it is the only
way. Once the beast is killed, you and I will bury it in some corner,
unseen and unknown."

"And Angelique?"

"We will tell her later."

"What will become of her?"

"She will be my wife, the wife of the real d'Emboise. I desert her
to-morrow and return to Algeria. The divorce will be granted in two
months' time."

The duke listened, pale and staring, with set jaws. He whispered:

"Are you sure that his accomplices on the yacht will not inform him of
your escape?"

"Not before to-morrow."

"So that ...?"

"So that inevitably, at nine o'clock this evening, Arsene Lupin, on his
way to the Great Oak, will take the patrol-path that follows the old
ramparts and skirts the ruins of the chapel. I shall be there, in the
ruins."

"I shall be there too," said the Duc de Sarzeau-Vendome, quietly, taking
down a gun.

It was now five o'clock. The duke talked some time longer to his nephew,
examined the weapons, loaded them with fresh cartridges. Then, when
night came, he took d'Emboise through the dark passages to his bedroom
and hid him in an adjoining closet.

Nothing further happened until dinner. The duke forced himself to keep
calm during the meal. From time to time, he stole a glance at his
son-in-law and was surprised at the likeness between him and the real
d'Emboise. It was the same complexion, the same cast of features, the
same cut of hair. Nevertheless, the look of the eye was different,
keener in this case and brighter; and gradually the duke discovered
minor details which had passed unperceived till then and which proved
the fellow's imposture.

The party broke up after dinner. It was eight o'clock. The duke went to
his room and released his nephew. Ten minutes later, under cover of the
darkness, they slipped into the ruins, gun in hand.

Meanwhile, Angelique, accompanied by her husband, had gone to the suite
of rooms which she occupied on the ground-floor of a tower that flanked
the left wing. Her husband stopped at the entrance to the rooms and
said:

"I am going for a short stroll, Angelique. May I come to you here, when
I return?"

"Yes," she replied.

He left her and went up to the first floor, which had been assigned to
him as his quarters. The moment he was alone, he locked the door,
noiselessly opened a window that looked over the landscape and leant
out. He saw a shadow at the foot of the tower, some hundred feet or more
below him. He whistled and received a faint whistl