eard. The
second floor was unoccupied, and the man took up his quarters there. He
was now master of the house.

"And there we are!" said the prefect of police, beginning to laugh, with
a certain bitterness. "There we are! It's as simple as shelling peas.
Only, what surprises me is that he was able to get away so easily."

"I will ask you to observe, monsieur le prefet, that, being absolute
master of the house from one o'clock in the morning, he had until five
o'clock to prepare his flight."

"And that flight took place...?"

"Over the roofs. At that spot the houses in the next street, the Rue de
la Glaciere, are quite near and there is only one break in the roofs,
about three yards wide, with a drop of one yard in height."

"Well?"

"Well, our man had taken away the ladder leading to the garret and used
it as a foot-bridge. After crossing to the next block of buildings, all
he had to do was to look through the windows until he found an empty
attic, enter one of the houses in the Rue de la Glaciere and walk out
quietly with his hands in his pockets. In this way his flight, duly
prepared beforehand, was effected very simply and without the least
obstacle."

"But you had taken the necessary measures."

"Those which you ordered, monsieur le prefet. My men spent three hours
last evening visiting all the houses, so as to make sure that there was
no stranger hiding there. At the moment when they were leaving the last
house I had the street barred. Our man must have slipped through during
that few minutes' interval."

"Capital! Capital! And there is no doubt in your minds, of course: it's
Arsene Lupin?"

"Not a doubt. In the first place, it was all a question of his
accomplices. And then... and then... no one but Arsene Lupin was
capable of contriving such a master-stroke and carrying it out with that
inconceivable boldness."

"But, in that case," muttered the prefect of police--and, turning to
Prasville, he continued--"but, in that case, my dear Prasville,
the fellow of whom you spoke to me, the fellow whom you and the
chief-detective have had watched since yesterday evening, in his flat in
the Place de Clichy, that fellow is not Arsene Lupin?"

"Yes, he is, monsieur le prefet. There is no doubt about that either."

"Then why wasn't he arrested when he went out last night?"

"He did not go out."

"I say, this is getting complicated!"

"It's quite simple, monsieur le prefet. Like all the houses in which
tr