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“Finish your story, sir! I can’t endure this suspense!”

Lupin continued, in a slow and hesitating voice:

“The fact is … you see … it is rather difficult to explain … for you and I are looking at the thing from a totally different point of view.”

“I don’t understand.”

“And yet you ought to understand, monsieur le baron…. We begin by saying—I am quoting the newspapers—by saying, do we not, that Baroness Repstein knew all the secrets of your business and that she was able to open not only that safe over there, but also the one at the Crédit Lyonnais in which you kept your securities locked up?”

“Yes.”

“Well, one evening, a fortnight ago, while you were at your club, Baroness Repstein, who, unknown to yourself, had converted all those securities into cash, left this house with a travelling-bag, containing your money and all the Princesse de Berny’s jewels?”

“Yes.”

“And, since then, she has not been seen?”

“No.”

“Well, there is an excellent reason why she has not been seen.”

“What reason?”

“This, that Baroness Repstein has been murdered….”