The following day, as I entered my private room at the usual hour,
I was conscious of a singular impression, in the nature of a
presentiment. Some men possess a sense, more subtle than sight or
smell, by means of which they are able to detect a personal presence,
more especially one hostile to themselves. I have been well served
by an instinct of this kind on more than one occasion, and now it
asserted itself so strongly that for an instant I believed that there
must be some one hiding in my room.
A glance around removed this suspicion. Everything was in its place
as usual--was even _more_ in its place than usual, if I may be
permitted the hyperbole.
I went to the secret drawer in which I kept the cipher despatches
concerning the Panama affair (on which I was engaged about this time).
It seemed to me that the spring worked a little _more_ smoothly than
when I had last opened the drawer. The papers inside lay exactly as
I had left them overnight. Struck by a sudden thought, I pulled the
drawer right out, lit a match, and examined the dusty floor of the
recess.
I was rewarded by the sight of one--two--three distinct prints of
finger-tips in the dust.
That sight, of course, told me everything. My office had been
ransacked during the night by the French police, and those prints had
been left by fingers tapping in search of the hiding-place of the
Humbert millions.
It was a startling thing to find M. Rattache so swiftly on my trail,
and I inwardly cursed the imprudence which had permitted Madame
Humbert to pay me her tell-tale visit. I put on my hat and hurried
round to the little apartment in the Quartier Latin which I use for
appointments with persons whom it would be inexpedient to receive
openly. As I expected, I found M. Rattache had been before me. His
myrmidons had done their work no less thoroughly here than at my
headquarters.
I always enjoy a struggle with a foe worthy of my steel, and this
was by no means my first bout with the famous detective force of
Paris. On my first settling in Paris, their attentions to me had been
incessant and disagreeable, and it had taken all my ingenuity to
keep my secrets from them. By degrees we had drifted into a species
of informal armistice, it being understood, rather than agreed,
that they abandoned the attempt to follow my proceedings, while I
refrained from acting against them in the criminal affairs with which
they were chiefly concerned.
Between M. Rattache, the brilliant head of the force, and myself
there had sprung up a warm private friendship, based on mutual
respect. I knew that he would not have permitted his men to trouble
me without pretty good grounds for so doing; and this made me the
more anxious.
My first thought, after visiting the Quartier Latin, was for my
private residence. I felt pretty sure that the police could not have
been there in the night without my knowledge, and I asked myself what
plan the fertile brain of my rival would devise in order to search
the premises without giving me warning.
I hailed a fiacre, and bade the driver go to my house at his best
speed. It was not yet eleven o’clock, so there was room for hope that
M. Rattache had not begun his attack in this quarter. If he had, I
should probably catch his men at work.
As we drew near the street in which my house is situated we were
overtaken by a fire-engine, which dashed by at a gallop. Struck by
a sudden apprehension, I offered my driver a golden _pourboire_ to
double his speed.
[Illustration: “I was stopped at the barricade by a pompous sergeant
of police.”]
It was too late. As we drove up I beheld a thick black column of
smoke issuing from my house. A barricade had been formed; half a
dozen fire-engines were drawn up in front, though it was remarkable
that not one had yet begun to play upon the building; and every floor
appeared to be swarming with firemen, who were gutting the house of
everything it contained.
In spite of my vexation at the sight of my ruined home, I could
not withhold my tribute of admiration to M. Rattache’s promptness
and resource. Under the pretence of a fire, which he had of course
contrived to start, and which was well under control, he had turned
in a horde of detectives, disguised as firemen, with instructions to
pull the building to pieces, if necessary, in search of the Humbert
millions.
It was useless for me to think of interfering. I was stopped at the
barricade by a pompous sergeant of police, who took down my name
and address, rebuked me severely for my negligence in permitting my
house to catch fire, and forbade me to interrupt the firemen in their
benevolent labours on my behalf.
Walking to and fro on the pavement, and scrutinising every article
brought out from the building by his assistants, I perceived M.
Rattache himself. In a minute he caught sight of me, and came towards
me with extended arms.
He knew, of course, that I thoroughly understood the game.
Nevertheless, his expression of sympathetic distress was perfect.
‘My dear V----! What an unlucky chance! Behold me overwhelmed with
grief at your misfortune!’
‘You are too good,’ I returned drily. ‘There is nothing of any value
in the house, I am glad to say. This accident will merely give me the
annoyance of sleeping in a hotel for the next few nights.’
‘Do not say that, my dear colleague,’ M. Rattache responded eagerly.
‘You will confer a real favour on me by consenting to accept my
hospitality for a short time, till your house is ready for you again.’
I glanced at him with suspicion. Did this mean that I was to be under
arrest?
‘I cannot thank you sufficiently for such kindness,’ was my answer.
‘But I am afraid I should cause you too much inconvenience. My hours
are very irregular; sometimes it is necessary for me to be at my
office in the middle of the night.’
‘Do not let yourself be restrained by such considerations,’ he
replied earnestly. ‘You shall be as free as if you were under your
own roof.’
It would have been ungracious to persist in my refusal, especially
as I fancied from M. Rattache’s tone that he had already come to
the conclusion that his raid on my house was a mistake, and really
regretted the inconvenience he had caused me.
On the whole, the arrangement was not such a bad one for me. While I
should have been exposed to the surveillance of my antagonist in any
case, this plan would place him under mine. We should be like the
combatants in the holmgang, who were strapped together, and placed on
a small island, to hack each other to pieces with knives.
I moved into my new quarters the same day, some of my personal
baggage being brought round by the pretended firemen, who must have
wondered to see me on such terms with their chief. Rattache presented
me to his wife, a most charming woman with three little daughters,
whose hearts I immediately won by organising all sorts of games at
blindman’s buff and hide-and-seek.
During the next few days I received cipher wires from my various
agents abroad, informing me that their apartments had been searched,
and that they were being shadowed by unknown men.
I was pleased with these despatches, which proved to me that my men
were on the alert. I sent encouraging replies, and persuaded Madame
Rattache to accompany me to the theatre.
I had already visited a Turkish bath in company with my host, in
order to afford him every facility for ascertaining that I was not
carrying any portion of the £8,000,000 on my person.
At the end of a month my house was in perfect order again. M.
Rattache was beginning to feel a little uneasy, perhaps, at my great
progress in the friendship of madame, for he raised no objection when
I proposed to bring my stay with him to a close. The little girls
were in despair at my going, and Madame Rattache earnestly pressed me
to come and see them frequently.
Months passed away, and France and Europe were absorbed in learning
of the sudden flight of the Humberts, the discovery of the empty
safe, the capture of the fugitives, and the trial and sentence of the
majestic Thérèse.
As she was leaving the dock at the end of the case, one of the
warders slipped into her hand a piece of paper which contained simply
my initials--A. V.
I had gone straight from Baron Y----’s house, at the end of our
conversation, to the Humbert mansion, gained admittance by means
of the master-key which I usually carry about me, opened the safe
without the least difficulty, and carried off its contents--all
before Madame Humbert had left the Baron’s door.
[Illustration: “The chief detective came close up to me, put his
mouth to my ear, and whispered, ‘_Le drapeau blanc!_’”]
This instantaneous action, which I had considered necessary for my
own protection, turned out to be the best possible course for the
safety of the millions. Now I had redeemed my promise to Madame
Humbert, by admitting that I was in possession of the lost
treasure, and I waited confidently for the person who should come to
claim it.
Exactly two days afterwards I was surprised by a visit from M.
Rattache, whom I had not seen for some time, a slight coolness having
resulted from his abortive efforts to surprise my secret.
The chief detective, instead of taking the chair I offered him, came
close up to me, put his mouth to my ear, and whispered: ‘_Le drapeau
blanc!_’
The white flag! Is there any English reader who does not know that in
France the white flag signifies the ancient standard of the Valois
and the Bourbons--the inseparable emblem of Legitimist royalty, which
the Comte de Chambord refused to exchange for the Revolutionary
tricolor, even to obtain the throne?
I stared at M. Rattache, confounded to find in the head of the
Republican police the confidential agent of the Monarchists.
He enjoyed my astonishment for a minute in silence. Then he said
aloud--
‘Now, my dear V----, perhaps you will reveal to me the secret of that
hiding-place which has baffled the efforts of my best men for so
long.’