The car travelled at a fast pace, along the Seine and through Boulogne. At Saint-Cloud, they crossed the river.
"Splendid!" cried Lupin. "We're going to Garches! You want me there, in order to reënact the death of Altenheim. We shall go down into the underground passage, I shall disappear and people will say that I got through another outlet, known to myself alone! Lord, how idiotic!"
He seemed quite unhappy about it:
"Idiotic! Idiotic in the highest degree! I blush for shame! . . . And those are the people who govern us! . . . What an age to live in! . . . But, you poor devils, why didn't you come to me? I'd have invented a beautiful little escape for you, something of a miraculous nature. I had it all ready pigeon-holed in my mind! The public would have yelled with wonder and danced with delight. Instead of which . . . However, it's quite true that you were given rather short notice . . . but all the same . . ."
The programme was exactly as Lupin had foreseen. They walked through the grounds of the House of Retreat to the Pavillon Hortense. Lupin and his two companions went down the stairs and along the underground passage. At the end of the tunnel, the deputy-chief said:
"You are free."
"And there you are!" said Lupin. "Is that all? Well, my dear Weber, thank you very much and sorry to have given you so much trouble. Good-bye, Monsieur le Préfet; kind regards to the missus!"
He climbed the stairs that led to the Villa des Glycines, raised the trap-door and sprang into the room.
A hand fell on his shoulder.
Opposite him stood his first visitor of the day before, the one who had accompanied the Emperor. There were four men with him, two on either side.