olly good shot to kill a
person whom he wants to kill, at a distance of a hundred yards, and to
wound another person whom he only wants to wound."

"I have had some little practice," said M. Nicole, with modest air.

"And I also think that your plan can only be the fruit of a long
preparation."

"Not at all! That's where you're wrong! It was absolutely spontaneous!
If my servant, or rather the servant of the friend who lent me his flat
in the Place de Clichy, had not shaken me out of my sleep, to tell
me that he had once served as a shopman in that little house on the
Boulevard Arago, that it did not hold many tenants and that there might
be something to be done there, our poor Gilbert would have had his head
cut off by now... and Mme. Mergy would most likely be dead."

"Oh, you think so?"

"I am sure of it. And that was why I jumped at that faithful
retainer's suggestion. Only, you interfered with my plans, monsieur le
secretaire-general."

"I did?"

"Yes. You must needs go and take the three-cornered precaution of
posting twelve men at the door of my house. I had to climb five flights
of back stairs and go out through the servants' corridor and the next
house. Such useless fatigue!"

"I am very sorry, M. Nicole. Another time..."

"It was the same thing at eight o'clock this morning, when I was waiting
for the motor which was bringing Daubrecq to me in his trunk: I had to
march up and down the Place de Clichy, so as to prevent the car from
stopping outside the door of my place and your men from interfering in
my private affairs. Otherwise, once again, Gilbert and Clarisse Mergy
would have been lost."

"But," said Prasville, "those painful events, it seems to me, are only
delayed for a day, two days, three days at most. To avert them for good
and all we should want..."

"The real list, I suppose?"

"Exactly. And I daresay you haven't got it."

"Yes, I have."

"The genuine list?"

"The genuine, the undoubtedly genuine list."

"With the cross of Lorraine?"

"With the cross of Lorraine."

Prasville was silent. He was labouring under violent emotion, now
that the duel was commencing with that adversary of whose terrifying
superiority he was well aware; and he shuddered at the idea that Arsene
Lupin, the formidable Arsene Lupin, was there, in front of him, calm and
placid, pursuing his aims with as much coolness as though he had all the
weapons in his hands and were face to face with a disarmed enemy