[Footnote 6: See _The Exploits of Juve_: vol. ii, Fantomas Series.]
Six dreary, anxious months followed. Then the baron, the only person in the whole world who seemed to care whether she lived or died, came to find her. He took her to Paris. There he decided to pa.s.s her off as his daughter, declaring he had very grave reasons for doing so.
Though making her the centre of a mystery, for undeclared reasons of his own, de Naarboveck was very good to her, helped her to unravel her financial affairs, and informed her that she was the owner of a large fortune. He told her that some day she would have to go to a foreign country to take possession of this fortune--the baron did not say where.
Wilhelmine stopped her narrative, jumped up, pointing to a shadow moving across an altar.
"Did you see?" she questioned anxiously.
"I think I did," answered Henri de Loubersac. "It is the shadow of some pa.s.ser-by thrown into relief on the light background."
"Oh, I hope we are not being spied on!"
"Of whom are you afraid?" asked de Loubersac.
Wilhelmine--or Therese Auvernois, as she had confessed herself to be--glanced about her. There was not a soul within hearing! Now she would speak her mind to Henri--her dear Henri--and tell him all.
"You want to know, dear one, why my existence has been surrounded with so many mysterious precautions of late years! You wish to know why the baron is so determined that my real ident.i.ty should remain hidden! You are right; for I have long asked myself the same question. When I spoke to the baron about this for the first time--it was only a few weeks ago, and told him that I wished to appear as what I really am, Therese Auvernois, my father by adoption--I may call him that, seeing how good, how kind he has been to me--began by telling me it was impossible--that the most terrible misfortunes would result from such a revelation.... I insisted. I wanted to know what these dreadful misfortunes would be, and why they would follow as a matter of course, were it made known that I am Therese Auvernois. Thereupon the baron told me astonishing things.
"According to him, from the time of my poor grandmother"s death, I, and those near to me, all those about me, were pursued, not only by a terrible fatality, but also by a being, who, for unknown motives, wished to sow perpetual death and terror among those intimately connected with us.
"The baron did not want to talk of all this, but I made him speak out.
Bit by bit, I learned the details of one of those tragedies which touched my life when a child. I went to the National Library, secretly, and looked through the newspapers of that period. I noticed that in whatever concerned us, whether legally or privately, closely or distantly, one name appeared and reappeared, a terrifying and legendary name, the name of a being we think of but dare not mention--the name of Fantomas!"
Henri de Loubersac was staggered. This statement of the girl he knew as Wilhelmine de Naarboveck, far from impressing him favourably, seemed to him an improbable story invented, every bit of it, for the sole purpose of putting him on the wrong track.
He had learned to love this charming girl, believing her to be sincere, honest, pure, brought up as a young girl should be, amidst elegant and distinguished surroundings: now, behold an abyss opened before his eyes, separating him from one whom he was now inclined to consider an adventuress.
He remembered Juve"s words!
Granting the truth of her statement, that a tragedy had shadowed her young life and altered her existence, this did not prevent her from having been seduced by Captain Brocq! Rather, her early experiences would tend to break down the barriers, behind which nice girls lived and moved!... There were things that called for an explanation! For instance, how explain the intimacy existing between de Naarboveck, his so-called daughter, and this Mademoiselle Berthe, whose part in the affair engaging de Loubersac"s attention was open to the gravest suspicions?...
Wilhelmine continued what she called her confession, thinking aloud, opening her heart, confiding in her dear Henri, whose silence she took for sympathy and encouragement.
"Fantomas," she murmured: "I cannot tell you how often I have thought over this maddening, this puzzling personality, terrifying beyond words, who seems implacably bent on our destruction!... Again and again I have had reason to fear that his ill-omened influence has been directed against my humble self!... As if he guessed something of this, the baron has frequently sought to rea.s.sure me; yet, through some singular coincidence, each time we have spoken of Fantomas a tragedy has occurred, a dreadful tragedy, which has reminded us of monstrous crimes committed by him in the past!"
Wilhelmine"s statements were impressing de Loubersac less and less favourably.
"Play acting--and clumsy play acting at that!" decided Henri: "Done to avert my suspicions, imagined to feed my curiosity!... She thinks herself a capable player at the game! She does not know the person she is playing with!"
De Loubersac came to a decision. He rose, stood close to Wilhelmine, who also rose, instinctively, looked her straight in the face, and asked, point-blank:
"Wilhelmine de Naarboveck, or Therese Auvernois--it matters little to me--I wish to know the real truth.... Confess, then, that you were Captain Brocq"s mistress!"
"Monsieur!" exclaimed the startled girl. She met de Loubersac"s inquisitorial look proudly.
His penetrating stare did not falter.
Suddenly Wilhelmine"s lips began to tremble. She grew deadly pale: she might have been on the verge of a fainting fit. She had realised the incredulity of the man to whom, in her chaste innocence, she had given her heart. In the pure soul of this loving girl an immense void made itself felt. It was as though a flashlight had revealed to her the lamentable truth: that the strange position in which destiny had placed her--a position strange but not infamous--had made of her a being apart, had put her outside the ordinary life of humanity, outside the law of love!... A desire to explain, to convince, to justify herself, the desire of a desperate creature at bay, burned up in her like a flame: it flashed and died. Henri had no confidence in her! He believed this odious thing of her--this abominable, incredible thing!... Her heart was full to bursting with an agony of grief, of outraged innocence.... She looked him straight in the eyes--her own flashing fury.
"You insult me!" she cried.... "Withdraw what you have just said!...
You will apologise!"
De Loubersac said in a low, distinct voice:
"I maintain my accusation, Mademoiselle, until you have furnished me with absolute, undeniable proofs!"...
De Loubersac"s voice failed him. Wilhelmine had turned from him. She hurried to the door, descended the church steps, and threw herself into a pa.s.sing cab.
De Loubersac had followed her.
In tones of contempt she had flung at him the words:
"Farewell, monsieur--and for ever!"
Henri"s answer was a shrug of the shoulder.
As he stood there, an outline, a shadow, appeared under the church porch: a something, a being, indescribable, appeared, disappeared, running with spirit-like swiftness, vanishing. Henri de Loubersac had a clear conviction that during his conversation with her who might have been his fiancee in days to come, they had been shadowed, spied upon!
XXVII
THE TWO VINSONS
There were strange happenings elsewhere on the day Henri de Loubersac and Wilhelmine de Naarboveck had parted in grief and anger.
It was on the stroke of noon when Corporal Vinson heard a key turn in the lock of his cell. Two military jailors confronted him.
"Butler?"
The traitor answered to that name.
Juve, for reasons of his own, had not revealed the prisoner"s true quality. Vinson had therefore been entered in the jail book as Butler.
One of the jailors, an old veteran, whose uniform was a mixture of the civil and the military, took the word.
"Butler, you are to be transferred to a building belonging to the Council of War: there you will occupy cell 27.... Our prison here is for the condemned only, so you cannot remain. You belong to the accused section."
All that mattered to Butler-Vinson for the moment was--he had to reach his new quarters by crossing the rue Cherche-Midi between two jailors.... He would be exposed to the curious glances of the public!
He shuddered at the thought!... And there was worse to come! This was but the commencement of his purgatory.... As he had not known how to die at the right moment, he must arm himself with courage to expiate his cowardice!... He must leave the shelter of his cell!... With an intense effort of will he stretched out his arms, was handcuffed without a murmur, and, marching between his two jailors, he quitted the prison.
The bright light of noonday made him blink. On reaching the pavement he recoiled with a convulsive movement: the jailors pulled him forward.
It was the crowded hour, when men leave offices and shops for a midday meal. But the public of these parts, accustomed to such comings and goings of prisoners and their jailors, paid no attention to this pitiful trio.