it was a very difficult piece of work....I passed through various stages.
When all is said, I had my suspicions...and not without cause...""What do you mean?" asked Clarisse.
"One second....I must give an order first."He called his secretary:
"Please telephone at once to the Elysee, make my apologies and say that I shall not require the audience, for reasons which I will explain later."He closed the door and returned to his desk.Clarisse and Lupin stood choking, looking at him in stupefaction, failing to understand this sudden change.Was he mad? Was it a trick on his part? A breach of faith? And was he refusing to keep his promise, now that he possessed the list?
He held it out to Clarisse:
"You can have it back."
Have it back?"
"And return it to Daubrecq."
"To Daubrecq?"
"Unless you prefer to burn it."
"What do you say?"
"I say that, if I were in your place, I would burn it.""Why do you say that? It's ridiculous!"
"On the contrary, it is very sensible."
"But why? Why?"
"Why? I will tell you.The list of the Twenty-seven, as we know for absolutely certain, was written on a sheet of letter-paper belonging to the chairman of the Canal Company, of which there are a few samples in this cash-box.Now all these samples have as a water-mark a little cross of Lorraine which is almost invisible, but which can just be seen in the thickness of the paper when you hold it up to the light.The sheet which you have brought me does not contain that little cross of Lorraine."________________________________________________________________________The Cross of Lorraine is a cross with two horizontal lines or bars across the upper half of the perpendicular beam.-Translator's Note.
________________________________________________________________________Lupin felt a nervous trembling shake him from head to foot and he dared not turn his eyes on Clarisse, realizing what a terrible blow this was to her.He heard her stammer:
"Then are we to suppose...that Daubrecq was taken in?""Not a bit of it!" exclaimed Prasville."It is you who have been taken in, my poor friend.Daubrecq has the real list, the list which he stole from the dying man's safe.""But this one..."
"This one is a forgery."
"A forgery?"
"An undoubted forgery.It was an admirable piece of cunning on Daubrecq's part.Dazzled by the crystal stopper which he flashed before your eyes, you did nothing but look for that stopper in which he had stowed away no matter what, the first bit of paper that came to hand, while he quietly kept..."Prasville interrupted himself.Clarisse was walking up to him with short, stiff steps, like an automaton.She said:
"Then..."
"Then what, dear friend?"
"You refuse?"
"Certainly, I am obliged to; I have no choice.""You refuse to take that step?"
"Look here, how can I do what you ask? It's not possible, on the strength of a valueless document...""You won't do it?...You won't do it?...And, to-morrow morning...in a few hours...Gilbert..."She was frightfully pale, her face sunk, like the face of one dying.
Her eyes opened wider and wider and her teeth chattered..."Lupin, fearing the useless and dangerous words which she was about to utter, seized her by the shoulders and tried to drag her away.But she thrust him back with indomitable strength, took two or three more steps, staggered, as though on the point of falling, and, suddenly, in a burst of energy and despair, laid hold of Prasvile and screamed:
