The Teeth of the Tiger by Maurice Leblanc (e book reader android TXT) 📕

her, what good would it have done? On the contrary, it meant lending greater weight to the accusation. That was just what happened when Hippolyte Fauville’s letters, appearing one by one, revealed to the police the as yet unknown motives of the crimes imputed to us. We loved each other.”

“How do you explain the letters?”

“I can’t explain them. We did not know of Fauville’s jealousy. He kept it to himself. And then, again, why did he suspect us? What can have put it into his head that we meant to kill him? Where did his fears, his nightmares, come from? It is a mystery. He wrote that he had letters of ours in his possession: what letters?”

“And the marks of the teeth, those marks which were undoubtedly made by Mme. Fauville?”

“I don’t know. It is all incomprehensible.”

“You don’t know either what she can have done after leaving the opera between twelve and two in the morning?”

“No. She was evidently lured into a trap. But how and by whom? And why does she not say what she was doing? More mystery.”

“You were seen that evening, the evening of the murders, at Auteuil station. What were you doing there?”

“I was going to the Boulevard Suchet and I passed under Marie’s windows. Remember that it was a Wednesday. I came back on the following Wednesday, and, still knowing nothing of the tragedy or of Marie’s arrest, I came back again on the second Wednesday, which was the evening on which you found out where I lived and informed Sergeant Mazeroux against me.”

“Another thing. Did you know of the Mornington inheritance?”

“No, nor Florence either; and we have every reason to think that Marie and her husband knew no more about it than we did.”

“That barn at Damigni: was it the first time that you had entered it?”

“Yes; and our astonishment at the sight of the two skeletons hanging from the rafters equalled yours.”

Don Luis was silent. He cast about for a few seconds longer to see if he had any more questions to ask. Then he said:

“That is all I wanted to know. Are you, on your side, certain that everything that is necessary has been said?”

“Yes.”

“This is a serious moment. It is possible that we may not meet again. Now you have not given me a single proof of your statements.”

“I have told you the truth. To a man like yourself, the truth is enough. As for me, I am beaten. I give up the struggle, or, rather, I place myself under your orders. Save Marie.”

“I will save the three of you,” said Perenna. “The fourth of the mysterious letters is to make its appearance tomorrow: that leaves ample time for us to lay our heads together and study the matter fully. And tomorrow evening I shall go there and, with the help of all that you have told me, I shall prove the innocence of you all. The essential thing is to be present at the meeting on the twenty-fifth of May.”

“Please think only of Marie. Sacrifice me, if necessary. Sacrifice Florence even. I am speaking in her name as well as my own when I tell you that it is better to desert us than to jeopardize the slightest chance of success.”

“I will save the three of you,” Perenna repeated.

He pushed the door ajar and, after listening outside, said:

“Don’t move. And don’t open the door to anybody, on any pretext whatever, before I come to fetch you. I shall not be long.”

He locked the door behind him and went down to the first floor. He did not feel those high spirits which usually cheered him on the eve of his great battles. This time, Florence Levasseur’s life and liberty were at stake; and the consequences of a defeat seemed to him worse than death.

Through the window on the landing he saw the detectives guarding the courtyard. He counted six of them. And he also saw the deputy chief at one of the windows of his study, watching the courtyard and keeping in touch with his detectives.

“By Jove!” he thought, “he’s sticking to his post. It will be a tough job. He suspects something. However, let’s make a start!”

He went through the drawing-room and entered his study. Weber saw him. The two enemies were face to face.

There was a few seconds’ silence before the duel opened, the duel which was bound to be swift and vigorous, without the least sign of weakness or distraction on either side. It could not last longer than three minutes.

The deputy chief’s face bore an expression of mingled joy and anxiety. For the first time he had permission, he had orders, to fight that accursed Don Luis, against whom he had never yet been able to satisfy his hatred. And his delight was all the greater because he held every trump, whereas Don Luis had put himself in the wrong by defending Florence Levasseur and tampering with the girl’s portrait. On the other hand, Weber did not forget that Don Luis was identical with Arsène Lupin; and this consideration caused him a certain uneasiness. He was obviously thinking:

“The least blunder, and I’m done for.”

He crossed swords with a jest.

“I see that you were not in Mlle. Levasseur’s lodge, as your man pretended.”

“My man spoke in accordance with my instructions, I was in my bedroom, upstairs. But I wanted to finish the job before I came down.”

“And is it done?”

“It’s done. Florence Levasseur and Gaston Sauverand are in my room, gagged and bound. You have only to accept delivery of the goods.”

“Gaston Sauverand!” cried Weber. “Then it was he who was seen coming in?”

“Yes. He was simply living with Florence Levasseur, whose lover he is.”

“Oho!” said the deputy chief, in a bantering tone. “Her lover!”

“Yes; and when Sergeant Mazeroux brought Florence Levasseur to my room, to question her out of hearing of the servants, Sauverand, foreseeing the arrest of his mistress, had the audacity to join us. He tried to rescue her from our hands.”

“And you checkmated him?”

“Yes.”

It was clear