XXVIII
AN OLD PARALYTIC
At the far end of the Rue de Rome Fandor halted. "After all," hethought, "maybe I am going straight into a trap. Who sent me the letter?Who is this M. Mahon? I never heard of him. Why this menacing phrase,'Come, if you take any interest in the affairs of Lady B---- and F----.'Oh, if only I could take counsel of Juve!"
But for the last fortnight, since the ill-starred affair of Nogent andthe almost incredible discovery he had made that Lady Beltham was stillalive, Fandor had not seen Juve. He had been to the Surete a number oftimes, but Juve had vanished.
Fandor stopped before a private house on the Boulevard Pereire North. Hepassed in through the outer hall and reached the porter's lodge.
"Madame, have you a tenant here named Mahon?"
The porteress came forward.
"M. Mahon? To be sure--fifth floor on the right."
"Thank you. I should like to ask a few questions about him. I havecome--to negotiate an insurance policy for him and I should like to knowabout the value of the furniture in his rooms. What sort of a man isthis M. Mahon? About how old is he?"
Fandor had, by pure professional instinct, found the best device in theworld. There is not a porteress who has not many times enlightenedinsurance agents.
"Why, sir, M. Mahon has lived here only a month or six weeks. He canscarcely be very well off, for when he moved in I did not see any finefurniture go up. I believe for that matter he is an old cavalry officer,and, in the army nowadays, folks scarcely make fortunes."
"That's true enough," assented Fandor.
"Anyhow he is a very charming man, an ideal lodger. To begin with, he isinfirm, almost paralysed in both legs. I believe he never goes out of anevening. And then he never has any visitors except two young fellows whoare serving their time in the army."
"Are they with him now?"
"No, sir, they never come till three or four in the afternoon."
Fandor slipped a coin into the woman's hand and went upstairs. He rangat the door and was surprised at a strange, soft rolling sound.
"Oh, I know," he thought; "the poor man must move about his rooms in arubber-tired wheel chair."
He was not mistaken. Scarcely was the door opened when he caught sightof an old man of much distinction seated in a wheel chair. This invalidgreeted the journalist pleasantly.
"M. Fandor?"
"The same, sir."
M. Mahon pushed forward his chair and motioned to his visitor to comein.
Fandor entered a room in which the curtains were closely drawn and whichwas brilliantly illuminated with electric lights, although it was themiddle of the afternoon. Was it a trap? The journalist instinctivelyhesitated in the doorway. But behind him a cordial voice called:
"Come in, you all kinds of an idiot!"
The door clicked behind him and the invalid, getting out of his chair,burst into a fit of laughter.
"Juve! Juve!"
"As you see!"
"Bah, what farce are you playing here? Why this lit-up room?"
"All for very good reasons. If you will be kind enough to take a seat, Iwill explain."
Fandor dropped into a chair staring at Juve, who continued:
"When you came back the other day and told me that unlikely yarn aboutLady Beltham being alive, I decided to try new methods. First of all, Ibecame a cavalry officer, then I got this wheel chair and moved intothis apartment."
As Juve paused, Fandor, more and more amazed, inquired:
"But your reason for all this!"
"Just wait! The day after the Dixon business, I put three of my best menon the track of the American. I had a notion he would want to seeJosephine again, and I was not mistaken. She came back to justifyherself in his eyes. The story ended as might have been foreseen.Michel, who brought me the news, said that Josephine had agreed tobecome Dixon's mistress."
"The deuce!"
"Oh, there is nothing to be surprised at that. Michel made arrangementsto learn all the details. Josephine is to live at 33 C in BoulevardPereire South; that is, to the right of the railway line, fourth floor.Here we are at 24 B Boulevard Pereire North, to left of the railway,fifth floor, and just opposite."
"And what does this old M. Mahon do, Juve?"
Juve smiled.
"You are going to see, my lad."
He settled himself again in the wheel chair, drew a heavy rug over hisknees and became once more the old invalid.
"My dear friend, will you open the door for me?"
Fandor laughingly complied, and Juve wheeled himself into another room.
"You see I have plenty of air here thanks to this balcony upon which Ican wheel my chair. Would you be good enough to pass me that spy-glass?"
Juve pointed the glass toward the far end of Boulevard Pereire, in thedirection of Poste Maillot.
"Mlle. Josephine has lately had a craze for keeping her nails polished."
"But you are not looking toward the house opposite, you are looking in acontrary direction!"
Juve laid his spy-glass on his knees and laughed.
"I expected you to make that remark. See, those glasses at the end areonly for show, inside is a whole system of prisms. With this perspectiveyou see not in front of you, but on one side. In other words, when Ipoint it at the far end of the boulevard, what I am really looking at isthe house opposite."
Fandor was about to congratulate his friend on this new specimen of hisingenuity, but Juve did not give him time. He startled the journalist bysuddenly asking him:
"Tell me, do you love the army?"
"Why?"
"Because I think those two soldiers you see over there are coming."
"To see you," added Fandor.
"How do you know?"
"From your porteress."
"You pumped her?"
"I did. I got her to talk a bit about that excellent M. Mahon."
Juve laughed:
"Confound you!"
With a quick movement Fandor, at the detective's request, drew back thewheel chair and shut the window.
"You understand," explained Juve, "there is nothing to surprise myneighbours in my having two soldiers to visit me. But I don't care forthird persons to hear what they say to me." There was a ring at theapartment door. "Go and open, Fandor. I don't leave my cripple's chairfor them; people can see through the curtains."
Shown in by Fandor, the soldiers shook hands with Juve and took seatsopposite him.
"Do you recognise Michel and Leon?"
"Oh, perfectly!" cried Fandor, "but why this disguise?"
"Because no heed is paid to uniforms, there are soldiers everywhere, andalso it is not easy to recognise a civilian suddenly appearing inuniform. What is fresh, Michel?"
"Something pretty serious, sir. According to your instructions we havebeen shadowing the Superior of the Nogent Convent."
"Well, what have you discovered?"
"Every Tuesday evening the Superior leaves Nogent and goes to Paris."
"Where?"
"To one of the branches of her religious house in the BoulevardJourdan."
"No. 180?"
Michel was dumbfounded.
"Yes, sir, you knew?"
"No," said Juve, coldly. "What does she do at this branch?"
"There are four or five old nuns there. The Superior spends Tuesdaynight there and on Wednesday goes back to Nogent about one in theafternoon."
"And you know no more than that?"
"No, sir. Must we go on with the shadowing?"
"No, it is not worth while. Return to the Prefecture and report to M.Havard."
When the two men had left, Fandor turned to Juve.
"What do you make of it?"
Juve shrugged his shoulders.
"Michel is an idiot. That house has two exits; one to the Boulevard, theother to waste ground that leads to the fortifications. The Superior, orLady Beltham, goes there to change her dress, and then hastens to someprearranged meeting elsewhere. The house at Neuilly will be
arwatching."