nsense! We've got him: let's
collar him; and that without delay!"

And Ganimard, all a-quiver with indignant impatience, went out, walked
across the garden and presently returned with half-a-dozen men:

"It's all right, chief. I've told them, in the Rue Dufresnoy, to get
their revolvers out and aim at the windows. Come along."

These alarums and excursions had not been effected without a certain
amount of noise, which was bound to be heard by the inhabitants of the
house. M. Dudouis felt that his hand was forced. He made up his mind to
act:

"Come on, then," he said.

The thing did not take long. The eight of them, Browning pistols in
hand, went up the stairs without overmuch precaution, eager to surprise
Lupin before he had time to organize his defences.

"Open the door!" roared Ganimard, rushing at the door of Mme.
Sparmiento's bedroom.

A policeman smashed it in with his shoulder.

There was no one in the room; and no one in Victoire's bedroom either.

"They're all upstairs!" shouted Ganimard. "They've gone up to Lupin in
his attic. Be careful now!"

All the eight ran up the third flight of stairs. To his great
astonishment, Ganimard found the door of the attic open and the attic
empty. And the other rooms were empty too.

"Blast them!" he cursed. "What's become of them?"

But the chief called him. M. Dudouis, who had gone down again to the
second floor, noticed that one of the windows was not latched, but just
pushed to:

"There," he said, to Ganimard, "that's the road they took, the road of
the tapestries. I told you as much: the Rue Dufresnoy...."

"But our men would have fired on them," protested Ganimard, grinding his
teeth with rage. "The street's guarded."

"They must have gone before the street was guarded."

"They were all three of them in their rooms when I rang you up, chief!"

"They must have gone while you were waiting for me in the garden."

"But why? Why? There was no reason why they should go to-day rather than
to-morrow, or the next day, or next week, for that matter, when they had
pocketed all the insurance-money!"

Yes, there was a reason; and Ganimard knew it when he saw, on the table,
a letter addressed to himself and opened it and read it. The letter was
worded in the style of the testimonials which we hand to people in our
service who have given satisfaction:

"I, the undersigned, Arsene Lupin, gentleman-burglar, ex-colonel,
ex-man-of-all-work, ex-corpse, here