The Crystal Stopper | Page 8

time in entertaining doubts. In the height of the first confusion,
the people of the neighbourhood invaded the villa. One and all lost
their heads. They ran to every side, upstairs, downstairs, to the very
cellar. They asked one another questions, yelled and shouted; and no
one dreamt of checking Lupin's statements, which sounded so
plausible.
However, the discovery of the body in the pantry restored the
commissary to a sense of his responsibility. He issued orders, had the
house cleared and placed policemen at the gate to prevent any one from
passing in or out. Then, without further delay, he examined the spot
and began his inquiry. Vaucheray gave his name; Gilbert refused to
give his, on the plea that he would only speak in the presence of a
lawyer. But, when he was accused of the murder, he informed against
Vaucheray, who defended himself by denouncing the other; and the
two of them vociferated at the same time, with the evident wish to
monopolize the commissary's attention. When the commissary turned
to Lupin, to request his evidence, he perceived that the stranger was no
longer there.
Without the least suspicion, he said to one of the policemen:

"Go and tell that gentleman that I should like to ask him a few
questions."
They looked about for the gentleman. Some one had seen him standing
on the steps, lighting a cigarette. The next news was that he had given
cigarettes to a group of soldiers and strolled toward the lake, saying
that they were to call him if he was wanted.
They called him. No one replied.
But a soldier came running up. The gentleman had just got into a boat
and was rowing away for all he was worth. The commissary looked at
Gilbert and realized that he had been tricked:
"Stop him!" he shouted. "Fire on him! He's an accomplice!..."
He himself rushed out, followed by two policemen, while the others
remained with the prisoners. On reaching the bank, he saw the
gentleman, a hundred yards away, taking off his hat to him in the dusk.
One of the policemen discharged his revolver, without thinking.
The wind carried the sound of words across the water. The gentleman
was singing as he rowed:
"Go, little bark, Float in the dark..."
But the commissary saw a skiff fastened to the landing-stage of the
adjoining property. He scrambled over the hedge separating the two
gardens and, after ordering the soldiers to watch the banks of the lake
and to seize the fugitive if he tried to put ashore, the commissary and
two of his men pulled off in pursuit of Lupin.
It was not a difficult matter, for they were able to follow his
movements by the intermittent light of the moon and to see that he was
trying to cross the lakes while bearing toward the right--that is to say,
toward the village of Saint-Gratien. Moreover, the commissary soon
perceived that, with the aid of his men and thanks perhaps to the

comparative lightness of his craft, he was rapidly gaining on the other.
In ten minutes he had decreased the interval between them by one half.
"That's it!" he cried. "We shan't even need the soldiers to keep him
from landing. I very much want to make the fellow's acquaintance. He's
a cool hand and no mistake!"
The funny thing was that the distance was now diminishing at an
abnormal rate, as though the fugitive had lost heart at realizing the
futility of the struggle. The policemen redoubled their efforts. The boat
shot across the water with the swiftness of a swallow. Another hundred
yards at most and they would reach the man.
"Halt!" cried the commissary.
The enemy, whose huddled shape they could make out in the boat, no
longer moved. The sculls drifted with the stream. And this absence of
all motion had something alarming about it. A ruffian of that stamp
might easily lie in wait for his aggressors, sell his life dearly and even
shoot them dead before they had a chance of attacking him.
"Surrender!" shouted the commissary.
The sky, at that moment, was dark. The three men lay flat at the bottom
of their skiff, for they thought they perceived a threatening gesture.
The boat, carried by its own impetus, was approaching the other.
The commissary growled:
"We won't let ourselves be sniped. Let's fire at him. Are you ready?"
And he roared, once more, "Surrender... if not... !"
No reply.
The enemy did not budge.
"Surrender!... Hands up!... You refuse?... So much the worse for you...
I'm counting... One... Two..."

The policemen did not wait for the word of command. They fired and,
at once, bending over their oars, gave the boat so powerful an impulse
that it reached the goal in a few