Arsene Lupin

ws opening on to the terrace. He looked round the empty hall, whistled softly, and stepped inside. Inside of

, take that door into the drawing-room. Pierre and Louis, help me go through the drawe

e hurried to the door of the outer hall. "It would have been so simple to rob the Pa

them knocked silly for to-morrow, to get hold of the coronet. Oh, to get hold of

ne the same with the door opening into the drawing-room. M. Charolais, Pierre, and Louis were

ce is stuffed with bureaux!" growled

ndles in the middle on the left-tha

say so?" growl

, and tried it.

my luck! Come and get i

the two halves of a small jemmy. He fitted it into the top of the flap. There was a crunch, an

ld fool!" said Jean, in a

eys. M. Charolais snatched it up, glanced at it, took a bunch of keys from his own pocket, put it in the dra

window when the door into the outer hal

ng through the window, and bellowed:

on his face for a couple of minutes, his broad back wriggling convulsively-a pathetic sight!-in the painful effort to get his breath back. Then he sat up, and with perfect frankness burst into tears. H

o his feet, and stood st

ain: "Firmin! Firmin!

ed eyes, as though he expected somebody to

rmerace! Charmerace!

d in a heavy motor-coat, his motor-cap on h

r you call

urglars are here already. I've just seen one of

raised hi

e said gent

millionaire. "I tell you I sa

ghting an acre and a half of hall with a single lamp,

to have lighted six. Firmin! Fi

eeper's boots, but they did not hear it. Evidently Firmin was

n this hall with a gun to-night. There could be no harm in putting a charge of small shot into the legs of these ruffians. He has only to get one

th you, and leave Jean to help Firmin fight these burglars. Firmin's all right-he's an old soldier. He fought in '70. Not that

e. "It'll be a weight off my mind. I'd better d

"Germaine won't go in the limousine.

sooner I get to Paris the better for your collection. I'll take Mademoiselle Kritchnoff w

e would prefer to have Irma with her, in case you had an accident

llowed by Sonia and Irma. They wore motor-cloaks and h

ging us off to Paris like this in the midd

to hear that I've just seen a burglar here in this very room. I fr

lightly tinged with yell

Jacques! Is this a time for idiocy?" cried

in those colours. In a bright light, I think he wou

Duke, if ever you expect to be a member of the Academie Francaise," sa

was his colour I was talking about,"

ath of them!" said Germaine, with something of the

must say that, with the fate of my collection and of the coronet tremb

said the Duke; and

ys of the Paris house,

bureau. She slipped a key into the lock and tried to tur

tampering with the lock!

" cried the millionaire triumph

ureau and hastily pulled open the

, taking them out of the

e millionaire. "I startled him in

h-pink. They often are. However, you'd better give me those keys, Mademoiselle Sonia, since I'm to get to Pari

into his own, as he received them, and squeezed it. The light was too dim for the other

aistcoat? If we're going, we'd better go. You always do keep us waitin

impatience Germaine dropped into a chair. Irma stood wait

patter of rain ag

! It's going to be perfect

enough, though it is raining," said the Duke. "Still, I could have wished that Lupin confined his o

ng to the pattering of the rain against the panes. The Duke t

f course, why didn't I think of it? Why should we start from a pit of gloom l

hat is called chaste design, brass lamps, silver lamps, and lamps in porcelain. The Duke lighted them one after another, patiently, missing none, with a cold perseverance. The operation was punctuated by exclamati

ith which he performed the task. Even the stolid face of the ox-eyed Irma

he twenty-second lamp when

this?" he cried, stop

oolery!" cried Germaine in to

of bitter distress. "Do you think it's my object in life to swell the Rockefeller mi

isfaction. "But where are the cars? Jean seems a deuce of a time bringing them round. Does he expect us t

d him through the outer hall, opened the big

his shoulders, and said: "You don't beat

he Duke simply. "Shout

oice in a terrific bellow of

was no