“Look here, Chief: since Sauvinoux is no longer Sauvinoux, hadn’t we better arrest whoever he is,” Labonce suggested. “I’ve disliked him ever since you engaged him last week. Shall we? The three of us can collar him all right.”
“Do as I tell you,” said Marescal.
Doubtless three to one did not seem to him good enough odds.
He shut the door on them.
Sauvinoux finished his transformation, straightened his waistcoat and his tie; and another man faced them. The measly-looking policeman of a minute or two before had become a debonair fellow, sure of himself, well dressed, elegant, even young, in whom Marescal beheld once more his habitual prosecutor.
“How do you do, Mademoiselle? Allow me to introduce myself—Baron Limézy, explorer—and for the last week a detective. You recognized me at once, I think. Yes? I guessed it down in the hall. Maintain your silence by all means, but still laugh. How good it was to hear your laugh just now! What a reward for my efforts!”
He bowed to Bregeac and said: “How do you do, sir?”
Then he turned to Marescal and said cheerfully: “And how are you, old chap? Of course you didn’t recognize me—you wouldn’t. You’re still asking yourself how I managed to take Sauvinoux’s place. For [[221]]you still believe in the existence of Sauvinoux. Heavens! that there should be a man who believes in the existence of Sauvinoux and that he held the rank of chief turnip in the police world! But, my good Rudolph, Sauvinoux never did exist. Sauvinoux’s a myth. He’s a non-existent personage who was warmly recommended to the foreign minister, and the foreign minister’s wife had him appointed your collaborator in the express case. And that’s how it came about that I’ve been in your service for the last ten days, that is to say, that I have guided you in the way you should go, that I pointed out to you the flat of Baron de Limézy, that I had myself arrested by myself this morning, and that I found, where I had hidden it, the marvelous bottle which proclaims the incontestable truth that Marescal is a blockhead.”
One would have thought that the Commissary would have sprung at Ralph’s throat; but he kept control of himself. And Ralph went on in the tone of mockery which gave Aurelie a feeling of complete security and lashed Marescal like a whip: “You’re looking devilishly uncomfortable, Rudolph. Why are you itching so? Are you annoyed because I’m here and not in a cell, and you’re asking yourself how I was able at one and the same time to go to prison as Limézy and lunch with you as Sauvinoux? What an infant it is! What a fine sleuth! But, my good Rudolph, it’s simplicity itself! Having myself arranged the invasion of my [[222]]domicile! I substituted for Baron de Limézy an obliging and well-paid gentleman, who had the very slightest resemblance to that Baron, but was instructed to endure without immediate protest all the misfortunes which might befall him to-day. Conducted by my old servant, you rushed like a bull at this gentleman, whose head I instantly covered with a handkerchief; and off he goes to Headquarters. The result: rid of the formidable Limézy, absolutely reassured, you came to arrest Mademoiselle, a thing you would never have done, had I been free. Now, it was necessary that what has taken place should take place. You understand, Rudolph? It was necessary. This little interview between the four of us was necessary. It was necessary that matters should be brought to a point at which there was no turning back. They have been brought to that point, haven’t they? Once more we all breathe easily. What a lot of nightmares we have been freed from! How pleasant it is, even for you, to think that in ten minutes from now Mademoiselle and I will be bidding you good-by.”
In spite of this biting mockery, Marescal had recovered his coolness. He wished to seem as calm as his opponent, and with a careless movement he took the receiver from the telephone.