The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1918-11-07
CfIkrTER NINETEEN-continued.

SSsS ~ ~
dodger, you know. My lords in
his third motor. After the yellow
ear of which you heard at Versail-
les last night, he took another at
lie Mans-destination unknown"
The deputy chief opened his
Eeyes in amazement. Who was this
person who was mentioning facts
that had been telephoned to po-
lice headquarters only at 2
o'clock that mornings He gasped:
but who are. you, Monsieur
"WhatF Don't you know met
What's the good of making ap-
pointmcnts with peopleq You
strain every nerve to be p%unctual,
and then they ask you who you
are! Come, Weber, confess that
you re doing it to annoy me.
Must You gaze on my features in
broad daylight Here gocs!"
He raised his mask.
"Arsene Lupin!' spluttered
the detective.
SAT your service, young fell
low: on foot, in the saddle, and
in mid air. That's where I'm 60
ing now. Goodbye"
And so great was Webcr's as
tonishment at seeing Arsene
Lupin, whom he had taken to the
lookup IL hours before, standing
in front of him, free, at 24O miles
from Paris, that Don Luis, as he
went back to Davanne, thought /:
"What a crusher! I've knock
ed him out in one round. There's
no hurry. The referee will count
10 at least three times before
Weber can say 'Mother!'"
-Davanne was ready. Don Luis
climbed into TIE monoplane. The
peasants pushed at the wheels.
! The machine started.
observation-disclosures. Don Luis
/, ordered. NINETY miles an hour.
! Ten thousand francs"
| We've the wind against u.s.
! said Davanne.
Give thousand francs extra
for the wind" shouted Don Luis.
He admitted no obstacle in his
haste to reach Damigni. He now
understood the whole thing and,
barking back to the very begin
ming, he was surprised that his
mind had never perceived the con-
nection between the two skeletons
hanging in the barn and the series
of crimes resulting from the
Mornington inheritance. Strang-
err still, how was it that the almost
certain murder of Langernault,
Hippolyte Fauville's old friend,
had not afforded him all the clues
which it contained7 The crux of
the sinister plot lay in that.
Who could have intercepted, on
Fauville's behalf, the letters of
accusation which Fauville was
supposed to write to his old friend
Langernault, except some n in
the village or some one who had
lived in the villageY
And now everything was clear.
1t was the nameless scoundrel
who started his career of crime by
killing old Langernault and then
the Dedessuslamare couple. The
method was the same as later on:
it was not direct murder, but an
onymous murder, murder by
suggestion. Like MQrnington the
American, like Fauville the engin-
eer, like Marie, like CASTOR Sau-
verand, old Langernault had been
craftily done away with and the
Dcdessuslamare couple driven to
commit suicide in the barn.
1t was from there that the tiger
had come to Paris, where later
he was to find Fauville and Cos
mo Mornington and plot the trag-
ic affair of the inheritance.
And it was there that he was
now returning. There was no
doubt about that. To. begin
with, the fact that he chad
administered a narcotic to
Florence constituted an indispu-
table proof. Was he not obliged
to put Florence to sleep in order
to prevent her from recognizing
the landscape of Aencon :and
Damigni, or the Old Castle, which
she had explored with CASTOR
Sauverandf
On, the other hand, the LIE
Mans-Angcrs-N Nantes route, which
had been taken to put the police
on a false track, meant only an
extra hour Of two, at most, for
any one motoring to Alencon.
Lastly, that coach house near a
big town, that limousine waiting,
ready charged with petrol, show
ed that the villain, when he. in
tended to visit his retreat, took
the prccaution of stopping at LIE
Mans, in order to 60 from there,