Maurice Leblanc - The Secret of Sarek

"Here, all you've got to do now is to pull. Get her on her feet first and one of you keep her from falling."

He waited a moment. But Otto and Conrad were whispering to each other; and he exclaimed:

"Look here, hurry up, will you?… Remember I'm making a pretty easy target, if they took it into their heads to send a bullet or an arrow at me. Are you ready?"

The two assistants did not reply.

"Well, this is a bit thick! What's the matter with you? Otto! Conrad!"

He leapt to the ground and shook them:

"You're a pair of nice ones, you are! At this rate, we should still be at it to-morrow morning… and the whole thing will miscarry… Answer me, Otto, can't you?" He turned the light full on Otto's face. "Look here, what's all this about? Are you wriggling out of it? If so, you'd[Pg 244] better say so! And you, Conrad? Are you both going on strike?"

Otto wagged his head:

"On strike… that's saying a lot. But Conrad and I would like a word or two of explanation?"

"Explanation? What about, you pudding-head? About the lady we're executing? About either of the two brats? It's no use taking that line, my man. I said to you, when I first mentioned the business, 'Will you go to work blindfold? There'll be a tough job and plenty of bloodshed. But there's big money at the end of it.'"

"That's the whole question," said Otto.

"Say what you mean, you jackass!"

"It's for you to say and repeat the terms of our agreement. What are they?"

"You know as well as I do."

"Exactly, it's to remind you of them that I'm asking you to repeat them."

"I remember them exactly. I get the treasure; and out of the treasure I pay you two hundred thousand francs between the two of you."

"That's so and it's not quite so. We'll come back to that. Let's begin by talking of this famous treasure. Here have we been grinding away for weeks, wallowing in blood, living in a nightmare of every sort of crime… and not a thing in sight!"

Vorski shrugged his shoulders:

"You're getting denser and denser, my poor Otto! You know there were certain things to be done first. They're all done, except one. In a few minutes, this will be finished too and the treasure will be ours!"

[Pg 245]"How do we know?"

"Do you think I'd have done all that I have done, if I wasn't sure of the result… as sure as I am that I'm alive? Everything has happened in a certain given order. It was all predetermined. The last thing will come at the hour foretold and will open the gate for me."

"The gate of hell," sneered Otto, "as I heard Maguennoc call it."

"Call it by that name or another, it opens on the treasure which I shall have won."

"Very well," said Otto, impressed by Vorski's tone of conviction, "very well. I'm willing to believe you're right. But what's to tell us that we shall have our share?"

"You shall have your share for the simple reason that the possession of the treasure will provide me with such indescribable wealth that I'm not likely to risk having trouble with you two fellows for the sake of a couple of hundred thousand francs."

"So we have your word?"

"Of course."

"Your word that all the clauses of our agreement shall be respected."

"Of course. What are you driving at?"

"This, that you've begun to trick us in the meanest way by breaking one of the clauses of the agreement."

"What's that? What are you talking about? Do you realize whom you're speaking to?"

"I'm speaking to you, Vorski."

Vorski laid violent hands on his accomplice:

"What's this? You dare to insult me? To call me by my name, me, me?"

[Pg 246]"What of it, seeing that you've robbed me of what's mine by rights?"

Vorski controlled himself and, in a voice trembling with anger:

"Say what you have to say and be careful, my man, for you're playing a dangerous game. Speak out."

"It's this," said Otto. "Apart from the treasure, apart from the two hundred thousand francs, it was arranged between us-you held up your hand and took your oath on it-that any loose cash found by either of us in the course of the business would be divided in equal shares: half for you, half for Conrad and myself. Is that so?"

"That's so."

"Then pay up," said Otto, holding out his hand.

"Pay up what? I haven't found anything."

"That's a lie. While we were settling the sisters Archignat, you discovered on one of them, tucked away in her bodice, the hoard which we couldn't find in their house."

"Well, that's a likely story!" said Vorski, in a tone which betrayed his embarrassment.

"It's absolutely the truth."

"Prove it."

"Just fish out that little parcel, tied up with string, which you've got pinned inside your shirt, just there," said Otto, touching Vorski's chest with his finger. "Fish it out and let's have a look at those fifty thousand-franc notes."

Vorski made no reply. He was dazed, like a man who does not understand what is happening to him and who is trying to guess how his adversary procured a weapon against him.

[Pg 247]"Do you admit it?" asked Otto.

"Why not?" he rejoined. "I meant to square up later, in the lump."

"Square up now. We'd rather have it that way."

"And suppose I refuse?"

"You won't refuse."

"Suppose I do?"

"In that case, look out for yourself!"

"I have nothing to fear. There's only two of you."

"There's three of us, at least."

"Where's the third?"

"The third is a gentleman who seems cleverer than most, from what Conrad tells me: brrr!… The one who fooled you just now, the one with the arrow and the white robe!"

"You propose to call him?"

"Rather!"

Vorski felt that the game was not equal. The two assistants were standing on either side of him and pressing him hard. He had to yield:

"Here, you thief! Here, you robber!" he shouted, taking out the parcel and unfolding the notes.

"It's not worth while counting," said Otto, snatching the bundle from him unawares.

"Hi!…"

"We'll do it this way: half for Conrad, half for me."

"Oh, you blackguard! Oh, you double-dyed thief! I'll make you pay for this. I don't care a button about the money. But to rob me as though you'd decoyed me into a wood, so to speak! I shouldn't like to be in your skin, my lad!"

[Pg 248]He continued to insult the other and then, suddenly, burst into a laugh, a forced, malicious laugh:

"After all, Otto, upon my word, well played! But where and how did you come to know it? You'll tell me that, won't you?… Meanwhile, we've not a minute to lose. We're agreed all round, aren't we? And you'll get on with the work?"

"Willingly, since you're taking the thing so well," said Otto. And he added, obsequiously, "After all… you have a style about you, sir! You're a fine gentleman, you are!"

"And you, you're a varlet whom I pay. You've had your money, so hurry up. The business is urgent."

The "business," as the frightful creatures called it, was soon done. Climbing on his ladder, Vorski repeated his orders, which were executed in docile fashion by Conrad and Otto.

They raised the victim to her feet and then, keeping her upright, hauled at the rope. Vorski seized the poor woman and, as her knees were bent, violently forced them straight. Thus flattened against the trunk of the tree, with her skirt tightened round her legs, her arms hanging to right and left at no great distance from her body, she was bound round the waist and under the arms.

She seemed not to have recovered from her blow and uttered no sound of complaint. Vorski tried to speak a few words, but spluttered them, incapable of utterance. Then he tried to raise her head, but abandoned the attempt, lacking the courage to touch her who was about to die: and the head dropped low on the breast.