XXIX
I AM TROKOFF
Bobinette's astonishment was so evident that Hogshead Geoffrey, whosepowers of observation were small, was struck by his sister'sexpression.
"You know that old fellow?" he asked. "If he bothers you you've but topass the word, you know, and I'll soon put him on the other side ofthe door!"
This amiable offer terrified the girl. She felt sure Vagualame was notat _The Crying Calf_ by chance. He had probably followed her--wishedto have a word with her.... She must fall in with his wishes. She mustcut short this interview with her brother. After all, it was only topass the time she had come.
"Keep quiet, Geoffrey," she said: "I do not know the old boy, and youdeceive yourself if you think he annoys me!... Besides, my dearGeoffrey, I must be off!"
"Be off!... Whatever's come to you, Bobine?"
"I have business on hand elsewhere.... And now that I know you arequite well, Geoffrey, I shall continue my walk."
"True?" protested the bewildered giant: "You're going to cut yourstick already?"
"Call the governor!... There's a twenty-franc piece for you! Pay foryour drinks and keep the rest," was Bobinette's effective reply.
Hogshead calmed down at once.
"As long as you pay up, Bobine, I've nothing to say; but, all thesame, you have queer ideas.... You bring me here to keep anappointment, and then, we're not five minutes together, when up youget on the trot again!"
Bobinette caught her brother's huge fist in a quick handshake, madefor the door of _The Crying Calf_, turned out of rue Monge at a slowpace, convinced that Vagualame would join her.
The street was deserted. Bobinette kept in the shadow, avoiding thebright patches cast on the silent roadway from the wine-shops andtaverns still open and alight.
She had been walking about five minutes when she felt that someone waswalking behind her, hastening to overtake her.... A hand was laid onher shoulder: Vagualame was beside her, regulating his steps by hers.
"Is that species of giant your brother?" he asked.
Bobinette nodded.
"You are free, then?" she asked, breathing hard.
"It looks like it!"
"Who released you?"
"Let us hurry!" said Vagualame: "Let us seek shelter."
"Where?"
"You will see--with friends."
What did it matter to Bobinette where they were going while strangedoubts and horrid fears filled her mind?
"Who released you?"
They were passing beneath a street lamp. Vagualame noted thatBobinette was regarding him with defiant eyes. Was this reallyVagualame? Was he an impostor?
Vagualame read her thoughts.
"Bobinette, you are nothing but a fool!" announced the old accordionplayer: "The man arrested at your place was a detective, who had gothimself up like me to take you in!... You let him trick you! You arean imbecile!"
Bobinette stopped.
"But then ... if a detective made himself up to resemble you, it meansthey know you are guilty! It means they are after you! Why, it's a madthing you are doing, coming to meet me in that rig out! Why have younot disguised yourself?"
Vagualame smiled.
"Possibly I have reason for it, a plan you know nothing about,Bobinette!... But, let us return to the false Vagualame. How was ityou did not detect the fraud, if only by the voice?... How is it youhave not guessed the truth since?... When you received my telegram atRouen it should have been as clear as daylight to you!... Eh!"
Bobinette kept silence.
"Well, we will not dwell on the past," declared Vagualame, with an airof magnanimity: "Fortunately your extraordinary simplicity has not hadany particular consequences--save the stupid way you let them get holdof the gun piece, and allowed the false Corporal Vinson to escape!"...In a menacing tone he said: "We will return to that question later."
"But," faltered Bobinette: "How could I act otherwise?"
Vagualame threw her such a look, a look so charged with fiercecontempt that she could no longer doubt that she was face to face withher master. This master would not allow argument, discussion: well sheknew that!
She screwed up her courage to ask:
"How did you learn my address?"
"That is my business!" he declared: "What I want to know I get toknow--you must have seen that by this time!"
"How is it, then, you called at _The Crying Calf_ to-day?... Geoffreydid not know you: he alone knew I was coming to see him!... Youfollowed me?"
"Suppose I did follow you?"... Vagualame's tone changed: it becameimperious.
"Have you quite finished asking me silly questions?... I consider itis my turn to put a question or two to you--What are you doing?"
Bobinette bent her head.
"You have a right to know," she murmured: "When you sent me thatletter, after I took refuge in La Chapelle, telling me to go to thehouse of a Madame Olga Dimitroff and present myself for the post ofcompanion, I went. She engaged me. I am still with her."
"To take refuge in an hotel was an idiotic thing to do, Bobinette....The police could easily have nabbed you there if they had had a mindto. That is why I sent you to one of my old friends--to a person towhom I could recommend you!... Well, Bobinette, you will have toleave that house!"
The young woman bent her head, mastered, ready to accept any orders ofVagualame's before they were issued. All she asked, in a timid voice,was: "Where am I to go then?"
"Far from here."
"Why?"
Vagualame's smile was evil. His reply was like a series of swordthrusts.
"Because Juve has good eyes; because Fandor also begins to seeclear.... The net begins to tighten.... I shall find means to slipthrough it!... I am not of those who are caught like a mouse in atrap.... But, as for you--you with your simplicity--it is high time toput you out of reach of the police!... I am going to give you somemoney. Five days hence, disguised as a gipsy, you are to be on theroad from Sceaux to Versailles, at eleven o'clock at night, by thefirst milestone on the left side after the aeroplane garage.... Youhave followed me?"
Bobinette was trembling.
"Disguised as a gipsy, Vagualame? Why?"
"That is no concern of yours!... You have only to do as I tell you. Igive orders, but not explanations!"
Vagualame felt in his pockets. He held out a note-book.
"You will find two fifty-franc notes in this. It is more than you needfor a suitable disguise. I will give you more money when you startoff, because I am going to send you to a foreign country."
Whilst talking, Vagualame and Bobinette had gone a long way from _TheCrying Calf_. By a labyrinth of little streets, all darkness andmystery, Vagualame had led his companion to a kind of blind alley: atall house blocked the end of it. A large shop on the ground flooroccupied half the front of it. Although the iron shutters had beendrawn down, light from the interior penetrated through apertures tothe street--thin rays of light.
Vagualame laid a brutal hand on Bobinette.
"Attend to what I say: it is no joking matter. You are coming in withme. I am going to introduce you to my many friends here, whom I haverecently got to know: they may say things that will astonish you, butdo not show surprise.... I bring you here that you may know where tofind me during the five days you remain in Paris.... You have only towrite a letter and bring it to the woman who keeps this library.Address to Vagualame: it will reach me."
"Yes," replied Bobinette.
Vagualame knocked three separate times, then twice quickly, on theiron shutters. A key turned in the lock: the door opened. Vagualamethrust Bobinette across the threshold. Out of the obscurity of thestreets whipped by an icy wind and torrents of rain, Bobinette foundherself in a brilliantly lighted book-shop.
She stood dazzled.
A young woman came forward.
"Good evening, Sophie," said Vagualame: "Anything new?"
"Nothing new, Vagualame!"
Bobinette looked about her. She saw piles of books and collections ofmagazines
and papers. The shop was crowded with them.
"Sophie, I bring a new friend--a sure friend--who may have to bringyou a letter for me one of these days," said Vagualame.
The proprietress looked curiously at Bobinette. All she said was:
"Have our brothers been warned, Vagualame?"
"They have not been told yet; but I shall present my friend to them atthe first opportunity."
There was loud knocking at the shutters! Voices were heard shouting:
"Open! Open! Open! The police!"
Bobinette grew ashen with terror.
"It is all up!" thought the desperate girl: "They will see Vagualameis free! They will find me with him! We are caught!"
She turned frantically to Vagualame. He stood calm and collected.
"Ah!" said he with a touch of raillery, looking at the proprietress:"They have been warned that you are again breaking the work law!"
Shaking a threatening finger at the rigid Sophie, Vagualame went tothe shop entrance. He looked through the large keyhole to see who wasdemanding admittance at this late hour.... A look, and Vagualameturned, caught Sophie by the arm, and whispered:
"Detective Juve!... Inspector Michel!... Keep cool, Sophie! Theycannot know all the ins and outs of your place."
Two strides and Vagualame joined Bobinette. He dragged her to the endof the shop, reached a corner, turned it, and they were standing onboards clear of books: it was hidden from the main part of the shopand from the entrance.
"Draw your skirts between your legs!" he commanded. "Don't utter asound!... Don't be afraid!"
* * * * *
Vagualame was right. The police had surrounded the mysterious shop.
Noiselessly, gliding past the houses like shadows, revolver in hand,dark lantern at waist, fifteen detectives in plain clothes hadconverged on the tall house in the blind alley.
Juve was speaking low.
"Careful, Michel! We have seen our birds enter. They are inside.... Ishall follow them!... Meanwhile, do not stir from this door.... Thereis no other issue.... Do not allow a soul to pass--not one!"
"Never fear, Juve!"
Information dropped by Corporal Vinson, who had been taken to _TheCrying Calf_ by Vagualame, more than once had caused Juve to keep astrict watch on the wine-shop for some days. He had seen firstBobinette and then Vagualame enter the place.... When Bobinette cameout, almost immediately, he felt sure she had not had time for a talkwith Vagualame.... When Vagualame soon followed, Juve had shadowed theold accordion player in the darkness: behind him followed his men onthe trail of both.
When he saw Vagualame and Bobinette enter the library he exclaimed, inthought:
"I have them!... I know the house! I am going to arrest Fantomas andhis accomplice!"
Cool as a cucumber now that the decisive, ardently-longed-for momentwas at hand, Juve repeated his instructions: he did not mean to leaveanything to chance.
"You understand then, Michel, not one single person is to leave thesepremises. Even I can only be permitted to pass when I say to you: 'Itis I, Juve, ... Let me pass!' You thoroughly understand?"
"Perfectly," replied Michel.
Juve turned to his four picked men:
"Gentlemen! Are you ready?"
Revolver in one hand, lantern in the other, Juve knocked loudly on theshuttered shop door.
"In the name of the law! Open! Open! Open!... The police!"
A bare three minutes had elapsed between Juve's first summons and theopening of the library door.
Vagualame had made profitable use of the three minutes.
"Don't utter a sound! Don't be afraid!" Vagualame had repeated toBobinette: "They will not take us this time!"
Hustled, dragged to the spot already described, Bobinette now felt theground giving way beneath her. She rolled on to a steeply inclinedplane. Gliding down into the void, clutching Vagualame, she heard adull sound: it was the trap falling to.
"Quiet!" repeated Vagualame, as Bobinette rolled on to the woodflooring of a sort of cellar piled high with books. He signed to thegirl to listen.
"Yes! They are searching the shop, knocking the books about, imaginingwe are hidden among them!... But, from what I know of Juve, in a veryshort time he will have ferreted out the trap door and will descend aswe have done. He will never be such a fool as to think we have gonedown the shop stairs."
"Oh!" groaned Bobinette: "Whatever shall we do?"
Vagualame calmly turned on his pocket electric torch, approached animmense pile of illustrated magazines stacked in a corner. He struckthree blows on it, saying in a low clear voice:
"Open! Open to brothers!"
Bobinette, frightened past speech, saw the immense pile of volumesoscillate, then noiselessly divide, disclosing a secret door.
Vagualame pulled her towards it, saying in a joking tone:
"You see how useful it is to have friends of all sorts! Your employer,Olga Damitroff, was well advised when she once told me when and wherethe Nihilists gather together in Paris to plot against the Czar!"
Vagualame brought her into a large room, lit by torches, where a scoreof young men were assembled. They rose and reverently salutedVagualame, who approached them with outstretched hand.
When Juve entered, he soon satisfied himself that only Sophie remainedin the library. He gave orders to keep strict guard over theproprietress, notwithstanding her loud protestations.
"Do not permit anyone to leave the premises," he repeated to the menstationed at the door--"except myself, of course."
He turned to others.
"Move all these volumes! There may be a hide-hole concealed behindthem.... Keep guard at the top of the little staircase. It is the onlyway of escape ... I am going to make a tour of the cellars and expectto run my game to earth by this staircase."...
Sophie again protested.
"There is nothing in my cellars that ought not to be there! I don'tunderstand what the police want here!"
Juve paid no attention to these protestations. He went towards thecorner at the farther end of the shop.
Juve knew all the dens in Paris; there was not a secret society he didnot know of--societies, political and otherwise, holding mysteriousmeetings in these places: he knew of the existence of this trap-doorand slide which led to the cellars below this library.
"We will go down to the Nihilists," said he.
Before the interested eyes of his subordinates, Juve set the trap inmotion. A counter weight closed it over his head.
Juve rolled into the cellar but a few seconds after Vagualame andBobinette had escaped from it!... To tell the truth, Juve did not knowof the hidden entrance to the secret room. Dizzy from his rapid glidedownwards, Juve raised his lantern. He was not surprised to find thisretreat empty. He knew the slide led to second and lower series ofcellars....
His eye caught a movement. The huge stack of magazines, looking as ifit would topple over, so much on the slant was it, was slowly movinginto an upright position again! He leaped forward, thrusting hisrevolver between the opening of the two portions, and prevented themfrom joining completely!...
What was going on behind this tricky collection of magazines, whichhad undoubtedly just opened to give passage to Vagualame andBobinette?
Juve glued his ear to the fissure which marked the edge of the hiddendoor.... Ah!... Voices of men in discussion!... Juve could notdistinguish all that the voices were saying, but a word reached hisear, clear, unmistakable--_Fantomas_!
He listened intently.
"You are right," remarked an invisible speaker: "It is to Fantomas weowe all these police visits and annoyances--his crimes exasperate thepolice--and to justify themselves in the opinion of the public theytrack us down more vigorously than ever!"
Another voice answered:
"I know for certain that these coppers are after Fantomas to-night!"
Shouts and hoots resounded.
Menacing voices repeated:
"Since Fantomas is indirectly our p
ersecutor, let us avenge ourselveson Fantomas!... What matters one life compared with the cause wedefend--the cause of a whole people!... If Fantomas is in our way,troubles us, let us kill him!... Trokoff will be here to-morrow, thisevening perhaps! Trokoff will guide us! Trokoff will find thismysterious bandit who does us so much harm! Trokoff is a valiantman!... We do not know him, but we know what he has done!"
Juve smiled a sardonic smile. He thrust his hand into the openingwedged apart by his revolver, widened the space, opened the secretdoor, and entered the assembly room of the Nihilists.
"God save Russia!"
Juve pronounced these words with unction, in a solemn voice.
"God save Poland," was the reply. The oldest man present, who had thusbeen spokesman for the assembly advanced towards the stranger.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
Without the quiver of an eyelid, an eyelash, Juve answered: "I am hewhom you have awaited.... He who will direct your arms--guide you! Iam Trokoff!"
"Let but one of these inspired fanatics, who hold life cheap, guessthat I belong to the police, and they would kill me without mercy orpity," thought Juve, as he faced the assembly of revolutionaries witha serene countenance.
There were no threatening looks. They believed themselves to be in thepresence of Trokoff. Had he not opened the door?... Only Trokoff, theexpected, the longed for, could have done that!
The assembly acclaimed him:
"Trokoff! We for Russia welcome you! God be with you, Trokoff! Heavenguard you!"
"God be with you, brothers!"
Juve advanced, scrutinising each in turn: neither Vagualame norBobinette were among them.
Juve addressed them:
"My brothers! You know that the police are now searching the shopoverhead: it is a serious moment!"
One of the Nihilists stepped forward.
"We know it, Trokoff! Our brother, Vagualame, accompanied by a youngdisciple, came to warn us but a minute ago. Be assured, brother! Thepolice are not searching for us this evening.... It is the vile wretchFantomas they are after!... A criminal ruffian, foe of all liberty,whom we have condemned to death.... Therefore we are not disquieted.Vagualame has just left us.... He will direct the suspicions of thepolice into another channel. He told us he knew a way of quietingtheir suspicions."...
"If only Michel does not allow this arch-bandit to slip through hisfingers!" reflected Juve, as he listened with unmoved countenance tothese remarkable statements. Before the Nihilist could say more, Juvemade a declaration:
"Vagualame deceives himself, brother. I must go up at once to give himthe aid of my strong arm, otherwise we are finished!... I know onlythe secret entrance here: guide me to the other exit, so that I maynot attract the attention of the police: we do not want our secretentrance discovered!"
"It shall be as you desire, brother. Follow me; but be prudent."
Marching at the Nihilist's heels, after many twists and turns, Juvearrived at the foot of a quite ordinary staircase.
"You have only to mount, brother Trokoff. These stairs lead straightinto the shop. If the police ask where you come from, you have only tosay that you were looking in the first cellar for a book!... But whatmatters it if they do visit the cellars! They will never find thehidden door!"
Juve bent his head.
"Thanks, brother! Peace be with you!"
The Nihilist turned away. No sooner was he out of sight than Juve toreup the stairs to complete the arrest of Vagualame and Bobinette!
Inspector Michel had not stirred from his appointed place by the doorleading to the street.
He had been on guard about half an hour when Juve, livid, frantic,rushed towards him.
"You have let them go out, Michel!" he shouted: "They are not here!"
"No one has gone out at this door, Chief! I give you my word on it!...But, may I ask how you managed to slip back again without my havingnoticed you! Deuced clever, I call it!... No one, I say, has leftthese premises either before or after you!"
"What's that you say?" Juve stared at Michel as if he had taken leaveof his senses.
"What I say, Chief, is--the only individuals whom I have allowed topass out are you and your woman prisoner."
"I and my woman prisoner?" Juve could have howled with rage. He caughtthe calm, collected Michel by the coat collar, and dragged him outsidethe shop. Juve looked so desperate, so at his wit's end, that Michelwondered.
"Come now, Chief!" he remonstrated; "I am not dreaming, am I?... Tenminutes ago you came to me here, and you said:
"'Don't move, Michel! Let me pass. I am Juve! I take a prisoner to thestation and will return.'"
Juve had grown deadly calm.
"I was disguised, Michel, was I not?"
"Yes. You had put on your Vagualame disguise."
Juve bit his lip till the blood came. That arch-bandit had done himagain! Juve could not but admire his coolness and resource. He hadknown how to take in Michel, because Michel had arrested Juve whendisguised as Vagualame at de Naarboveck's house.... Michel wouldnaturally think his chief had again assumed the Vagualame disguise fora purpose! Oh, it was the devil's own cleverness!
Juve glared at Michel.
"It was the real Vagualame, I tell you!" shouted Juve.... "It was notI disguised as Vagualame!... It was Vagualame in person, I tellyou!... It is Vagualame himself whom you have allowed to escape!"
There was a pause--terrible, heart-sickening.
Michel drew himself up.
"What then, Chief?"
Juve's anger gave place to compassion.
"It is really not your fault, my poor Michel. How could you imaginethe infernal trick this bandit was playing on you?... I bear you nogrudge for it, Michel!"
But Michel was inconsolable. He had committed an irreparable blunder!
Juve slipped his arm through that of his miserable subordinate. Thepair made their way to Headquarters at the head of the little columnof subordinates who, understanding that Juve had not found what hesought, were cursing inwardly at the failure of their expedition....
The moment Juve realised that Michel had allowed Vagualame-Fantomas toescape, he had called off his men. He did not wish the Russianrevolutionaries cornered and arrested at present.... PossiblyVagualame believed Juve and his men had come to find the Nihilists,and, having failed, had left the premises in a rage!
Sophie would report to the bandit--but she had not heard everything!Thought Juve:
"He will hardly guess that I entered the assembly below by the secretdoor and made them believe I was Trokoff!... It leaves a way open forfuture transactions!... Some day, not so far ahead, I may return, mayfind that devil's Will o' the Wisp of a bandit there and nab him atlast!"... Did Michel suspect there were Nihilists on the premises?
"Tell me," questioned Juve: "Did you overhear any suspicious talk?...This Sophie did not say anything interesting?"
"Nothing whatever, Chief."
"Your men, Michel, do not know what individual we are after?"
Michel laughed.
"Oh, they are a hundred leagues off the truth!... That they were outto arrest Fantomas!... Just imagine, Chief! This afternoon, acomplaint was lodged at Headquarters with reference to the theft of abear! The theft was committed at Troyes, at the fair.... Our men arepersuaded that to-night's search has to do with this bear-stealingcase!... All the more so because, just as we started on thisexpedition, one of my men, whose home is at Sceaux, told us that hisbrother, a driver down there, had been ordered to go in five days'time, with two horses, and at five in the morning, on the road toRobinson, and take a gipsy van twenty kilometres from there!... Hethought there was something very queer about such a rendezvous asthat!"
Juve's interest in this piece of news was keen!