The Teeth of the Tiger Part 79

"Impossible!" cried Don Luis. "That is a statement which no one is able to prove by material evidence. a.r.s.ene Lupin is dead."

"If you like," Valenglay agreed. "But that does not show that Don Luis Perenna is alive."

"Don Luis Perenna has a duly legalized existence, Monsieur le President."

"Perhaps. But it is disputed."

"By whom? There is only one man who would have the right; and to accuse me would be his own undoing. I cannot believe him to be stupid enough--"

"Stupid enough, no; but crafty enough, yes."

"You mean Caceres, the Peruvian attache?"

"Yes."

"But he is abroad!"

"More than that: he is a fugitive from justice, after embezzling the funds of his legation. But before leaving the country he signed a statement that reached us yesterday evening, declaring that he faked up a complete record for you under the name of Don Luis Perenna. Here is your correspondence with him and here are all the papers establis.h.i.+ng the truth of his allegations. Any one will be convinced, on examining them, first, that you are not Don Luis Perenna, and, secondly, that you are a.r.s.ene Lupin."

Don Luis made an angry gesture.

"That blackguard of a Caceres is a mere tool," he snarled. "The other man's behind him, has paid him, and is controlling his actions. It's the scoundrel himself; I recognize his touch. He has once more tried to get rid of me at the decisive moment."

"I am quite willing to believe it," said the Prime Minister. "But as all these doc.u.ments, according to the letter that came with them, are only photographs, and as, if you are not arrested this morning, the originals are to be handed to a leading Paris newspaper to-night, we are obliged to take note of the accusation."

"But, Monsieur le President," exclaimed Don Luis, "as Caceres is abroad and as the scoundrel who bought the papers of him was also obliged to take to flight before he was able to execute his threats, there is no fear now that the doc.u.ments will be handed to the press."

"How do we know? The enemy must have taken his precautions. He may have accomplices."

"He has none."

"How do we know?"

Don Luis looked at Valenglay and said:

"What is it that you really wish to say, Monsieur le President?"

"I will tell you. Although pressure was brought to bear upon us by Caceres's threats, Monsieur le Prefet de Police, anxious to see all possible light shed on the plot played by Florence Leva.s.seur, did not interfere with your last night's expedition. As that expedition led to nothing, he determined, at any rate, to profit by the fact that Don Luis had placed himself at our disposal and to arrest a.r.s.ene Lupin.

"If we now let him go the doc.u.ments will certainly be published; and you can see the absurd and ridiculous position in which that will place us in the eyes of the public. Well, at this very moment, you ask for the release of a.r.s.ene Lupin, a release which would be illegal, uncalled for, and inexcusable. I am obliged, therefore, to refuse it, and I do refuse it."

He ceased; and then, after a few seconds, he added:

"Unless--"

"Unless?" asked Don Luis.

"Unless--and this is what I wanted to say--unless you offer me in exchange something so extraordinary and so tremendous that I could consent to risk the annoyance which the absurd release of a.r.s.ene Lupin would bring down upon my head."

"But, Monsieur le President, surely, if I bring you the real criminal, the murderer of--"

"I don't need your a.s.sistance for that."

"And if I give you my word of honour, Monsieur le President, to return the moment my task is done and give myself up?"

Valenglay struck the table with his fist and, raising his voice, addressed Don Luis with a certain genial familiarity:

"Come, a.r.s.ene Lupin," he said, "play the game! If you really want to have your way, pay for it! Hang it all, remember that after all this business, and especially after the incidents of last night, you and Florence Leva.s.seur will be to the public what you already are: the responsible actors in the tragedy; nay, more, the real and only criminals. And it is now, when Florence Leva.s.seur has taken to her heels, that you come and ask me for your liberty! Very well, but d.a.m.n it, set a price to it and don't haggle with me!"

"I am not haggling, Monsieur le President," declared Don Luis, in a very straightforward manner and tone. "What I have to offer you is certainly much more extraordinary and tremendous than you imagine. But if it were twice as extraordinary and twice as tremendous, it would not count once Florence Leva.s.seur's life is in danger. Nevertheless, I was ent.i.tled to try for a less expensive transaction. Of this your words remove all hope.

I will therefore lay my cards upon the table, as you demand, and as I had made up my mind to do."

He sat down opposite Valenglay, in the att.i.tude of a man treating with another on equal terms.

"I shall not be long. A single sentence, Monsieur le President, will express the bargain which I am proposing to the Prime Minister of my country."

And, looking Valenglay straight in the eyes, he said slowly, syllable by syllable:

"In exchange for twenty-four hours' liberty and no more, undertaking on my honour to return here to-morrow morning and to return here either with Florence, to give you every proof of her innocence, or without her, to const.i.tute myself a prisoner, I offer you--"

He took his time and, in a serious voice, concluded:

"I offer you a kingdom, Monsieur le President du Conseil."

The sentence sounded bombastic and ludicrous, sounded silly enough to provoke a shrug of the shoulders, sounded like one of those sentences which only an imbecile or a lunatic could utter. And yet Valenglay remained impa.s.sive. He knew that, in such circ.u.mstances as the present, the man before him was not the man to indulge in jesting.

And he knew it so fully that, instinctively, accustomed as he was to momentous political questions in which secrecy is of the utmost importance, he cast a glance toward the Prefect of Police, as though M.

Desmalions's presence in the room hindered him.

"I positively insist," said Don Luis, "that Monsieur le Prefet de Police shall stay and hear what I have to say. He is better able than any one else to appreciate the value of it; and he will bear witness to its correctness in certain particulars."

"Speak!" said Valenglay.

His curiosity knew no bounds. He did not much care whether Don Luis's proposal could have any practical results. In his heart he did not believe in it. But what he wanted to know was the lengths to which that demon of audacity was prepared to go, and on what new prodigious adventure he based the pretensions which he was putting forward so calmly and frankly.

Don Luis smiled:

"Will you allow me?" he asked.

Rising and going to the mantelpiece, he took down from the wall a small map representing Northwest Africa. He spread it on the table, placed different objects on the four corners to hold it in position, and resumed:

"There is one matter, Monsieur le President, which puzzled Monsieur le Prefet de Police and about which I know that he caused inquiries to be made; and that matter is how I employed my time, or, rather, how a.r.s.ene Lupin employed his time during the last three years of his service with the Foreign Legion."

"Those inquiries were made by my orders," said Valenglay.

"And they led--?"

"To nothing."