e bewilderment, they succeeded in recovering the
control of their thought and told--or rather Ganimard told, for Shears
wrapped himself in a fierce and stubborn silence--how they had made a
voyage of circumnavigation round the coast of Africa on board the yacht
Hirondelle, a voyage combining amusement with instruction, during which
they could look upon themselves as free, save for a few hours which
they spent at the bottom of the hold, while the crew went on shore at
outlandish ports.

As for their landing on the Quai des Orfevres, they remembered nothing
about it and had probably been asleep for many days before.

This liberation of the prisoners was the final confession of defeat. By
ceasing to fight, Lupin admitted it without reserve.

One incident, moreover, made it still more glaring, which was the
engagement of Louis Valmeras and Mlle. de Saint-Veran. In the intimacy
created between them by the new conditions under which they lived, the
two young people fell in love with each other. Valmeras loved
Raymonde's melancholy charm; and she, wounded by life, greedy for
protection, yielded before the strength and energy of the man who had
contributed so gallantly to her preservation.

The wedding day was awaited with a certain amount of anxiety. Would
Lupin not try to resume the offensive? Would he accept with a good
grace the irretrievable loss of the woman he loved? Twice or three
times, suspicious-looking people were seen prowling round the villa;
and Valmeras even had to defend himself one evening against a so-called
drunken man, who fired a pistol at him and sent a bullet through his
hat. But, in the end, the ceremony was performed at the appointed hour
and day and Raymonde de Saint-Veran became Mme. Louis Valmeras.

It was as though Fate herself had taken sides with Beautrelet and
countersigned the news of victory. This was so apparent to the crowd
that his admirers now conceived the notion of entertaining him at a
banquet to celebrate his triumph and Lupin's overthrow. It was a great
idea and aroused general enthusiasm. Three hundred tickets were sold in
less than a fortnight. Invitations were issued to the public schools of
Paris, to send two sixth-form pupils apiece. The press sang paeans. The
banquet was what it could not fail to be, an apotheosis.

But it was a charming and simple apotheosis, because Beautrelet was its
hero. His presence was enough to bring things back to their due
proportion. He showed h