less in the company of
other victims. And I have come to ask you what you know of your tenant,
Baron Anfredi."

"Not much. I met Baron Anfredi last winter at Monte Carlo. He had heard
by accident that I was the owner of the Chateau de l'Aiguille and, as
he wished to spend the summer in France, he made me an offer for it."

"He is still a young man--"

"Yes, with very expressive eyes, fair hair--"

"And a beard?"

"Yes, ending in two points, which fall over a collar fastened at the
back, like a clergyman's. In fact, he looks a little like an English
parson."

"It's he," murmured Beautrelet, "it's he, as I have seen him: it's his
exact description."

"What! Do you think--?"

"I think, I am sure that your tenant is none other than Arsene Lupin."

The story amused Louis Valmeras. He knew all the adventures of Arsene
Lupin and the varying fortunes of his struggle with Beautrelet. He
rubbed his hands:

"Ha, the Chateau de l'Aiguille will become famous!--I'm sure I don't
mind, for, as a matter of fact, now that my mother no longer lives in
it, I have always thought that I would get rid of it at the first
opportunity. After this, I shall soon find a purchaser. Only--"

"Only what?"

"I will ask you to act with the most extreme prudence and not to inform
the police until you are quite sure. Can you picture the situation,
supposing my tenant were not Arsene Lupin?"

Beautrelet set forth his plan. He would go alone at night; he would
climb the walls; he would sleep in the park-- Louis Valmeras stopped
him at once:

"You will not climb walls of that height so easily. If you do, you will
be received by two huge sheep-dogs which belonged to my mother and
which I left behind at the castle."

"Pooh! A dose of poison--"

"Much obliged. But suppose you escaped them. What then? How would you
get into the castle? The doors are massive, the windows barred. And,
even then, once you were inside, who would guide you? There are eighty
rooms."

"Yes, but that room with two windows, on the second story--"

"I know it, we call it the glycine room. But how will you find it?
There are three staircases and a labyrinth of passages. I can give you
the clue and explain the way to you, but you would get lost just the
same."

"Come with me," said Beautrelet, laughing.

"I can't. I have promised to go to my mother in the South."

Beautrelet returned to the friend with whom he was staying and began to
make his preparations. But