s... yes... I know... But the thing is so unexpected..."

"Why?"

"Why? For all sorts of reasons!"

"What reasons?"

"Well... well, but... think! Gilbert and Vaucheray have been sentenced
to death!"

"Send them to penal servitude: that's all you have to do."

"Impossible! The case has created an enormous sensation. They are Arsene
Lupin's accomplices. The whole world knows about the verdict."

"Well?"

"Well, we cannot, no, we cannot go against the decrees of justice."

"You are not asked to do that. You are asked for a commutation of
punishment as an act of mercy. Mercy is a legal thing."

"The pardoning-commission has given its finding..."

"True, but there remains the president of the Republic."

"He has refused."

"He can reconsider his refusal."

"Impossible!"

"Why?"

"There's no excuse for it."

"He needs no excuse. The right of mercy is absolute. It is exercised
without control, without reason, without excuse or explanation. It is a
royal prerogative; the president of the Republic can wield it according
to his good pleasure, or rather according to his conscience, in the best
interests of the State."

"But it is too late! Everything is ready. The execution is to take place
in a few hours."

"One hour is long enough to obtain your answer; you have just told us
so."

"But this is confounded madness! There are insuperable obstacles to your
conditions. I tell you again, it's impossible, physically impossible."

"Then the answer is no?"

"No! No! A thousand times no!"

"In that case, there is nothing left for us to do but to go."

She moved toward the door. M. Nicole followed her. Prasville bounded
across the room and barred their way:

"Where are you going?"

"Well, my friend, it seems to me that our conversation is at an end. As
you appear to think, as, in fact, you are certain that the president of
the Republic will not consider the famous list of the Twenty-seven to be
worth..."

"Stay where you are," said Prasville.

He turned the key in the door and began to pace the room, with his hands
behind his back and his eyes fixed on the floor.

And Lupin, who had not breathed a word during the whole of this scene
and who had prudently contented himself with playing a colourless part,
said to himself:

"What a fuss! What a lot of affectation to arrive at the inevitable
result! As though Prasville, who is not a genius, but not an absolute
blockhead either, would be likely to lose