a M. Nicole."

"Well?"

"You are not M. Nicole."

"Indeed! Then, pray, who am I?"

"Need I tell you?"

M. Nicole made no reply, but began to laugh softly, as though pleased at
the curious turn which the conversation was taking; and Prasville felt
a vague misgiving at observing that fit of merriment. He grasped the
butt-end of his revolver and wondered whether he ought not to ring for
help.

M. Nicole drew his chair close to the desk, put his two elbows on the
table, looked Prasville straight in the face and jeered:

"So, M. Prasville, you know who I am and you have the assurance to play
this game with me?"

"I have that assurance," said Prasville, accepting the sneer without
flinching.

"Which proves that you consider me, Arsene Lupin--we may as well use the
name: yes, Arsene Lupin--which proves that you consider me fool enough,
dolt enough to deliver myself like this, bound hand and foot into your
hands."

"Upon my word," said Prasville, airily, patting the waistcoat-pocket in
which he had secreted the crystal ball, "I don't quite see what you can
do, M. Nicole, now that Daubrecq's eye is here, with the list of the
Twenty-seven inside it."

"What I can do?" echoed M. Nicole, ironically.

"Yes! The talisman no longer protects you; and you are now no better
off than any other man who might venture into the very heart of the
police-office, among some dozens of stalwart fellows posted behind each
of those doors and some hundreds of others who will hasten up at the
first signal."

M. Nicole shrugged his shoulders and gave Prasville a look of great
commiseration:

"Shall I tell you what is happening, monsieur le secretaire-general?
Well, you too are having your head turned by all this business. Now that
you possess the list, your state of mind has suddenly sunk to that of
a Daubrecq or a d'Albufex. There is no longer even a question, in
your thoughts, of taking it to your superiors, so that this ferment
of disgrace and discord may be ended. No, no; a sodden temptation has
seized upon you and intoxicated you; and, losing your head, you say to
yourself, 'It is here, in my pocket. With its aid, I am omnipotent. It
means wealth, absolute, unbounded power. Why not benefit by it? Why
not let Gilbert and Clarisse Mergy die? Why not lock up that idiot of
a Lupin? Why not seize this unparalleled piece of fortune by the
forelock?'"

He bent toward Prasville and, very softly, in a friendly and
confidential tone,