XIV
BEFORE A TOMB
"This is a surprise!"
Mademoiselle de Naarboveck stopped. She smiled up at Henri deLoubersac.
"Do you know, I saw in this glass that you were following us," shesaid, pointing to a mirror placed at an angle in a confectioner's shopat the corner of rue Biot.
These artless remarks put the handsome lieutenant out of countenance:he blushed hotly, but he pressed the little hand held out to him sosimply, and with such a look of frank pleasure. He stammered someexcuse for not having recognised her. He bowed pleasantly toWilhelmine's companion, Mademoiselle Berthe.
Wilhelmine turned to her.
"This meeting was not prearranged: it is one of pure chance." The tonewas defensive without a touch of the apologetic.
Mademoiselle Berthe smiled, and declared that she had not for a momentsupposed that the meeting had been prearranged.
De Loubersac gazed considerably at the two girls. Wilhelmine waslooking particularly pretty. Beneath her fur toque shone masses of herpale gold hair, framing a charming little face. A long velvet coatwith ermine stole suggested the youthful contours of her slenderfigure. Mademoiselle Berthe wore rough blue cloth, and a large hattrimmed with wings, which set off her piquant face with its irregularfeatures and ruddy locks.
Wilhelmine and Henri de Loubersac strolled on together in thedirection of the Hippodrome. Mutual protestations of love were,exchanged. Presently Wilhelmine asked:
"But what brought you in this direction?"
"Oh, I was going ... to pay a visit ... it is a piece of very goodluck my coming across you like this."
De Loubersac seemed to have something on his mind. Despite hisprotestations he did not look as if he were enjoying this chancemeeting.
"Where were you bound for, Wilhelmine?" he asked.
She looked up at her lover with sad eyes. Pointing in the direction ofthe cemetery of Montemartre, she replied in a low tone:
"I am going to visit the dear dead."
"Would you allow me to accompany you?" begged de Loubersac.
Wilhelmine shook her head.
"I must ask you to allow me to go there alone. It is my custom to praythere without witnesses."
De Loubersac turned towards Mademoiselle Berthe with a questioninglook--a gesture of interrogation.
Wilhelmine replied to it:
"As a rule I go to the cemetery alone. You see me with my companionto-day because my father wished it. Since the sad affair which hasthrown a shadow over our life, he is in a constant state of anxietyabout my safety: he does not wish me to go about unaccompanied. Ishall be waited for at the cemetery."
Wilhelmine's candid eyes gazed at de Loubersac, who was gnawing hismoustache with a preoccupied air.
"What is the matter, Henri?" she asked.
De Loubersac came closer to Wilhelmine, grew red as fire, and withoutdaring to look her in the face, burst out:
"Listen, Wilhelmine! I would rather tell you everything.... Oh, you aregoing to think badly of me.... The truth is--our meeting is notaccidental ... it is of set purpose on my part.... For the last two daysI have been worried--preoccupied--jealous.... I am afraid of not beingloved by you as I love you ... afraid that there is ... or was ...something between us--dividing us--someone."...
Wilhelmine looked at her lover with the eyes of an astonished child.
"I do not understand you," she murmured.
Mastering his emotion, de Loubersac decided to make a clean breast ofit.
"I will be frank, Wilhelmine.... Your last words have increased mytorture.... Have you not spoken of _your_ dear dead, and must I learnthat you are perhaps going to pray ... at the tomb of Captain Brocq?"
More and more astonished, Wilhelmine replied:
"And suppose I were going to do so? Should I be doing wrong to prayfor the repose of the soul of the unfortunate Captain Brocq, who wasone of my best friends?"
"Ah!" cried Henri de Loubersac: "Is it love you feel for him, then?"He looked so despairing that Wilhelmine, offended, hurt though she wasby her lover's suspicions, pitied his anguish and reassured him:
"If you had been following me for some time past, you would have seenthat I have been in the habit of going to this cemetery--have gonethere regularly long before Captain Brocq's death--consequently."...
Wilhelmine, with a look of sorrowful disappointment, closed her lips:she was resolutely mute.
Henri de Loubersac brightened up, thanked her with a frankness sospontaneous, so sincere, that it would have touched the hardestwoman's heart, and Wilhelmine's was a supremely tender and sensitiveone. Yet, when he again asked for whom she was going to pray, for whomwas the delicious bouquet of violets she was carrying, half hidden inher muff, she murmured:
"That is my secret.... If I told you the name of the person at whosetomb I am going to pray, it would have no significance for you."
"Wilhelmine! Let me accompany you!" implored de Loubersac.... "I loveyou so much--you must forgive my blundering!"
The lovers discussed the question: finally, Wilhelmine's hesitationswere overcome: de Loubersac carried the day triumphantly.
Mademoiselle Berthe had fallen behind: she had kept a discreetdistance between the lovers and herself, but had watched them with theeyes of a lynx. Now Wilhelmine waited for her to come up with them;then she requested her companion to stay in the quiet avenue Rachelwhile she and Lieutenant de Loubersac went into the cemetery.
* * * * *
No sooner had they disappeared than Bobinette set off as fast as shecould go in the direction of the boulevard de Clichy. Yes, there wasthe sordid figure of Old Vagualame, bent under the weight of years andof his ancient accordion: he seemed to be stooping more than usual.
Had he also followed them? He had. Thus Juve-Vagualame was continuinghis quest with the hope of getting further light on the series ofmysteries he was seeking to solve. He must learn more of Bobinette'srelations with Fantomas, whom she apparently knew only under the guiseof Vagualame. Juve had made himself up so carefully that he feltconfident even the bandit's intimates would not suspect they had to dowith a police officer. Its quality was soon proved: Bobinette cametowards him with not a sign of uneasiness.
"There you are, then!" she cried.
In spite of her familiar address, Juve noticed the touch of respect inBobinette's voice--Vagualame played the part of master to thisred-haired girl.
"What a long time it is since one had the pleasure of seeing you, mydear Monsieur Vagualame!" There was a touch of malicious irony inBobinette's tone.
Juve-Vagualame nodded. He would have liked to know what Wilhelmine andHenri were doing in the cemetery, but Bobinette was his query for themoment. Her next remark was startling.
"It looks as though you were afraid to show yourself since your lastcrime."
Juve repressed any sign of the satisfaction this declaration gave him.
"My last crime?"
"Don't play the blockhead," she went on. "Have you forgotten that youtold me how you had assassinated Captain Brocq?"
"That is ancient history," muttered Juve, "... and I am not afraid ofanyone.... Besides ... did I tell you that now?" he hinted, with thehope of obtaining further details. But Bobinette seemed to think shehad had enough of the subject. She laughed.
"What a way of walking you have!" she exclaimed.
Juve was purposely exaggerating Vagualame's attitude: it enabled himto conceal his face better.
"I stoop so much because my age weighs me down.... When you growold."...
Bobinette burst into peals of laughter.
"You don't think, do you, Vagualame, that I take you for an old man?Ha, ha! I know you are disguised; made up admirably, I dare say, butyou are a young man.... I am quite, quite sure of it!"
Juve was saying to himself:
"This grows better and better!"
Juve's conviction was that this old Vagualame, secret agent of theSecond Bureau, murderer of Captain Brocq, the Vagualame
he hadencountered at Fandor's flat, could only be a young man in the flowerof his age--could be none other than Fantomas.
Juve was about to put more questions to Bobinette, but two figurescame into view, and they were nearing the avenue Rachel.
"Make off with you!" cried Bobinette. "There they are coming back!"
Juve did not wish de Loubersac to catch a glimpse of him: he would besurprised, suspicious, and would question him about the missedrendezvous. Juve had not gained sufficient information, however.
"I must see you again, Bobinette." His tone was pressing, insistent.
"When?"
"This evening."
"Impossible."
"To-morrow, then."
Bobinette shook her head.
"You know very well that to-morrow I shall be gone."
"Where?"
"Where?"
The red-haired beauty cried impatiently:
"It's you ask me that?... Why ... I go to the frontier."
"Correct," said Juve. He would have welcomed further details. "Well,then, when can we meet?" pressed this determined accordion player.
"How about next Wednesday?" suggested Bobinette.
"That will do. We will go to the theatre--a moving picture show!"
"Always to places in the dark, eh!" observed Bobinette maliciously.
Wilhelmine and Henri were coming nearer.
Juve-Vagualame turned as he was making off.
"Nine o'clock, before the moving picture place, rue des Poissonniers."With that, Juve-Vagualame disappeared into a smoky wine shop.
De Loubersac, very pale, and Wilhelmine, whose eyes were red, rejoinedBobinette, whose face became expressionless.
They went slowly off together.
* * * * *
When the coast was clear, Juve-Vagualame left the wine shop andproceeded towards the cemetery. Amid the cypresses and tombs of thenecropolis, looming sad and shadowy in the fading light, he made hisway slowly along the principal path, questing for traces of thelovers' footsteps in the sand. He was fortunate enough to come on themat once; the soil being moist, the lovers' footmarks could be clearlydistinguished in the sand of the alleys. Guided by them, Juve turnedinto a little pathway on the right, passing the mausoleums, andpausing before a new-made grave, that of Captain Brocq, a humble tomb.A few fresh violets were scattered around it, from Wilhelmine's bunch,no doubt. The lovers had but tarried there. Juve continued to followtheir footmarks, by many twists and turns, almost to the end of thecemetery. As he advanced he felt more and more certain that he hadcome this way some years ago, when his detective work had led him intoa mysterious network of robberies and murders, the moving spirit ofthem all being Fantomas--the enigmatic Fantomas.
Juve was going over in memory those past days of mysterious doingsand strange adventures, when he found himself facing a vault richlydecorated with unusually beautiful sculpture. A bronze plaque wasaffixed to this tomb, and on it, engraved in letters of gold, was aname Juve had had occasion to utter many a time and oft:
_Lady Beltham_
Lady Beltham!
Lady Beltham?
A name Juve associated with strange and terrible events.[3] LadyBeltham had been a sensational creature.
[Footnote 3: See _The Exploits of Juve,_ vol. ii of the FantomasSeries.]
After adventures, one more extraordinary than another, Juve hadsucceeded in identifying this English great lady as the mistress of aformidable criminal, relentlessly hunted down, for ever escaping--theelusive Fantomas!
Juve had lost track of both, when the discovery of an extraordinarycrime had led to the identification of the victim, a woman: she wasdeclared to be--Lady Beltham. The corpse had been buried in this verycemetery; distant relatives in England had guaranteed all expensesconnected with the burial and erection of this costly tomb.
The public had believed this to be the end of Lady Beltham. Juvepresently discovered that Lady Beltham was not dead: another woman hadbeen buried in her place. He preserved absolute silence convinced thatsooner or later this criminal great lady--for, in conjunction withFantomas, she had committed abominable crimes--would reappear, and hecould then arrest her. Time had passed, but for all his efforts Juvecould not discover the hiding-place of this strangely guilty woman.
When he saw a large bunch of violets lying before the door of LadyBeltham's vault, he divined them to be the offering of Wilhelmine.
Juve now asked himself if he had not come across this Wilhelmine inthe past, this girl with pale gold hair, and clear deep eyes; if hehad not, in the long ago, met under painful circumstances a littlechild who was now this pretty girl, beloved of Henri de Loubersac.Juve did not dwell on these vague, floating impressions. He turnedhis attention to more definite points.
There were people who believed in the death of Lady Beltham; they werein the majority: among these was Wilhelmine de Naarboveck. Why did shecome to pray at Lady Beltham's tomb and bring offerings of fragrantflowers?
A mere handful of people knew Lady Beltham was not dead; knew thatanother woman had been interred in her stead. Lady Beltham herselfknew it; her accomplice and lover--Fantomas--must know it. Besides,these two there was Jerome Fandor who knew of the substitution, andthere was Juve himself. What others could there be?
Twilight was deepening into darkness. The cemetery guardians wereclearing it of visitors. Juve became once more the old accordionplayer.
As he made his way home on foot, he asked himself:
"What are they looking for?"
The military authorities, represented by the Second Bureau, want torecover a stolen document.... The civil authority, represented byPolice Headquarters, wish to discover a murderer guilty of two crimes:the murder of Brocq--the murder of Nichoune.
The murderer of Brocq is assuredly Vagualame: as to the murderer ofNichoune: I do not yet know under what guise he committed his crime,but of one thing I am certain--the author of this double crime is noneother than--Fantomas!