XXIX
THROUGH THE WINDOW
"What a splendid fellow! One can count on him at any time. A friendshiplike his is rare and precious."
Fandor had just left Juve, and the detective could not help beingstrangely moved as he thought of the devotion shown him by thejournalist.
The detective was still in his wheel chair; with a skilful turn he wentback to the balcony and his post of observation.
Evening was coming on. After a fine day the sky had become leaden andovercast with great clouds: a storm was threatening. Juve swore.
"I shan't see much this evening; this confounded Josephine is sosentimental that she loves dreaming in the gloaming at her windowwithout lighting up. Devil take her!"
Juve had armed himself with his spy-glass; he apparently levelled it atPorte Maillot, and in that way he could see something of the movementsof Josephine in the rooms opposite him.
"Flowers on the chimney and on the piano! Expecting her lover probably!"
Suddenly he started up in his chair.
"Ah! some one has rung her bell. She is going toward the entrance door."
A minute passed; in the front rooms Juve no longer saw anyone. Josephinemust be receiving a visitor.
Some minutes more went by; a heavy shower of rain came down and Juve wasforced to leave his balcony.
When he resumed his watching he could not suppress an exclamation ofsurprise.
"Ah, if he would only turn! This cursed rain prevents me from seeingclearly what is afoot. The brute! Why won't he turn! There, he has laidhis bag on a chair, his initials must be on it, but I can't read them.Yet the height of the man! His gestures! It's he, sure enough, it'sChaleck!"
Juve suddenly abandoned his post of observation, propelled his chair tothe back room of the suite and seized the telephone apparatus.
"Hello! Give me the Prefecture. It is Juve speaking. Send at oncedetectives Leon and Michel to No. 33 C Boulevard Pereire South. Theyare to wait at the door of the house and arrest as they come out thepersons I marked as numbers 14 and 15. Let them make haste."
"Assuredly Chaleck won't leave at once if he has come to see Josephine;no doubt he has important things to say. Leon and Michel will arrive intime to nab him first and Josephine after. And to-morrow, when I havethem handcuffed before me, it's the deuce if I don't manage to get thetruth out of them."
Juve went back to his look-out.
"Oh, they seem very lively, both of them; the talk must be serious.Josephine doesn't look pleased. She seems to disagree with what Chaleckis saying. One would think he was giving her orders. No! she is down onher knees. A declaration of love! After Loupart and Dixon it's thatinfernal doctor's turn!"
Juve watched for a moment longer the young woman and the mysterious andelusive Chaleck.
"Ah! that's what I feared! Chaleck is going and Leon and Michel haven'tcome!"
Juve hesitated. Should he go down, rush to the Boulevard and try tocollar the ruffian? That wasn't possible. Juve lived on the fifth floor,so that he had one more story to get down than Chaleck, then there wasthe railway line between him and Josephine's house. Chaleck would haveample time to disappear. But Juve reassured himself.
"Luckily he has left his hold-all, and if I mistake not, that is hisstick on the chair. Therefore he expects to come back."
Powerless to act, Juve witnessed the exit of Chaleck, who soon appearedat the door of Josephine's house and went striding off. Juve followedhim with his eyes, intensely chagrined. Would he ever again find such agood opportunity of laying hands on the ruffian?
Chaleck vanished round the corner of the street, and Juve again took towatching Josephine! The young woman did not appear to be upset by herlate visitor. She sat, her elbows on the table, turning with a listlessfinger the pages of a volume.
"Clearly he is coming back," thought Juve, "or he would not have lefthis things there. I shall nab him in a few days at latest."
Juve was about to leave his post of observation when he saw Josephineraise her head in an attitude of listening to an indefinable andmysterious noise.
"What is going on?" Juve asked himself. "She cannot be already watchingfor Chaleck's return."
Then Juve started.
"Oh! oh!"
He had just seen Josephine at a single bound spring toward the window.The young woman gazed steadily in front of her, her arms outstretched ina posture of horror. She seemed in a state of abject terror. There wasno mistaking her motions. She was panic-stricken, panting, trembling inall her limbs. Juve, who lost no movement of the hapless woman, felt acold sweat break out on his forehead.
"What's the matter with her? There is nobody in the room, I see nothing!What can frighten her to that extent? Oh, my God!"
Forgetting all precautions, all the comedy he was preparing so carefullyfor the neighbour's benefit, he sprang to his feet, deserting his wheelchair. His hands clenched on the rail of the balcony while spellbound bythe sight he beheld, he leaned over the rail as if in a frantic desireto fling himself to the young woman's help. Josephine had bestridden thesash of her window. She was now standing on the ledge, holding with onehand to the rail of her balcony and her body flung backwards as if madwith terror.
"What is happening? Oh, the poor soul!"
Josephine, uttering a desperate cry, had let go of the supporting railand had flung herself into space. Juve saw the young woman's body spinin the air, heard the dull thud that it made as it crashed against theground.
"It is monstrous!"
Juve beside himself tore down the stairs full tilt, passed breathlesslythe porteress, who seemed likely to faint at the sight of the headlongpace of the supposed paralytic.
He went round Boulevard Pereire, darted along the railway line, and,panting, got to the side of the ill-starred Josephine. At the sound ofher fall and the cries she uttered people had flown to the windows,passers-by had turned round: when Juve got there a ring of people hadalready formed round the unfortunate woman. The detective roughly pushedsome of them aside, knelt down beside the body and put his ear to thechest.
"Dead? No!"
A faint groan came from the lips of the poor sufferer. Juve realisedthat by unheard-of luck, Josephine, in the course of her fall, hadstruck the outer branches of one of the trees that fringed theBoulevard. This had somewhat broken the shock, but her legs werefrightfully broken and one of her arms hung lifeless.
"Quick!" commanded Juve. "A cab; take her to the hospital."
As soon as help was forthcoming, Juve, recalled to the duties of hisprofession, asked himself:
"What can have occurred? What was it she tried to escape by throwingherself into space? I saw the whole room, there was no one with her. Shemust have been the victim of a delusion."