They both returned to the boudoir, where Madame d'Imblevalle was waiting for them.
Shears was silent for a few minutes longer and then spoke these words:
"Ever since you began your story, monsieur le baron, I was struck by the really too simple side of the offence. To apply a ladder, remove a pane of glass, pick out an object and go away: no, things don't happen so easily as that. It is all too clear, too plain."
"You mean to say...?"
"I mean to say that the theft of the Jewish lamp was committed under the direction of Arsène Lupin."
"Arsène Lupin!" exclaimed the baron.
"But it was committed without Arsène Lupin's presence and without anybody's entering the house.... Perhaps a servant slipped down to the balcony from his garret, along a rain-spout which I saw from the garden."
"But what evidence have you?"
"Arsène Lupin would not have left the boudoir empty-handed."