Arsène Lupin versus Herlock Sholmes Read online

  Arsène Lupin Versus Herlock Sholmes

  Maurice Leblanc

  MYSTERIOUSPRESS.COM

  INTRODUCTION

  Maurice Leblanc

  IF MAURICE LEBLANC (1864–1941) had done nothing except create Arsène Lupin—the rogue who has been wildly popular in France for more than a century—his place in the pantheon of French literature would still have been assured.

  Born in Rouen, he was educated in France; Berlin, Germany; and Manchester, England, and studied law before becoming a hack writer and police reporter for French periodicals. His sister Georgette—a famous actress and singer—was the mistress of Maurice Maeterlinck, the noted dramatist, and it is possible that this relationship influenced Leblanc’s work; some critics claim that his plays are his most polished literary productions.

  In 1906 Leblanc’s previously undistinguished career skyrocketed when he was asked to write a short story for a new journal and produced the first Lupin adventure. His subsequent success and worldwide fame culminated in his induction into the French Legion of Honor.

  Reading his fiction today, one is generally impressed with the fast pace and diversified action, although it borders on burlesque, and the incredible situations and coincidences may be a little difficult to accept.

  Arsène Lupin

  Unlike Fantômas, the other great criminal in French literature, Arsène Lupin is not violent or evil; his unlawful acts center on theft and clever cons rather than murder or anarchy.

  A brilliant rogue, he pursues his career with carefree élan, mocking the law for the sheer joy of it rather than for purely personal gain. Young, handsome, brave, and quick-witted, he has a joie de vivre uniquely and recognizably French. His sense of humor and conceit make life difficult for the police, who attribute most of the major crimes in France to him and his gang of ruffians and urchins.

  Like most French criminals and detectives, Lupin is a master of disguise. His skill is attested to by the fact that he once became Lenormand, chief of the Sûreté, and, for four years, conducted official investigations into his own activities. He employs numerous aliases, including Jim Barnett, Prince Renine, le Duc de Charmerace, Don Luis Perenna, and Ralph de Limezy; his myriad names, combined with his brilliant costumes, make it nearly impossible for the police to identify him (the reader of his exploits sometimes encounters a similar difficulty).

  After a long criminal career of uninterrupted successes, Lupin begins to shift position and aids the police in their work—usually for his own purposes and without their knowledge. Toward the end of his career, he becomes a full-fledged detective, and although he is as successful in his endeavors as ever before, his heart does not seem to be in it.

  The first book about him is Arsène Lupin, gentleman-cambrioleur (1907; US title: The Exploits of Arsène Lupin, 1907; reissued as The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar, 1910; British title: The Seven of Hearts, 1908). One of the stories, “Holmlock Shears Arrives Too Late,” is a parody of Sherlock Holmes. The second book in the series, and the worst, is Arsène Lupin contre Herlock Sholmes (1908; British title: The Fair-haired Lady, 1909; reissued as Arsène Lupin versus Holmlock Shears, 1909; reissued again as The Arrest of Arsène Lupin, 1911; US title: The Blonde Lady, 1910; reissued as Arsène Lupin versus Herlock Sholmes, 1910). Other short story collections about Lupin are The Confessions of Arsène Lupin (1912), The Eight Strokes of the Clock (1922), and Jim Barnett Intervenes (1928; US title: Arsène Lupin Intervenes). Among the best of the novels are 813 (1910), in which Lupin, accused of murder, heads the police investigation to clear himself by finding the true killer, and The Hollow Needle (1910), in which Lupin is shot by a beautiful girl and falls in love with her, vowing to give up his life of crime. Among the other Lupin novels are The Crystal Stopper (1913), The Teeth of the Tiger (1914), The Golden Triangle (1917), and The Memoirs of Arsène Lupin (1925; British title: The Candlesticks with Seven Branches).

  Films

  There are many early screen versions of Arsène Lupin’s basic conflicts with the Paris police, both in the United States, starting in 1917, and in Europe. The Teeth of the Tiger (Paramount, with David Powell) of 1919 is an old-dark-horse murder melodrama with sliding panels, secret passageways, and serial-like thrills. Wedgewood Nowell portrays Lupin in 813 (Robertson-Cole, 1920), in which Lupin impersonates a police officer to clear himself of a murder charge. There are several later European Lupins, notably French, in films even until the 1950s. The most important American Lupin films are given below.

  Arsène Lupin. MGM, 1932. John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Karen Morley, John Miljan. Directed by Jack Conway. Based on the play by Leblanc and Francis de Croisset. When the silk-hatted Lupin announces that he will steal a famous painting from the Louvre under the nose of the police, and does so, the chief of detectives uses a pretty lady crook to lure him into a trap.

  Arsène Lupin Returns. MGM, 1938. Melvyn Douglas, Warren William, Virginia Bruce, Monty Woolley, E. E. Clive. Directed by George Fitzmaurice. The signature of Arsène Lupin, long thought dead, is scrawled across a safe from which a necklace has been stolen; the real Lupin, innocent and now living as a country gentleman, is as perplexed as the police are.

  Enter Arsène Lupin. Universal, 1944. Charles Korvin, Ella Raines, J. Carrol Naish, Gale Sondergaard, Miles Mander. Directed by Ford Beebe. International thief Lupin, on a train from Istanbul to Paris, steals an emerald from a young heiress but returns it when he begins to suspect that the girl’s aunt and uncle plan to murder her.

  CHAPTER I.

  LOTTERY TICKET NO. 514.

  ON THE EIGHTH DAY OF last December, Mon. Gerbois, professor of mathematics at the College of Versailles, while rummaging in an old curiosity-shop, unearthed a small mahogany writing-desk which pleased him very much on account of the multiplicity of its drawers.

  “Just the thing for Suzanne’s birthday present,” thought he. And as he always tried to furnish some simple pleasures for his daughter, consistent with his modest income, he enquired the price, and, after some keen bargaining, purchased it for sixty-five francs. As he was giving his address to the shopkeeper, a young man, dressed with elegance and taste, who had been exploring the stock of antiques, caught sight of the writing-desk, and immediately enquired its price.

  “It is sold,” replied the shopkeeper.

  “Ah! To this gentleman, I presume?”

  Monsieur Gerbois bowed, and left the store, quite proud to be the possessor of an article which had attracted the attention of a gentleman of quality. But he had not taken a dozen steps in the street, when he was overtaken by the young man who, hat in hand and in a tone of perfect courtesy, thus addressed him:

  “I beg your pardon, monsieur; I am going to ask you a question that you may deem impertinent. It is this: Did you have any special object in view when you bought that writing-desk?”

  “No, I came across it by chance and it struck my fancy.”

  “But you do not care for it particularly?”

  “Oh! I shall keep it—that is all.”

  “Because it is an antique, perhaps?”

  “No; because it is convenient,” declared Mon. Gerbois.

  “In that case, you would consent to exchange it for another desk that would be quite as convenient and in better condition?”

  “Oh! This one is in good condition, and I see no object in making an exchange.”

  “But—”

  Mon. Gerbois is a man of irritable disposition and hasty temper. So he replied, testily:

  “I beg of you, monsieur, do not insist.”

  But the young man firmly held his ground.

  “I don’t know how much you paid for it, monsieur, but
I offer you double.”

  “No.”

  “Three times the amount.”

  “Oh! That will do,” exclaimed the professor, impatiently; “I don’t wish to sell it.”

  The young man stared at him for a moment in a manner that Mon. Gerbois would not readily forget, then turned and walked rapidly away.

  An hour later, the desk was delivered at the professor’s house on the Viroflay road. He called his daughter, and said:

  “Here is something for you, Suzanne, provided you like it.”

  Suzanne was a pretty girl, with a gay and affectionate nature. She threw her arms around her father’s neck and kissed him rapturously. To her, the desk had all the semblance of a royal gift. That evening, assisted by Hortense, the servant, she placed the desk in her room; then she dusted it, cleaned the drawers and pigeon-holes, and carefully arranged within it her papers, writing material, correspondence, a collection of post-cards, and some souvenirs of her cousin Philippe that she kept in secret.

  Next morning, at half past seven, Mon. Gerbois went to the college. At ten o’clock, in pursuance of her usual custom, Suzanne went to meet him, and it was a great pleasure for him to see her slender figure and childish smile waiting for him at the college gate. They returned home together.

  “And your writing desk—how is it this morning!”

  “Marvellous! Hortense and I have polished the brass mountings until they look like gold.”

  “So you are pleased with it?”

  “Pleased with it! Why, I don’t see how I managed to get on without it for such a long time.”

  As they were walking up the pathway to the house, Mon. Gerbois said:

  “Shall we go and take a look at it before breakfast?”

  “Oh! Yes, that’s a splendid idea!”

  She ascended the stairs ahead of her father, but, on arriving at the door of her room, she uttered a cry of surprise and dismay.

  “What’s the matter?” stammered Mon. Gerbois.

  “The writing-desk is gone!”

  When the police were called in, they were astonished at the admirable simplicity of the means employed by the thief. During Suzanne’s absence, the servant had gone to market, and while the house was thus left unguarded, a drayman, wearing a badge—some of the neighbors saw it—stopped his cart in front of the house and rang twice. Not knowing that Hortense was absent, the neighbors were not suspicious; consequently, the man carried on his work in peace and tranquility.

  Apart from the desk, not a thing in the house had been disturbed. Even Suzanne’s purse, which she had left upon the writing-desk, was found upon an adjacent table with its contents untouched. It was obvious that the thief had come with a set purpose, which rendered the crime even more mysterious; because, why did he assume so great a risk for such a trifling object?

  The only clue the professor could furnish was the strange incident of the preceding evening. He declared:

  “The young man was greatly provoked at my refusal, and I had an idea that he threatened me as he went away.”

  But the clue was a vague one. The shopkeeper could not throw any light on the affair. He did not know either of the gentlemen. As to the desk itself, he had purchased it for forty francs at an executor’s sale at Chevreuse, and believed he had resold it at its fair value. The police investigation disclosed nothing more.

  But Mon. Gerbois entertained the idea that he had suffered an enormous loss. There must have been a fortune concealed in a secret drawer, and that was the reason the young man had resorted to crime.

  “My poor father, what would we have done with that fortune?” asked Suzanne.

  “My child! With such a fortune, you could make a most advantageous marriage.”

  Suzanne sighed bitterly. Her aspirations soared no higher than her cousin Philippe, who was indeed a most deplorable object. And life, in the little house at Versailles, was not so happy and contented as of yore.

  Two months passed away. Then came a succession of startling events, a strange blending of good luck and dire misfortune!

  On the first day of February, at half-past five, Mon. Gerbois entered the house, carrying an evening paper, took a seat, put on his spectacles, and commenced to read. As politics did not interest him, he turned to the inside of the paper. Immediately his attention was attracted by an article entitled:

  “Third Drawing of the Press Association Lottery.No. 514, series 23, draws a million.”

  The newspaper slipped from his fingers. The walls swam before his eyes, and his heart ceased to beat. He held No. 514, series 23. He had purchased it from a friend, to oblige him, without any thought of success, and behold, it was the lucky number!

  Quickly, he took out his memorandum-book. Yes, he was quite right. The No. 514, series 23 was written there, on the inside of the cover. But the ticket?

  He rushed to his desk to find the envelope-box in which he had placed the precious ticket; but the box was not there, and it suddenly occurred to him that it had not been there for several weeks. He heard footsteps on the gravel walk leading from the street.

  He called:

  “Suzanne! Suzanne!”

  She was returning from a walk. She entered hastily. He stammered, in a choking voice:

  “Suzanne … the box … the box of envelopes?”

  “What box?”

  “The one I bought at the Louvre … one Saturday … it was at the end of that table.”

  “Don’t you remember, father, we put all those things away together.”

  “When?”

  “The evening … you know … the same evening … ”

  “But where? … Tell me, quick! … Where?”

  “Where? Why, in the writing-desk.”

  “In the writing-desk that was stolen?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh, mon Dieu! … In the stolen desk!”

  He uttered the last sentence in a low voice, in a sort of stupor. Then he seized her hand, and in a still lower voice, he said:

  “It contained a million, my child.”

  “Ah! Father, why didn’t you tell me?” she murmured, naively.

  “A million!” he repeated. “It contained the ticket that drew the grand prize in the Press Lottery.”

  The colossal proportions of the disaster overwhelmed them, and for a long time they maintained a silence that they feared to break. At last, Suzanne said:

  “But, father, they will pay you just the same.”

  “How? On what proof?”

  “Must you have proof?”

  “Of course.”

  “And you haven’t any?”

  “It was in the box.”

  “In the box that has disappeared.”

  “Yes; and now the thief will get the money.”

  “Oh! That would be terrible, father. You must prevent it.”

  For a moment he was silent; then, in an outburst of energy, he leaped up, stamped on the floor, and exclaimed:

  “No, no, he shall not have that million; he shall not have it! Why should he have it? Ah! Clever as he is, he can do nothing. If he goes to claim the money, they will arrest him. Ah! Now, we will see, my fine fellow!”

  “What will you do, father?”

  “Defend our just rights, whatever happens! And we will succeed. The million francs belong to me, and I intend to have them.”

  A few minutes later, he sent this telegram:

  “Governor Crédit Foncier

  “rue Capucines, Paris.

  “Am holder of No. 514, series 23. Oppose by all legal means any other claimant.

  “GERBOIS.”

  Almost at the same moment, the Crédit Foncier received the following telegram:

  “No. 514, series 23, is in my possession.

  “ARSÈNE LUPIN.”

  Every time I undertake to relate one of the many extraordinary adventures that mark the life of Arsène Lupin, I experience a feeling of embarrassment, as it seems to me that the most commonplace of those adventures is already well known to my reade
rs. In fact, there is not a movement of our “national thief,” as he has been so aptly described, that has not been given the widest publicity, not an exploit that has not been studied in all its phases, not an action that has not been discussed with that particularity usually reserved for the recital of heroic deeds.

  For instance, who does not know the strange history of “The Blonde Lady,” with those curious episodes which were proclaimed by the newspapers with heavy black headlines, as follows: “Lottery Ticket No. 514!” … “The Crime on the avenue Henri-Martin!” … “The Blue Diamond!” … The interest created by the intervention of the celebrated English detective, Herlock Sholmes! The excitement aroused by the various vicissitudes which marked the struggle between those famous artists! And what a commotion on the boulevards, the day on which the newsboys announced: “Arrest of Arsène Lupin!”

  My excuse for repeating these stories at this time is the fact that I produce the key to the enigma. Those adventures have always been enveloped in a certain degree of obscurity, which I now remove. I reproduce old newspaper articles, I relate old-time interviews, I present ancient letters; but I have arranged and classified all that material and reduced it to the exact truth. My collaborators in this work have been Arsène Lupin himself, and also the ineffable Wilson, the friend and confidant of Herlock Sholmes.

  Every one will recall the tremendous burst of laughter which greeted the publication of those two telegrams. The name “Arsène Lupin” was in itself a stimulus to curiosity, a promise of amusement for the gallery. And, in this case, the gallery means the entire world.

  An investigation was immediately commenced by the Crédit Foncier, which established these facts: That ticket No. 514, series 23, had been sold by the Versailles branch office of the Lottery to an artillery officer named Bessy, who was afterward killed by a fall from his horse. Some time before his death, he informed some of his comrades that he had transferred his ticket to a friend.

  “And I am that friend,” affirmed Mon. Gerbois.

  “Prove it,” replied the governor of the Crédit Foncier.