" growled Gilbert, managing to release
himself.
Lupin floored him once more. But two men suddenly appeared at the
window; and Gilbert yielded and, handing the thing to Lupin, who
pocketed it without looking at it, whispered:
"Here you are, governor... I'll explain. You can be sure that..."
He did not have time to finish... Two policemen and others after them
and soldiers who entered through every door and window came to
Lupin's assistance.
Gilbert was at once seized and firmly bound. Lupin withdrew:
"I'm glad you've come," he said. "The beggar's given me a lot of trouble.
I wounded the other; but this one..."
The commissary of police asked him, hurriedly:

"Have you seen the man-servant? Have they killed him?"
"I don't know," he answered.
"You don't know?..."
"Why, I came with you from Enghien, on hearing of the murder! Only,
while you were going round the left of the house, I went round the right.
There was a window open. I climbed up just as these two ruffians were
about to jump down. I fired at this one," pointing to Vaucheray, "and
seized hold of his pal."
How could he have been suspected? He was covered with blood. He
had handed over the valet's murderers. Half a score of people had
witnessed the end of the heroic combat which he had delivered. Besides,
the uproar was too great for any one to take the trouble to argue or to
waste