XXV
THE TRAP
"Twelve o'clock! Hang it! I've just time to get there to keep myengagement with Josephine."
Juve was going down Belleville hill as fast as his legs could take himby a short cut past the Sevres school. He cast a mocking glance towardthe little police station which stands smart and trim at one side of thehigh road.
"Pity," he murmured, "that I can't escort my friends to that delightfulcountry house."
Then he hastened his pace still more. He was growing angry.
"I told Fandor to be at Nogent Station exactly at 1.30. It is now fivepast twelve and I am still at Sevres. Matters are getting complicated.Oh, I'll take the tramway to Versailles' gate. From there I'll drive toNogent Station in a taxi."
He put this plan into execution, and was lucky enough to find a placein the Louvre-Versailles' tram.
"All things considered, I have not wasted my morning. Poor Dixon! He waslucky to get off so cheaply. It would seem now that Josephine told thetruth in saying he is not an accomplice of the Gang."
Juve reflected a while, then added:
"Only it looks as if that accursed Josephine had put her friends up tothe job."
At the St. Cloud gate the tram came to a stop and Juve got down, haileda taxi, and told the driver:
"To Nogent Station and look sharp. I'm in a terrible hurry."
The driver nodded assent, Juve got in, and the vehicle started. The taxihad hardly been going five minutes when Juve became impatient.
"Go quicker, my man! Don't you know how to drive?"
The man replied, nettled:
"I don't want to get run in for breaking the regulations."
Juve laughed.
"Never mind the regulations, I'm from Police Headquarters."
The magical word took effect. From that moment, heedless of the franticsignals of policemen, the driver tore along at full speed and reachedthe square in front of Nogent Station.
"It is only 1.45--Fandor should just have got here."
Juve, indeed, had only just settled with his driver when Fandor poppedup from the waiting-room.
"Well, Juve! Anything fresh this morning?"
The detective smiled.
"Any number of things. But I'll tell you later. Where is Josephine?"
"Not here yet."
"The deuce!"
"That confirms my suspicions; eh, Juve?"
"Somewhat. I should be astonished if we did see her."
The detective led the journalist away, and the two went for a turnbeside the railway-line on the deserted boulevard.
"Fandor, this is the time to draw up a plan of action. Do you rememberthe directions Josephine gave us?"
"Vaguely."
"Well, we are now going to the neighbourhood of the Rue des Charmilles.It is number 7 that Loupart and his gang are to loot, according toJosephine. Yesterday afternoon I sent my men to look at the street; thisis how they described it to me. It is a sort of lane with no issue; thehouse which we are concerned with is the last, standing on the right. Itis a lodge of humble aspect, the tenants of which are really away. Thereare not many people living in this Charmilles Lane, and the place iswell chosen for such a job, at least that is Michel's opinion.
"Oh, I forgot one thing, round the house is a fairly large garden ofwhich the walls are luckily high. So it is likely that even if theburglars should discover our presence they could not get off the backway."
"And what is your plan of action, Juve?"
"A very simple one. We are going to the entry of the Rue Charmilles andwait there. When our men come up with us I shall try to pick out Loupartand fly at his throat. There will be a struggle, no doubt, but in themeantime you must bellow with all your might: 'Murder' and 'Help.' Itrust that succour will reach us."
"Then you haven't any plain-clothes men here?"
"No. I don't want to let my superiors know about this expedition."
The two men went forward some paces in silence along an empty sidestreet, till Juve halted in a shady corner and drew out his Browning,carefully seeing to the magazine.
"Do as I do, Fandor"; he prepared for a tussle. "I smell powder in theair."
Juve was about to start forward again when suddenly a tremendous uproarbroke out: "Help! Help!"
Juve seized Fandor by the arm.
"Take the left-hand pavement!"
The two had just reached the corner of the street where the house spokenof by Josephine should stand, when a jostling crowd of people came insight, rushing toward them, uttering shouts and yells. Juve and Fandorrecognised a man fleeing at full speed in front of them, whose face washidden by a black mask! Behind him two other men were running, alsomasked, but with grey velvet. In the crowd following were grocers'assistants, workmen of all kinds, even a Nogent policeman.
"Help! Murder! Arrest him!"
The fleeing man was threatening his pursuers with an enormous revolver.
"Look out!" shouted Juve. "Loupart is mine! You tackle the others!"
But suddenly catching sight of the detective Loupart slackened his pace.
"Get out of the way!" he cried, flourishing his revolver.
"Stop, or I fire!" returned Juve.
"Fire then! I, too, shall fire!" And, leaping toward the detective, theoutlaw pointed his revolver at him and fired twice.
With a quick movement Juve leaped aside. The bullets must have brushedhim, but luckily he was not touched. The plucky detective again flunghimself on Loupart, seized him by the collar and tried to throw himdown.
"Let me go! I'll do for you----"
For a moment Juve felt the cold muzzle of the weapon on his neck. Then,with a supreme effort, he forced the outlaw's hands down and, aiming hisrevolver, fired.
"Help! I--I----"
A gush of blood welled up from the ruffian's collar. He turned twice,and then fell heavily on the ground.
In the meantime Fandor was struggling with the two men in the greymasks. Juve was about to go to his assistance, when the crowd now made arush and the detective became the central point of a furious encounter:blows and kicks rained on him. He succumbed to numbers.
It was now Fandor's turn to help his friend, and he was about to jointhe fight when he stood rooted to the spot in utter amazement. A littlebeyond the groups of struggling men he caught sight of an individualstanding beside a tripod on which was placed a contrivance he did notat once identify. The man seemed greatly amused, and was watching thescene laughing and showing no desire to intervene.
"Very good! Very good! That will make a splendid film!"
Fandor understood----
His head bandaged and his arm in a sling, Juve was replying in a shakyvoice to the Superintendent of Police of Nogent.
"No, Superintendent, I realised nothing. It is monstrous! I asked in themost perfect good faith. I did not fire till I had been fired at threetimes."
"You didn't notice the strange get-up of the burglars? And of thepolicemen? Of that poor actor, Bonardin, you half killed?"
Juve shook his head.
"I hadn't time to notice details. I want you to understand,Superintendent, how things came about, to realise how the trap was laidfor me.... I came to Nogent, assured that I was about to face dangerousruffians. I was to encounter them at such an hour, in such a street. Iwas given their description: they would have their faces masked and comeout of a certain house. And it all happened as described. I hadn't goneten paces in the said street when sure enough I saw people rushingtoward me bawling 'Help.' I recognised men in masks: had I time to lookat the details of their costumes? Certainly not! I spring at the throatof the fugitive. He has a revolver and fires. How could I know theweapon was only loaded blank? He, an actor in a cinematograph scene,takes me for another, acting the part of a policeman. He fires at me andI retaliate."
"And you half kill him."
"For which I am exceedingly sorry. But nothing could lead me to suspecta trap."
"It's lucky you didn't wound anyone else. How did matters en
d?"
"The actors, naturally enough, were furious with me, and I was beingroughly handled when the real policemen arrived and rescued me. All wasexplained when I brought out my card of identity. While they were takingme to the station, the actor Bonardin was being carried to the nearesthouse, a convent, I believe."
"Yes, the Convent of the Ladies of St. Clotilde."
* * * * *
The trap had been well devised, and Juve was not wrong in saying thatanyone in his place would have been taken in by it. And so while thedetective was detained at the station, Fandor, after a long and minuteinterrogation, returned to Paris in a state of deep dejection.