第41章

"Yes," said the Masher, "with his wife, in a lodge standing in the midst of the ruins.I also learnt that he has three tall sons and that all the four were supposed to be away for a holiday on the day when Daubrecq was carried off.""Oho!" said Lupin."The coincidence is worth remembering.It seems likely enough that the business was done by those chaps and their father."Toward the end of the afternoon Lupin availed himself of a breach to the right of the towers to scale the curtain.From there he was able to see the huntsman's lodge and the few remains of the old fortress: here, a bit of wall, suggesting the mantel of a chimney; further away, a water-tank;on this side, the arches of a chapel; on the other, a heap of fallen stones.

A patrol-path edged the cliff in front; and, at one of the ends of this patrol-path, there were the remains of a formidable donjon-keep razed almost level with the ground.

Lupin returned to Clarisse Mergy in the evening.And from that time he went backward and forward between Amiens and Mortepierre, leaving the Growler and the Masher permanently on the watch.

And six days passed.Sebastiani's habits seemed to be subject solely to the duties of his post.He used to go up to the Chateau de Montmaur, walk about in the forest, note the tracks of the game and go his rounds at night.

But, on the seventh day, learning that there was to be a meet and that a carriage had been sent to Aumale Station in the morning, Lupin took up his post in a cluster of box and laurels which surrounded the little esplanade in front of the gate.

At two o'clock he heard the pack give tongue.They approached, accompanied by hunting-cries, and then drew farther away.He heard them again, about the middle of the afternoon, not quite so distinctly; and that was all.But suddenly, amid the silence, the sound of galloping horses reached his ears; and, a few minutes later, he saw two riders climbing the river-path.

He recognized the Marquis d'Albufex and Sebastiani.On reaching the esplanade, they both alighted; and a woman - the huntsman's wife, no doubt - opened the gate.Sebastiani fastened the horses' bridles to rings fixed on a post at a few yards from Lupin and ran to join the marquis.The gate closed behind them.

Lupin did not hesitate; and, though it was still broad daylight, relying upon the solitude of the place, he hoisted himself to the hollow of the breach.Passing his head through cautiously, he saw the two men and Sebastiani's wife hurrying toward the ruins of the keep.

The huntsman drew aside a hanging screen of ivy and revealed the entrance to a stairway, which he went down, as did d'Albufex, leaving his wife on guard on the terrace.

There was no question of going in after them; and Lupin returned to his hiding-place.He did not wait long before the gate opened again.

The Marquis d'Albufex seemed in a great rage.He was striking the leg of his boot with his whip and mumbling angry words which Lupin was able to distinguish when the distance became less great:

"Ah, the hound!...I'll make him speak...I'll come back to-night...

to-night, at ten o'clock, do you hear, Sebastiani?...And we shall do what's necessary...Oh, the brute!"Sebastiani unfastened the horses.D'Albufex turned to the woman:

"See that your sons keep a good watch...If any one attempts to deliver him, so much the worse for him.The trapdoor is there.Can I rely upon them?""As thoroughly as on myself, monsieur le marquis," declared the huntsman.

"They know what monsieur le marquis has done for me and what he means to do for them.They will shrink at nothing.""Let us mount and get back to the hounds," said d'Albufex.

So things were going as Lupin had supposed.During these runs, d'Albufex, taking a line of his own, would push off to Mortepierre, without anybody's suspecting his trick.Sebastiani, who was devoted to him body and soul, for reasons connected with the past into which it was not worth while to inquire, accompanied him; and together they went to see the captive, who was closely watched by the huntsman's wife and his three sons.

"That's where we stand," said Lupin to Clarisse Mergy, when he joined her at a neighbouring inn."This evening the marquis will put Daubrecq to the question - a littie brutally, but indispensably - as I intended to do myself.""And Daubrecq wrn give up his secret," said Clarisse, already quite upset.

"I'm afraid so."

"Then..."

"I am hesitating between two plans," said Lupin, who seemed very calm.

"Either to prevent the interview..."

"How?"

"By forestalling d'Albufex.At nine o'clock, the Growler, the Masher and I climb the ramparts, burst into the fortress, attack the keep, disarm the garrison...and the thing's done: Daubrecq is ours.""Unless Sebastiani's sons fling him through the trapdoor to which the marquis alluded...""For that reason," said Lupin, "I intend to risk that violent measure only as a last resort and in case my other plan should not be practicable.""What is the other plan?"

"To witness the interview.If Daubrecq does not speak, it will give us the time to prepare to carry him off under more favourable conditions.

If he speaks, if they compel him to reveal the place where the list of the Twenty-seven is hidden, I shall know the truth at the same time as d'Albufex, and I swear to God that I shall turn it to account before he does.""Yes, yes," said Clarisse."But how do you propose to be present?""I don't know yet," Lupin confessed."It depends on certain particulars which the Masher is to bring me and on some which I shall find out for myself."He left the inn and did not return until an hour later as night was falling.The Masher joined him.

"Have you the little book?" asked Lupin.

"Yes, governor It was what I saw at the Aumale newspaper-shop.I got it for ten sous.""Give it me."

The Masher handed him an old, soiled, torn pamphlet, entitled, on the cover, A Visit to Mortepierre, 1824, with plans and illustrations.

Lupin at once looked for the plan of the donjon-keep.