Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1918-05-23
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DEVILS PosroFFIcn.

THE DEVILS POSToFFIcH.
VI all these events the public
knew only of the attempted sui
eide OF Mime. Fauville, the cap
ture and escape Of CASTOR Sau-
verand, the murder of Chief In
spector Ancenis, and the discov-
ery-of a letter written by Hippo
lyte Fauville. This was enough,
however, to reawaken their curl
osity, as they were already singu-
larly puzzled by the Mornington
case and took the greatest inter
est in all the movements, however
slight, of the mysterious Don Luis
Perenna, whom they insisted on
confusing with Arsene Lupin.
He was, Of course, credited
with the brief capture of the man
with the ebony walking stick. 1t
was also known that he had saved
the life of the project of police,
and that, finally, having at his
own request spent the night in the
house on the Boulevard Suchet,
he had become the recipient Of
Hippolyte Fauville's famous let
ter. And all this added immense
ly to the excitement of the afore-
said public.
But how much more compli-
Gated and disconcerting were the
problems set to Don Luis Perenna
himself! Not to mention the de-
nuneiation in the anonymous
article, there had been, in the
short space of 49 hours, no fewer
than four separate attempts to
kill him by the iron curtain, by
poison, by the shooting on the
Boulevard Suchet, and by the de-
liberately prepared motor acct
dent.
Florence's share in this series
Of attempts was not to be denied.
And, now, behold her relations
with the Fauvilles' murderers
duly established by the little note
found in the eighth volume of
Shakespeare plays, while two
more deaths were added to the
melancholy list: the deaths of
Chief Inspector Ancenis and of
the chauffeur. How to describe
and how to explain the part
played, in the midst>of all these
catastrophes, by that enigmatical
girl9
Strangely enough, life went on
as usual at the house ia the Place
du Palais-Bourbon, as though
nothing out Of the+way had hap.
pened there. Every morning
Florence Levasseur sorted Dol
Yuis' post in his presence and
read out the newspaper articles
referring to himself or bearing
upon the Mornington case.
Not a single allusion was made
to the free fight that had been
waged against him for two days
1t was as though a truce had been
proclaimed between them; and
} the enemy appeared to have
ceased his attacks for the mo-
ment. Don Luis felt easy, out OF
the reach Of danger ! and he
talked to the gill with an indif.
Ifersnt air, as he might have
talked to anybody.
But with what q feyerish inter.
est he studied her u~aobservedl
He watched the expression Of her
lface, at once calm and eager, and
a painful sensitivsaess which
showed under the placid mask
and which, difficult TO control. re.
yealed itself in the frequent quiv.
ering of the lips.and nostrils.
Who are youf Who are your
he felt inclined to exclaim. "Will
nothing content you, you she
devil, but to deal out murder all
roundi And do you want my
IIdeath also, in order to attain your
Iobjectf Where do you come from
and where are you making FORT
On reflection, he was convinced
of = certainty that solved a prob
lem which had preoccupied him
for q long tinaa-namely, the neys-
terious connection between his
own presence in the mansion ii
the Place dn Palaise- Bourbon and
the presence OF q woman who was
manifestly wreaking her hatred
Ion him
He now understood~that he had
mot bought the house ~ ACCIDENT.
IN making tho purchase he had
been persuaded by IN anonymous
iotfer that reached HMM the