ar me!" said the ex-deputy. "And why?"

The two men moved away.

Daubrecq had not uttered a word and stood motionless, as though rooted
to the ground.

The old gentleman went up to him and whispered:

"I say, Daubrecq, wake up, old chap... It's the chloroform, I expect..."

Daubrecq clenched his fists and gave a muttered growl.

"Ah, I see you know me!" said the old gentleman. "Then you will remember
our interview, some months ago, when I came to see you in the Square
Lamartine and asked you to intercede in Gilbert's favour. I said to
you that day, 'Lay down your arms, save Gilbert and I will leave you in
peace. If not, I shall take the list of the Twenty-seven from you; and
then you're done for.' Well, I have a strong suspicion that done for is
what you are. That comes of not making terms with kind M. Lupin. Sooner
or later, you're bound to lose your boots by it. However, let it be a
lesson to you.

"By the way, here's your pocketbook which I forgot to give you. Excuse
me if you find it lightened of its contents. There were not only
a decent number of bank-notes in it, but also the receipt from the
warehouse where you stored the Enghien things which you took back from
me. I thought I might as well save you the trouble of taking them out
yourself. It ought to be done by now. No, don't thank me: it's not worth
mentioning. Good-bye, Daubrecq. And, if you should want a louis or
two, to buy yourself a new decanter-stopper, drop me a line. Good-bye,
Daubrecq."

He walked away.

He had not gone fifty steps when he heard the sound of a shot.

He turned round.

Daubrecq had blown his brains out.

"De profundis," murmured Lupin, taking off his hat.

Two months later, Gilbert, whose sentence had been commuted to one of
penal servitude for life, made his escape from the Ile de Re, on the day
before that on which he was to have been transported to New Caledonia.

It was a strange escape. Its least details remained difficult to
understand; and, like the two shots on the Boulevard Arago, it greatly
enhanced Arsene Lupin's prestige.

"Taken all round," said Lupin to me, one day, after telling me the
different episodes of the story, "taken all around, no enterprise
has ever given me more trouble or cost me greater exertions than that
confounded adventure which, if you don't mind, we will call, The Crystal
Stopper; or, Never Say Die. In twelve hours, between six o'clock in the
morning and six o'clock in the evening, I