One afternoon, while Lupin, changing his tactics, was working out a scheme for kidnapping and confining Daubrecq; while the Growler and the Masher, whom he had promised to forgive if he succeeded, were watching the enemy's movements; while the newspapers were announcing the forthcoming trial for murder of Arsene Lupin's two accomplices, one afternoon, at four o'clock, the telephone-bell rang suddenly in the flat in the Rue Chateaubriand.

Lupin took down the receiver:

"Hullo!"

A woman's voice, a breathless voice, said:

"M. Michel Beaumont?"

"You are speaking to him, madame. To whom have Ithe honour... "

"Quick, monsieur, come at once; Madame Mergy has taken poison."

Lupin did not wait to hear detai1s. He rushed out, sprang into his motor-car and drove to Saint-Germain.

Clarisse's friend was waiting for him at the door of the bedroom.

"Dead?" he asked.

"No," she replied, "she did not take sufficient. The doctor has just gone. He says she will get over it."

"And why did she make the attempt?"

"Her son Jacques has disappeared."

"Carried off?"

"Yes, he was playing just inside the forest. A motor-car was seen pulling up. Then there were screams. Clarisse tried to run, but her strength failed and she fell to the ground, moaning, 'It's he... it's that man... all is lost!' She looked like a madwoman.

Suddenly, she put a little bottle to her lips and swallowed the contents."

"What happened next?"

"My husband and I carried her to her room. She was in great pain."

"How did you know my address, my name?"

"From herself, while the doctor was attending to her. Then I telephoned to you."

"Has any one else been told?"

"No, nobody. I know that Clarisse has had terrible things to bear... and that she prefers not to be talked about."

"Can I see her?"

"She is asleep just now. And the doctor has forbidden all excitement."

"Is the doctor anxious about her?"

"He is afraid of a fit of fever, any nervous strain, an attack of some kind which might cause her to make a fresh attempt on her life. And that would be... "

"`What is needed to avoid it?"

A week or a fortnight of absolute quiet, which is impossible as long as her little Jacques... "

Lupin interrupted her:

"You think that, if she got her son back... "

"Oh, certainly, there would be nothing more to fear!"

You're sure? You're sure?... Yes, of course you are!... Well, when Madame Mergy wakes, tell her from me that I will bring her back her son this evening, before midnight. This evening, before midnight: it's a solemn promise."

With these words, Lupin hurried out of the house and, stepping into his car, shouted to the driver:

"Go to Paris, Square Lamartine, Daubrecq the deputy's!"

Lupin's motor-car was not only an office, a writing- room furnished with books, stationery, pens and ink, but also a regular actor's dressing-room, containing a complete make-up box, a trunk filled with every variety of wearing-apparel, another crammed with "properties" - umbrellas, walking-sticks, scarves, eye-glasses and so on - in short, a complete set of paraphernalia which enabled him to alter his appearance from top to toe in the course of a drive.