"By Jove, it'll be a stiff fight! Go to bed, my friend. I'll tell you about my expedition to-morrow ... if it doesn't cost me my life."
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh, I know what I'm saying! I'm risking a lot. First of all, getting arrested, which isn't much. Next, getting killed, which is worse. But...." He gripped my shoulder. "But there's a third thing I'm risking, which is getting hold of two millions.... And, once I possess a capital of two millions, I'll show people what I can do! Good-night, old chap, and, if you never see me again...." He spouted Musset's lines:
"Plant a willow by my grave,
The weeping willow that I love...."
I walked away. Three minutes later—I am continuing the narrative as he told it to me next day—three minutes later, Lupin rang at the door of the Hôtel Repstein.
"Is monsieur le baron at home?"
"Yes," replied the butler, examining the intruder with an air of surprise, "but monsieur le baron does not see people as late as this."
"Does monsieur le baron know of the murder of M. Lavernoux, his land-agent?"
"Certainly."