!

Masters of the secret, the Kings of England lord it over France, humble
her, dismember her, have themselves crowned at Paris. They lose the
secret; and the rout begins.

Masters of the secret, the Kings of France push back and overstep the
narrow limits of their dominion, gradually founding a great nation and
radiating with glory and power. They forget it or know not how to use
it; and death, exile, ruin follow.

An invisible kingdom, in mid-water and at ten fathoms from land! An
unknown fortress, taller than the towers of Notre Dame and built upon a
granite foundation larger than a public square! What strength and what
security! From Paris to the sea, by the Seine. There, the Havre, the
new town, the necessary town. And, sixteen miles thence, the Hollow
Needle, the impregnable sanctuary!

It is a sanctuary and also a stupendous hiding-place. All the treasures
of the kings, increasing from century to century, all the gold of
France, all that they extort from the people, all that they snatch from
the clergy, all the booty gathered on the battle-fields of Europe lie
heaped up in the royal cave. Old Merovingian gold sous, glittering
crown-pieces, doubloons, ducats, florins, guineas; and the precious
stones and the diamonds; and all the jewels and all the ornaments:
everything is there. Who could discover it? Who could ever learn the
impenetrable secret of the Needle? Nobody.

And Lupin becomes that sort of really disproportionate being whom we
know, that miracle incapable of explanation so long as the truth
remains in the shadow. Infinite though the resources of his genius be,
they cannot suffice for the mad struggle which he maintains against
society. He needs other, more material resources. He needs a sure place
of retreat, he needs the certainty of impunity, the peace that allows
of the execution of his plans.

Without the Hollow Needle, Lupin is incomprehensible, a myth, a
character in a novel, having no connection with reality.

Master of the secret--and of such a secret!--he becomes simply a man
like another, but gifted with the power of wielding in a superior
manner the extraordinary weapon with which destiny has endowed him.

* * * * *

So the Needle was hollow.

It remained to discover how one obtained access to it.

From the sea, obviously. There must be, on the side of the offing, some
fissure where boats could land at certain hours of the tide.

But on the side