The Secret Tomb Maurice Leblanc (best love story novels in english .TXT) 📖

“Are you sure that d’Estreicher will come out of the hillocks⁠—if it’s the fact that the hillocks are his hiding-place?”

“Quite sure. Here is the medal. He knows that it is in my hands. How can he help seizing the opportunity of taking it now that we are on the eve of the great event.”

She expressed herself with a disconcerting calmness. For all that she was exposing herself alone to all the menace of a combat which promised to be formidable, she had not the faintest air of being in danger. Indeed, such was her indifference to the risk she was running that, when the old Baron went past them and into the Manor, followed by his faithful Goliath, she imparted to Raoul some results of her observations.

“Have you noticed that for the last day or two that your grandfather has been ill at ease? He too is instinctively aware that the great event is at hand, and he wants to act. He is pulling himself together and struggling against the disease which paralyzes him in the very hour of action.”

In spite of everything, Raoul hesitated. The idea of leaving her to face d’Estreicher alone was infinitely painful to him.

“One question,” he said.

“Only one then, for you’ve no time to lose.”

“You made all your preparations for today. The police are informed, the servants warned, the rendezvous fixed. Good. But nevertheless you couldn’t know that the discovery of this disc would take place just an hour before that rendezvous.”

“Excellent, Raoul; I congratulate you. You’ve put your finger on the weak point in my explanation. But I can’t tell you anything more at the moment.”

“Nevertheless⁠—”

“Do as I ask you, Raoul. You know that I don’t act at random.”

Dorothy’s confidence, her boldness, the simplicity of her plan, her quiet smile, all inspired him with such trust in her judgment that he raised no more objections.

“Very well,” he said. “I’ll go.”

“That’s right,” she said, laughing. “You have faith. In that case make haste and come back quickly, for d’Estreicher will come here not only to get hold of the medal but also for something on which perhaps he is equally keen.”

“What’s that?”

“Me.”

This was a suggestion which hastened the young man’s decision. The car started and crossed the orchard. Saint-Quentin opened the big gate and shut it again as soon as the car had gone through it.

Dorothy was alone; and she was to remain alone and defenceless for as long she reckoned, if her calculations were correct, as twelve to fifteen minutes.

Keeping her back turned to the hillocks, she did not stir from her chair. She appeared to be very busy with the disc, testing the soldering, like one who seeks to discover the secret or the weak point of a piece of mechanism. But with her ears, all her nerves on edge, she tried to catch every sound or rustle that the breeze might bring her.

By turns she was sustained by an unshakable certainty, or attacked by discouraging doubts. Yes: d’Estreicher was bound to come. She could not admit to herself that he might not come. The medal would draw him to her with an irresistible enticement.

“And yet, no,” she said to herself. “He will be on his guard. My little maneuver is really too puerile. This case, this medal which we find at the fateful moment, this departure of Raoul and the children, and then my staying alone in the empty farm, when my one care on the contrary would be to protect my find against the enemy⁠—all this is really too farfetched. An old fox like d’Estreicher will shun the trap.”

And then the other side of the problem presented itself:

“He will come. Perhaps he has already left his lair. Manifestly the danger will be clear to him, but afterwards, when it is too late. At the actual moment he is not free to act or not to act. He obeys.”

So once more Dorothy was guided by her keen insight into the trend of events, in spite of what her reason might tell her. The facts grouped themselves before her intelligence in a logical sequence and with strict method, she saw their accomplishment while they were yet in process of becoming. The motives which actuated other people were always perfectly clear to her. Her intuition revealed them; her quick intelligence instantly fitted them to the circumstances.

Besides, as she had said, d’Estreicher was drawn by a double temptation. If he succeeded in resisting the temptation to try to seize the medal, how could he help succumbing to the temptation to seize that marvelous prize, right within his reach, Dorothy herself?

She sat upright with a smile. The sound of footsteps had fallen on her ears. It must come from the wooden bridge which spanned the end of the pool.

The enemy was coming!

But almost at the same moment she heard another sound on her right and then another on her left. D’Estreicher had two confederates. She was hemmed in!

The hands of her watch pointed to five minutes to four.

“If they seize me,” she thought. “If it’s d’Estreicher’s intention to kidnap me without more ado, there’s nothing to be done. Before I could be rescued, they would carry me off to their underground lair, and from there I don’t know where!”

And why should it be otherwise? Master of the medal and of Dorothy, the ruffian had only to fly.

On the instant she saw all the faults of her plan. In order to compel d’Estreicher to risk a sortie that she might capture him during that sortie, she had invented a too subtle ruse, which actual developments of Fortune’s spite might turn to her undoing. A conflict which turns on the number of seconds gained or lost is extremely doubtful.

She went quickly into the house and pushed the disc under a heap of discarded things in a small lumber-room. The necessary hunt for it would delay for a while the enemy’s flight. But when she came back