“Can you furnish any details of your theory?”
“Certainly. For example, from the beginning of your conflict with Monsieur Gerbois, is it not evident that the apartment of Monsieur Detinan is the place selected by you, the inevitable spot where all the parties must meet? In your opinion, it was the only safe place, and you arranged a rendezvous there, publicly, one might say, for the blonde Lady and Mademoiselle Gerbois.”
“The professor’s daughter,” added Wilson.
“Now, let us consider the case of the blue diamond. Did you try to appropriate it while the Baron d’Hautrec possessed it? No. But the baron takes his brother’s house. Six months later we have the intervention of Antoinette Bréhat and the first attempt. The diamond escapes you, and the sale is widely advertised to take place at the Drouot auction-rooms. Will it be a free and open sale? Is the richest amateur sure to carry off the jewel? No. Just as the banker Herschmann is on the point of buying the ring, a lady sends him a letter of warning, and it is the Countess de Crozon, prepared and influenced by the same lady, who becomes the purchaser of the diamond. Will the ring disappear at once? No; you lack the opportunity. Therefore, you must wait. At last the Countess goes to her château. That is what you were waiting for. The ring disappears.”
“To reappear again in the tooth-powder of Herr Bleichen,” remarked Lupin.
“Oh! such nonsense!” exclaimed Sholmes, striking the table with his fist, “don’t tell me such a fairy tale. I am too old a fox to be led away by a false scent.”
“What do you mean?”
“What do I mean?” said Sholmes, then paused a moment as if he wished to arrange his effect. At last he said:
“The blue diamond that was found in the tooth-powder was false. You kept the genuine stone.”
Arsène Lupin remained silent for a moment; then, with his eyes fixed on the Englishman, he replied, calmly: