The Essential Maurice Leblanc Collection. Морис ЛебланЧитать онлайн книгу.
See you soon, I hope!"
SECOND EPISODE
THE JEWISH LAMP
CHAPTER I
Holmlock Shears and Wilson were seated on either side of the fireplace in Shears's sitting-room. The great detective's pipe had gone out. He knocked the ashes into the grate, re-filled his briar, lit it, gathered the skirts of his dressing-gown around his knees, puffed away and devoted all his attention to sending rings of smoke curling gracefully up to the ceiling.
Wilson watched him. He watched him as a dog, rolled up on the hearth-rug, watches its master, with wide-open eyes and unblinking lids, eyes which have no other hope than to reflect the expected movement on the master's part. Would Shears break silence? Would he reveal the secret of his present dreams and admit Wilson to the realm of meditation into which he felt that he was not allowed to enter uninvited?
Shears continued silent.
Wilson ventured upon a remark:
"Things are very quiet. There's not a single case for us to nibble at."
Shears was more and more fiercely silent; but the rings of tobacco-smoke became more and more successful and any one but Wilson would have observed that Shears obtained from this the profound content which we derive from the minor achievements of our vanity, at times when our brain is completely void of thought.
Disheartened, Wilson rose and walked to the window. The melancholy street lay stretched between the gloomy fronts of the houses, under a dark sky whence fell an angry and pouring rain. A cab drove past; another cab. Wilson jotted down their numbers in his note-book. One can never tell!
The postman came down the street, gave a treble knock at the door; and, presently, the servant entered with two registered letters.
"You look remarkably pleased," said Wilson, when Shears had unsealed and glanced through the first.
"This letter contains a very attractive proposal. You were worrying about a case: here is one. Read it."
Wilson took the letter and read:
"18, _Rue Murillo_, "PARIS.
"Sir:
"I am writing to ask for the benefit of your assistance and experience. I have been the victim of a serious theft and all the investigations attempted up to the present would seem to lead to nothing.
"I am sending you by this post a number of newspapers which will give you all the details of the case; and, if you are inclined to take it up, I shall be pleased if you will accept the hospitality of my house and if you will fill in the enclosed signed check for any amount which you like to name for your expenses.
"Pray, telegraph to inform me if I may expect you and believe me to be, sir,
"Yours very truly, "BARON VICTOR D'IMBLEVALLE."
"Well," said Shears, "this comes just at the right time: why shouldn't I take a little run to Paris? I haven't been there since my famous duel with Arsne Lupin and I shan't be sorry to re-visit it under rather more peaceful conditions."
He tore the cheque into four pieces and, while Wilson, whose arm had not yet recovered from the injury received in the course of the aforesaid encounter, was inveighing bitterly against Paris and all its inhabitants, he opened the second envelope.
A movement of irritation at once escaped him; he knitted his brow as he read the letter and, when he had finished, he crumpled it into a ball and threw it angrily on the floor.
"What's the matter?" exclaimed Wilson, in amazement.
He picked up the ball, unfolded it and read, with ever-increasing stupefaction:
"MY DEAR MATRE:
"You know my admiration for you and the interest which I take in your reputation. Well, accept my advice and have nothing to do with the case in which you are asked to assist. Your interference would do a great deal of harm, all your efforts would only bring about a pitiable result and you would be obliged publicly to acknowledge your defeat.
"I am exceedingly anxious to spare you this humiliation and I beg you, in the name of our mutual friendship, to remain very quietly by your fireside.
"Give my kind remembrances to Dr. Wilson and accept for yourself the respectful compliments of
"Yours most sincerely, "ARSNE LUPIN."
"Arsne Lupin!" repeated Wilson, in bewilderment.
Shears banged the table with his fist:
"Oh, I'm getting sick of the brute! He laughs at me as if I were a schoolboy! I am publicly to acknowledge my defeat, am I? Didn't I compel him to give up the blue diamond?"
"He's afraid of you," suggested Wilson.
"You're talking nonsense! Arsne Lupin is never afraid; and the proof is that he challenges me."
"But how does he come to know of Baron d'Imblevalle's letter?"
"How can I tell? You're asking silly questions, my dear fellow!"
"I thought ... I imagined...."
"What? That I am a sorcerer?"
"No, but I have seen you perform such marvels!"
"No one is able to perform marvels.... I no more than another. I make reflections, deductions, conclusions, but I don't make guesses. Only fools make guesses."
Wilson adopted the modest attitude of a beaten dog and did his best, lest he should be a fool, not to guess why Shears was striding angrily up and down the room. But, when Shears rang for the servant and asked for his travelling-bag, Wilson thought himself entitled, since this was a material fact, to reflect, deduce and conclude that his chief was going on a journey.
The same mental operation enabled him to declare, in the tone of a man who has no fear of the possibility of a mistake:
"Holmlock, you are going to Paris."
"Possibly."
"And you are going to Paris even more in reply to Lupin's challenge than to oblige Baron d'Imblevalle."
"Possibly."
"Holmlock, I will go with you."
"Aha, old friend!" cried Shears, interrupting his walk. "Aren't you afraid that your left arm may share the fate of the right?"
"What can happen to me? You will be there."
"Well said! You're a fine fellow! And we will show this gentleman that he may have made a mistake in defying us so boldly. Quick, Wilson, and meet me at the first train."
"Won't you wait for the newspapers the baron mentions?"
"What's the good?"
"Shall I send a telegram?"
"No. Arsne Lupin would know I was coming and I don't wish him to. This time, Wilson, we must play a cautious game."
* * * * *
That afternoon, the two friends stepped on board the boat at Dover. They had a capital crossing. In the express from Calais to Paris, Shears indulged in three hours of the soundest sleep, while Wilson kept a good watch at the door of the compartment and meditated with a wandering eye.
Shears woke up feeling happy and well. The prospect of a new duel with Arsne Lupin delighted him; and he rubbed his hands with the contented air of a man preparing to taste untold joys.
"At last," exclaimed Wilson, "we shall feel that we're alive!"
And