When moving away from the embrasure which had the window at the bottom of it, he had come upon a clump of small shrubs in one of the hollows of the cliff. He cut away a dozen of these, with his knife, and whittled them all down to the same size. Then he cut off two equal lengths from his rope. These were the uprights of the ladder. He fastened the twelve little sticks between the uprights and thus contrived a rope-ladder about six yards long.
When he returned to this post, there was only one of the three sons beside Daubrecq’s bed in the torture-chamber. He was smoking his pipe by the lamp. Daubrecq was asleep.
“Hang it!” thought Lupin. “Is the fellow going to sit there all night? In that case, there’s nothing for me to do but to slip off....”
The idea that d’Albufex was in possession of the secret vexed him mightily. The interview at which he had assisted had left the clear impression in his mind that the marquis was working “on his own” and that, in securing the list, he intended not only to escape Daubrecq’s activity, but also to gain Daubrecq’s power and build up his fortune anew by the identical means which Daubrecq had employed.
That would have meant, for Lupin, a fresh battle to wage against a fresh enemy. The rapid march of events did not allow of the contemplation of such a possibility. He must at all costs spike the Marquis d’Albufex’ guns by warning Prasville.
However, Lupin remained held back by the stubborn hope of some incident that would give him the opportunity of acting.
The clock struck half-past twelve.
It struck one.
The waiting became terrible, all the more so as an icy mist rose from the valley and Lupin felt the cold penetrate to his very marrow.
He heard the trot of a horse in the distance: