tor-car."

"Have you a motor-car, M. Nicole?"

"Yes, when I need it: an out-of-date concern, an old tin kettle of
sorts. Well, he was on his way to Paris in a motor-car, or rather on
the roof of a motor-car, inside a trunk in which I packed him. But,
unfortunately, the motor was unable to reach Paris until after the
execution. Thereupon..."

Prasville stared at M. Nicole with an air of stupefaction. If he had
retained the least doubt of the individual's real identity, this manner
of dealing with Daubrecq would have removed it. By Jingo! To pack a man
in a trunk and pitch him on the top of a motorcar!... No one but Lupin
would indulge in such a freak, no one but Lupin would confess it with
that ingenuous coolness!

"Thereupon," echoed Prasville, "you decided what?"

"I cast about for another method."

"What method?"

"Why, surely, monsieur le secretaire-general, you know as well as I do!"

"How do you mean?"

"Why, weren't you at the execution?"

"I was."

"In that case, you saw both Vaucheray and the executioner hit, one
mortally, the other with a slight wound. And you can't fail to see..."

"Oh," exclaimed Prasville, dumbfounded, "you confess it? It was you who
fired the shots, this morning?"

"Come, monsieur le secretaire-general, think! What choice had I? The
list of the Twenty-seven which you examined was a forgery. Daubrecq, who
possessed the genuine one, would not arrive until a few hours after the
execution. There was therefore but one way for me to save Gilbert and
obtain his pardon; and that was to delay the execution by a few hours."

"Obviously."

"Well, of course. By killing that infamous brute, that hardened
criminal, Vaucheray, and wounding the executioner, I spread disorder and
panic; I made Gilbert's execution physically and morally impossible; and
I thus gained the few hours which were indispensable for my purpose."

"Obviously," repeated Prasville.

"Well, of course," repeated Lupin, "it gives us all--the government,
the president and myself--time to reflect and to see the question in a
clearer light. What do you think of it, monsieur le secretaire-general?"

Prasville thought a number of things, especially that this Nicole was
giving proof, to use a vulgar phrase, of the most infernal cheek, of
a cheek so great that Prasville felt inclined to ask himself if he was
really right in identifying Nicole with Lupin and Lupin with Nicole.

"I think, M. Nicole, that a man has to be a j