813 quotes

Mr. Kesselbach turned round sharply, as though he wanted to make sure; but, instead, with a quick movement, he seized the traveling-bag, thrust his hand into it, grasped a revolver, aimed it at the man and pulled the trigger.

“Whew!” said the stranger. “So you load your weapons with air and silence?”

The cock clicked a second time and a third, but there was no report.

Rich man, big man though you may be, there is not so much difference between us. The son of the Augsburg ironmonger and Arsène Lupin, prince of burglars, can come to an understanding without shame on either side.

I do my thieving indoors; you do yours on the Stock Exchange. It’s all much of a muchness.

So here we are, Kesselbach. Let’s be partners in this business. I have need of you, because I don’t know what it’s about. You have need of me, because you will never be able to manage it alone. Barbareux is an ass. I am Lupin.

“But I say,” protested the manager, “my customers?”

“I don’t care a hang, sir, for your customers! My duty comes before everything; and my duty is at all costs to arrest.⁠ ⁠…”

“So you believe …” the examining-magistrate ventured to interpolate.

“Oh, I say. … Look here, Lenormand, you’re making fun of us. I tell you again that no one has entered the room.”

“There were six of us in this room, Monsieur le Président; there are seven now. Consequently, someone has entered the room.”

“Eh! But this is madness! … What! You mean to say …”

Sernine put his hand on the young man’s shoulder and, coldly:

“Poets do not need food, monsieur. They live on rhymes and dreams. Do as they do. That is better than begging for bread.”

The young man quivered under the insult. He turned to the door without a word.

“I tried. I have been trying for four years. … You can’t say that I have got myself talked about during those four years!”

“Well, it bores me.”

She gave a sigh and asked:

“You needn’t tell me! And it will be a hard piece of work, for me, at least. … But, by Jove, I wouldn’t sell this moment for a fortune!

Who dares pretend that life is monotonous?

”

“Yes,” said the doctor. “The breathing is becoming normal. But it was a big risk to run … the carotid artery might have …”

“Nothing venture, nothing have.⁠ ⁠… How soon will he recover consciousness?”

“Very well. Oh, by the way, don’t go yet, Doctor. Wait for me downstairs. There is more for you to do.”

“Your life!” And, pointing to the bruises on the young man’s throat, “Your life, which you have not known how to employ!

Your life, which you have bungled, wasted, destroyed and which, I propose to build up again, in accordance with an ideal of beauty, greatness and dignity that would make you giddy, my lad, if you saw the abyss into which my secret thought plunges.

…” He had taken Gérard’s head between his hands and he continued, eagerly: “You are free! No shackles! You have no longer the weight of your name to bear!

“You are free! No shackles! You have no longer the weight of your name to bear! You have got rid of that number with which society had stamped you as though branding you on the shoulder. You are free!

In this world of slaves where each man bears his label you can either come and go unknown, invisible, as if you owned Gyges’ ring⁠ ⁠… or else you can choose your own label, the one you like best!

Do you understand the magnificent treasure which you represent to an artist … to yourself, if you like? A virgin life, a brand-new life!

Do you understand the magnificent treasure which you represent to an artist … to yourself, if you like? A virgin life, a brand-new life!

Your life is the wax which you have the right to fashion as you please, according to the whims of your imagination and the counsels of your reason.

”

“You are standing with your feet in the water.”

“Nonsense!⁠ ⁠… Why, so I am!⁠ ⁠… Well, it can’t be helped.⁠ ⁠… I’ll dry them in the sun.⁠ ⁠…”

“Why, it’s rising, chief, it’s rising! …”

“Shut up, Victoire. You’re boring me with your cackle. I have no time to waste on sentiment.

I’m playing a game of chess; and I move my men without troubling about what they think.

When I have won the game, I will go into the question whether the knight, Pierre Leduc, and the queen, Geneviève, have a heart or not.”

“I keep four menservants and you will be alone.”

“I have my fists,” said Sernine. “We shall be on even terms.”

He turned his back on him and then, calling him back:

He turned his back on him and then, calling him back:

“Oh, one word more, baron. Engage four more servants.”

“I have thought it over. I shall bring my whip.”

“Oh, one word more, baron. Engage four more servants.”

“I have thought it over. I shall bring my whip.”

At one o’clock the next day, precisely, a horseman rode through the gate of the so-called Villa Dupont, a peaceful, countrified private road, the only entrance to which is in the Rue Pergolèse, close to the Avenue du Bois.

Sernine started back from his chair, lest one of the footmen should fall upon him unawares. Then he burst out laughing:

“Look here, baron, next time you want to poison one of your friends, try to steady your voice and to keep your hands from shaking.⁠ ⁠… Otherwise, people suspect you.⁠ ⁠… But I thought you disliked murder?”

“With the knife, yes,” said Altenheim, quite unperturbed. “But I have always had a wish to poison someone. I wanted to see what it was like.”

“Look here, baron, next time you want to poison one of your friends, try to steady your voice and to keep your hands from shaking. … Otherwise, people suspect you. … But I thought you disliked murder?”

“With the knife, yes,” said Altenheim, quite unperturbed. “But I have always had a wish to poison someone. I wanted to see what it was like.”

“By Jove, old chap, you choose your subjects well! A Russian prince!”

he must even be prepared not to die if some ragamuffin or other tries to poison him. …

An undaunted soul in an unassailable body: that is the ideal which he must set before himself⁠ ⁠… and attain.

Try away, old chap. As for me, I am undaunted and unassailable. Remember King Mithridates!”

The formalities of the entry of commitment and of the searching were soon got over; and, at seven o’clock in the evening, Prince Paul Sernine crossed the threshold of cell 14 in the second division:

“Not half bad, your rooms,” he declared, “not bad at all!⁠ ⁠… Electric light, central heating, every requisite⁠ ⁠… capital! Mr. Governor, I’ll take this room.”

He flung himself on the bed:

“Oh, Mr. Governor, I have one little favor to ask of you!”

“Tell them not to bring me my chocolate before ten o’clock in the morning.⁠ ⁠… I’m awfully sleepy.”

He turned his face to the wall. Five minutes later he was sound asleep.

Very well. But one thing, nevertheless, rose above the wonderful concert of praise, these noisy demonstrations of satisfaction; and that was an immense, spontaneous, inextinguishable and tumultuous roar of laughter.

Arsène Lupin had been chief of the detective-service for four years!!!

He had been chief detective for four years and, really, legally, he was chief detective still, with all the rights which the title confers, enjoying the esteem of his chiefs, the favor of the government and the admiration of the public.

“My process is so ingenious and so simple. … How surprised people will be on the day when I am free to speak! ‘Is that all?’ I shall be asked. That is all; but it had to be thought of.”

It was, indeed, childishly simple: all you had to do was to be chief of the detective-service.

Well, Lupin was chief of the detective-service; and every police-officer obeying his orders had made himself the involuntary and unconscious accomplice of Arsène Lupin.

“

But think, Mr. Governor, my only excuse for being in prison is⁠ ⁠… to leave it!

”

A bound across the room, followed by two formidable blows of the fist. …

Lupin’s two arms had darted out to right and left, as though impelled by springs and his two fists, hard as cannon balls, caught the magistrate and his clerk on the jaw, just below the ear.

The magistrate and the clerk collapsed over their tables, in two lumps, without a moan.

The magistrate and the clerk collapsed over their tables, in two lumps, without a moan.

“Well hit!” said Lupin. “That was a neat bit of work.”

He went to the door and locked it softly. Then returning:

“Absolutely unnecessary,” replied the stranger.

“Absolutely essential,” declared Lupin.

“For reasons of politeness, sir. You know my name and I do not know yours; this implies a disregard of good form which I cannot suffer.”

the whole of modern politics upset so that Arsène Lupin may be free! … The plans of the Empire destroyed so that Arsène Lupin may continue his exploits! … Why not ask me for Alsace and Lorraine at once?”

“I did think of it, Sire,” replied Lupin, calmly.

The stranger’s merriment increased:

… he had conceived and, in a manner, produced with such effort and such stubbornness, an historic minute, born of his brain, in which “his humble personality,” for all that he might say, weighed heavily upon the fate of empires and the peace of the world.

Opposite him, in the shadow, Caesar stood meditating.

What answer would he make? What solution would he give to the problem?

No one can help me and no one can help him. There are two of us; and that is all. So far, chance has favored him. But, in the long run, it is inevitable, it is doomed that I should gain the day.”

“Because I am the better man.”

“He will not kill me. I shall draw his claws, I shall make him perfectly harmless. And you shall have the letters, Sire. They are yours. There is no power on earth than can prevent me from restoring them to you.”

The headwaiter hesitated. Lupin unfolded three hundred franc notes.

“Pshaw, what do I care!” said the man. “After all, he’s dead, isn’t he? Quite dead.”

“His name? The Chevalier de Malreich.”

Loud yells of pain. … Four men came tumbling down, one after the other, like dolls at a cockshy.

“Four from seven leaves three,” said Lupin. “Shall I go on?”

His arms remained outstretched, levelled at the Broker and his two pals.

Another sound grated under the window, more plainly this time, but still so faint that it needed Lupin’s trained ear to distinguish it.

Minutes, terrifying minutes.⁠ ⁠… The darkness was impenetrable. No light of star or moon relieved it.

And, suddenly, without hearing anything, he knew that the man was in the room.