The Champdoce Mystery by Emile Gaboriau (crime books to read TXT) 📕

“Have patience. I thought that you were going into business with those two young men you were drinking beer with at the Grand Turk?”

Toto uttered a shrill cry of anger at these words. “Business with them?” shrieked he; “they are regular clever night thieves.”

“Have they done you any harm, my poor lad?”

“Yes; they have utterly ruined me. Luckily, I saw Mascarin yesterday, and he set me up in the hot-chestnut line. He ain’t a bad one, is Mascarin.”

Tantaine curled his lip disdainfully. “Not a bad fellow, I dare say, as long as you don’t ask him for anything.”

Toto was so surprised at hearing Tantaine abuse Mascarin, that he was unable to utter a word.

“Ah, you may look surprised,” continued the old man, “but when a man is rolling in riches, and leaves an old friend to starve, then he is not what I call a real good fellow. Now, Toto, you are a bright lad, and so I don’t mind letting you know that I am only waiting for a good chance to drop Mascarin, and set up on my own account. Work for yourself, my boy.”

“I know that; but it is a good deal easier to say than to do.”

“You have tried then?”

“Yes, I have; but I came to grief over it. You know all about it as well as I do, for don’t tell me you didn’t hear every word I said that night you were hunting up Caroline Schimmel. However, I’ll tell you. One day when I saw a lady who looked rather nervous get out of a cab, I followed her. I was decently togged out, so I rang at the door. I was so sure that I was going to make a haul that I would not have taken ninety-nine francs for the hundred that I expected to make. Well, I rang, a girl opened the door, and in I went. What an ass I made of myself! I found a great brute of a man there, who thrashed me within an inch of my life, and then kicked me downstairs. See, he made his mark rather more plainly than I liked.” And removing his cap, the boy showed several bruises about his forehead.

During this conversation Tantaine and the lad had been walking slowly up the Champs Elysees, and had by this time arrived just opposite M. Gandelu’s house, where Andre was at work. Tantaine sat down on a bench.

“Let us rest a bit,” said he; “I am tired out; and now let me tell you, my lad, that your tale only shows me that it is experience you want. Now, I have any amount of that, and I was really the prime mover in most of Mascarin’s schemes. If I were to start on my own account, I should be driving in my carriage in twelve months. The only thing against my success is my age, for I am getting to be an old man. Why, even now I have a matter in my hands that is simply splendid. I have had half the money down, but I want a smart young fellow to pull it through.”

“Why couldn’t I be the smart young fellow?” asked Toto.

Tantaine shook his head. “You are as much too young as I am too old,” answered he. “At your age you are too apt to be frightened, and would shrink back at the critical time. Besides, I have a conscience.”

“And so have I,” exclaimed Toto; “and it’s grown like your own, old man; it can be stretched for miles and folded up into nothing.”

“Well, we may be able to do something,” returned Tantaine, as, drawing out a ragged check pocket-handkerchief, he wiped his glasses.

“Listen to me, my lad; I’ll put what we call a supposititious case to you. You hate those two fellows who have robbed you, for I suppose that is what you meant; well, suppose you knew that they were at work all day on a high scaffold like that one opposite to us, what would you do?”

Toto scratched his head, and remarked after a pause,—

“If that crack-jawed idea you talk of was true,” answered he, “those gay lads might as well make their wills, for I’d step up the scaffolding at night and just saw the planks that they are in the habit of clapping their toes on, half through, and when one of the mates stepped on it, why, there would be a bit of a smash, eh, Daddy Tantaine?”

“Not so bad, not so bad for a lad of your years,” said the old man with an approving smile.

Toto’s bosom swelled with pride.

“Besides,” he continued, “I would arrange matters so well that not a soul would think that I had done the trick.”

“The more I hear you speak, Chupin,” answered Tantaine, “the more I believe you are the lad I want, and I am sure that we shall make heaps of money together.”

“I am cock sure of that too.”

“You can use carpenters’ tools, I think you once told me?”

“Yes.”

“Well,” continued Tantaine, “let me tell you then that I know an old man with any amount of money, and there is a fellow whom he hates and detests, a young chap who ran off with the girl he loved.”

“The old bloke must have been jolly wild.”

“Well, to tell the truth, he wasn’t a bit pleased. Now it so happens that this gay young dog spends ten hours a day at least on that very scaffolding opposite to us. The old fellow, who has his head screwed on the right way, had the very same idea as yours, but he is too old and too stout to do the trick for himself; and, to cut the matter short, he would give five thousand francs to the persons who would carry out his idea. Just think, two thousand francs for a few cuts of a saw!”

The boy was violently agitated, but Tantaine pretended not to notice it.

“First, my lad,” said he, “I must explain to you in what measure the old gentleman’s plans are different from yours. If we did not take care, some other poor devil might break his neck, but I have hit on a dodge to avoid all this.”

“I ain’t curious, but I should like to hear it.”

Tantaine smiled blandly.

“Listen! Do you see high up; that little shed built of planks? That is used by the carvers and stone-cutters. Well, this little house, a couple of hundred feet above us, has a kind of a window; well, if this window and the planks below it were cut nearly through, any one leaning against it would be very likely to fall into the street and perhaps to hurt himself.”

Chupin nodded.

“Now, suppose,” went on Tantaine, “that the enemy of our old gentleman was in that little shed, all at once he hears a woman shriek, ‘Help! It is I you love; help me!’ what would this young fellow do? Why, he would recognize the voice, rush to