The Teeth of the Tiger Maurice Leblanc (best novels of all time .txt) 📖

He put the cripple down the yawning hole and next took hold of the rope which he had just fastened. Then, little by little, inch by inch, cautiously, so that it should not knock against the sides of the well, the bundle was let down at arm’s length.

When it reached a depth of twelve yards or so, the gun stopped its further descent and there it remained, slung in the dark and in the exact centre of the narrow circumference.

Don Luis set light to a number of pieces of paper, which went whirling down, shedding their sinister gleams upon the walls. Then, unable to resist the craving for a last speech, he leaned over, as the scoundrel had done, and grinned:

“I selected the place with care, so that you shouldn’t catch cold. I’m bound to look after you, you see. I promised Florence that I wouldn’t kill you; and I promised the French Government to hand you over alive as soon as possible. Only, as I didn’t know what to do with you until tomorrow morning, I’ve hung you up in the air.

“It’s a pretty trick, isn’t it? And you ought to appreciate it, for it’s so like your own way of doing things. Just think: the gun is resting on its two ends, with hardly an inch to spare. So, if you start wriggling, or moving, or even breathing too hard, either the barrel or the butt end’ll give way; and down you go! As for me, I’ve nothing to do with it!

“If you die, it’ll be a pretty little case of suicide. All you’ve got to do, old chap, is to keep quiet. And the beauty of my little contrivance is that it will give you a foretaste of the few nights that will precede your last hour, when they cut off your head. From this moment forward you are alone with your conscience, face to face with what you perhaps call your soul, without anything to disturb your silent soliloquy. It’s nice and thoughtful of me, isn’t it?⁠ ⁠…

“Well, I’ll leave you. And remember: not a movement, not a sigh, not a wink, not a throb of the heart! And, above all, no larks! If you start larking, you’re in the soup. Meditate: that’s the best thing you can do. Meditate and wait. Goodbye, for the present!”

And Don Luis, satisfied with his homily, went off, muttering:

“That’s all right. I won’t go so far as Eugène Sue, who says that great criminals should have their eyes put out. But, all the same, a little corporal punishment, nicely seasoned with fear, is right and proper and good for the health and morals.”

Don Luis walked away and, taking the brick path round the ruins, turned down a little road, which ran along the outer wall to a clump of fir trees, where he had brought Florence for shelter.

She was waiting for him, still aching from the horrible suffering which she had endured, but already in full possession of her pluck, mistress of herself, and apparently rid of all anxiety as to the issue of the fight between Don Luis and the cripple.

“It’s finished,” he said, simply. “Tomorrow I will hand him over to the police.”

She shuddered. But she did not speak; and he observed her in silence.

It was the first time that they were alone together since they had been separated by so many tragedies, and next hurled against each other like sworn enemies. Don Luis was so greatly excited that, in the end, he could utter only insignificant sentences, having no connection with the thoughts that came rushing through his mind.

“We shall find the motor car if we follow this wall and then strike off to the left.⁠ ⁠… Do you think you can manage to walk so far?⁠ ⁠… When we’re in the car, we’ll go to Alençon. There’s a quiet hotel close to the chief square. You can wait there until things take a more favourable turn for you⁠—and that won’t be long, as the criminal is caught.”

“Let’s go,” she said.

He dared not offer to help her. For that matter, she stepped out firmly and her graceful body swung from her hips with the same even rhythm as usual. Don Luis once again felt all his old admiration and all his ardent love for her. And yet that had never seemed more remote than at this moment when he had saved her life by untold miracles of energy.

She had not vouchsafed him a word of thanks nor yet one of those milder glances which reward an effort made; and she remained the same as on the first day, the mysterious creature whose secret soul he had never understood, and upon whom not even the storm of terrible events had cast the faintest light.

What were her thoughts? What were her wishes? What aim was she pursuing? These were obscure problems which he could no longer hope to solve. Henceforth each of them must go his own way in life and each of them could only remember the other with feelings of anger and spite.

“No!” he said to himself, as she took her place in the limousine. “No! The separation shall not take place like that. The words that have to be spoken between us shall be spoken; and, whether she wishes or not, I will tear the veil that hides her.”

The journey did not take long. At Alençon Don Luis entered Florence in the visitors’ book under the first name that occurred to him and left her to herself. An hour later he came and knocked at her door.

This time again he had not the courage at once to ask her the question which he had made up his mind to put to her. Besides, there were other points which he wished to clear up.

“Florence,” he said, “before I hand over that man, I should like to know what he was to you.”

“A friend, an unhappy friend, for whom I felt