“I have sufficient to establish that fact.”
“But we require more than that. We desire the restoration of the stolen goods.”
“The Jewish lamp? It is in my possession.”
“The opal necklace? The snuff-box?”
“The opal necklace, the snuff-box, and all the goods stolen on the second occasion are in my possession.”
Sholmes delighted in these dramatic dialogues, and it pleased him to announce his victories in that curt manner. The baron and his wife were amazed, and looked at Sholmes with a silent curiosity, which was the highest praise.
He related to them, very minutely, what he had done during those three days. He told of his discovery of the alphabet book, wrote upon a sheet of paper the sentence formed by the missing letters, then related the journey of Bresson to the bank of the river and the suicide of the adventurer, and, finally, his struggle with Lupin, the shipwreck, and the disappearance of Lupin. When he had finished, the baron said, in a low voice:
“Now, you have told us everything except the name of the guilty party. Whom do you accuse?”
“I accuse the person who cut the letters from the alphabet book, and communicated with Arsène Lupin by means of those letters.”
“How do you know that such correspondence was carried on with Arsène Lupin?”