The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-12-21

mont.
Horace Velmont seemed rather an
noyed.
II suppose you're right. Devanne.
You're not the first to- tell me of it:
assure you"
upon my word" persisted De-
vanne, eff you had not been intro
!! duced to me by my cousin d'Estavan,
and if you were not the wel1-known
painter whose charming sea pieces 1
admire so much, I'm not sure but that
/ should have informed the police of
your presence at Dieppe."
The sally was received with general
laughter. There were gathered. in the
great dining room of Thibermesnil
Castle, in addition to Velmont, the
Able Cells, rector of the village. and
dozen officers whose regiments were
taking part in the manoeuvres in the
neighborhood, and who had accepted
the invitation of Georges Devanne,
the banker, and his mother.
The company laughed once more,
and moved into the old guardroom-
a huge, lofty hall which occupies the
whole of the lower portion of the
Tour Guillaume, and in which
Georges Devanne has arranged all the
incompatible treasures accumulated
through the centuries by the lords OF
Thibermesnil.
Presently Devanne announced:
Tomorrow, at four o'clock in the
afternoon, l shall have here. as my
guest, Holmlock Shears. the great
English detective, for whom no mys-
terry exists, the most extraordinary
solver of riddles that has ever been
known, the wonderful individual who
might have been the creation OF a
novelists brain"
There was a general exclamation.
Eolmlock Shears at Thibermesnil!
The thing was serious, then? Was
Arsene Lupin really in the district?
Devanne rose, and, pointing to a
little empty space between two tall
folios on one of the shelves of the
bookcase, said:
"There was book here-a sixteenth
century book, entitled The Chronicles
of hibermesnil'-which was the his
tory of the castle since the time of its
construction by Duke Rollo, on the
site of a feudaI fortress. 1t contained
three engraved plates. One OF them
presented a general view Of the do
main as a whole; the second a plan
of the building; and the third call
YOUR special attention to this-the
sketch of an underground passage
one of whose outlets opens outside
the first line of the ramparts, while
the other ends here-yes. in this very
hall where we are sitting. Now this
book disappeared last month"
"By Jovep said Velmont. that's a
bad sign. Only it's not enough to
Justify the Intervention of Holmloek
Shears"
Certainly it would not have been
enough if another fact had not come
to give its full significance to that
which l have just told you. There
was a second copy of the chronicle
in the Bibliotheque Rationale, and
the two copies differed in certain de-
tails concerning the underground
passage, such as the addition OF
sectional drawing, and scale and
number of notes, not printed, but
written in ink and more or less OBJ
liberated. knew of these particulars,
and I knew that the definite sketch
could not be reconstructed except by
carefully collating the two plans.
Well, on the day after that on which
my copy disappeared the one IN the
Bibliothcque Rationale was applied
for by a reader who carried 1t Oft
without leaving any clew as to the
manner in which the theft had been
effected"
These words were greeted with
many ordinations.
"It then occurred to me to write
and ask for the help of Holmlock
Shears, who replied that he had the
keenest wish to come into contact
with A-sene Lupin."
"What an honor for Arsene Lu-
pinw said Velmont. "But if our ma
tional thief should not be contem-
plating a project upon Thibermesnil,
then there will be nothing for Holm |
lock Shears to do but twiddle his
thumbs"
"There is another matter which is
sure to interest him: the discovery of
the underground passage"
"Why, you told US that one end
opened in the fields and the other
here, in the guard room!"
Eyes, but in what part of it? The
line that represents the tunnel on the
plans finishes, at one end, at little
circle accompanied by the initials T.