On the whole, the arrangement was not such a bad one for me. While I should have been exposed to the surveillance of my antagonist in any case, this plan would place him under mine. We should be like the combatants in the holmgang, who were strapped together, and placed on a small island, to hack each other to pieces with knives.
I moved into my new quarters the same day, some of my personal baggage being brought round by the pretended firemen, who must have wondered to see me on such terms with their chief. Rattache presented me to his wife, a most charming woman with three little daughters, whose hearts I immediately won by organising all sorts of games at blindman’s buff and hide-and-seek.
During the next few days I received cipher wires from my various agents abroad, informing me that their apartments had been searched, and that they were being shadowed by unknown men.
I was pleased with these despatches, which proved to me that my men were on the alert. I sent encouraging replies, and persuaded Madame Rattache to accompany me to the theatre.
I had already visited a Turkish bath in company with my host, in order to afford him every facility for ascertaining that I was not carrying any portion of the £8,000,000 on my person.
At the end of a month my house was in perfect order again. M. Rattache was beginning to feel a little uneasy, perhaps, at my great progress in the friendship of madame, for he raised no objection when I proposed to bring my stay with him to a close. The little girls were in despair at my going, and Madame Rattache earnestly pressed me to come and see them frequently.
Months passed away, and France and Europe were absorbed in learning of the sudden flight of the Humberts, the discovery of the empty safe, the capture of the fugitives, and the trial and sentence of the majestic Thérèse.
As she was leaving the dock at the end of the case, one of the warders slipped into her hand a piece of paper which contained simply my initials—A. V.
I had gone straight from Baron Y——’s house, at the end of our conversation, to the Humbert mansion, gained admittance by means of the master-key which I usually carry about me, opened the safe without the least difficulty, and carried off its contents—all before Madame Humbert had left the Baron’s door.
