CHAPTER XVIII. ARSÈNE I EMPEROR OF MAURETANIA
Don Luis ceased. A smile of amusement played round his lips. The
recollection of those four minutes seemed to divert him immensely.
Valenglay and the Prefect of Police, who were neither of them men to be
unduly surprised at courage and coolness, had listened to him, nevertheless, and were now looking at him in bewildered silence. Was it possible for a human being to carry heroism to such unlikely lengths?
Meanwhile, he went up to the other side of the chimney and pointed to a
larger map, representing the French roads.
"You told me, Monsieur le Président, that the scoundrel's motor car had
left Versailles and was going toward Nantes?"
"Yes; and all our arrangements are made to arrest him either on the way, or else at Nantes or at Saint-Nazaire, where he may intend to take ship."
Don Luis Perenna followed with his forefinger the road across France, stopping here and there, marking successive stages. And nothing could have been more impressive than this dumb show.
The man that he was, preserving his composure amid the overthrow of all
that he had most at heart, seemed by his calmness to dominate time and
circumstances. It was as though the murderer were running away at one end
of an unbreakable thread of which Don Luis held the other, and as though
Don Luis could stop his flight at any time by a mere movement of his
finger and thumb.
As he studied the map, the master seemed to command not only a sheet of
cardboard, but also the highroad on which a motor car was spinning along, subject to his despotic will.
He went back to the table and continued:
"The battle was over. And there was no question of its being resumed. My
forty-two worthies found themselves face to face with a conqueror, against whom revenge is always possible, by fair means or foul, but with one who had subjugated them in a supernatural manner. There was no other explanation of the inexplicable facts which they had witnessed. I was a sorcerer, a kind of marabout, a direct emissary of the Prophet."
Valenglay laughed and said:
"Their interpretation was not so very unreasonable, for, after all, you
must have performed a sleight-of-hand trick which strikes me also as
being little less than miraculous."
"Monsieur le Président, do you know a curious short story of Balzac's
called 'A Passion in the Desert?'"
"Yes."
"Well, the key to the riddle lies in that."
"Does it? I don't quite see. You were not under the claws of a tigress. There was no tigress to tame in this instance."
"No, but there were women."
"Eh? How do you mean?"
"Upon my word, Monsieur le Président," said Don Luis gayly, "I should not
like to shock you. But I repeat that the troop which carried me off on
that week's march included women; and women are a little like Balzac's
tigress, creatures whom it is not impossible to tame, to charm, to break
in, until you make friends of them."
"Yes, yes," muttered the Premier, madly puzzled, "but that needs time."
"I had a week."
"And complete liberty of action."
"No, no, Monsieur le Président. The eyes are enough to start with. The
eyes give rise to sympathy, interest, affection, curiosity, a wish to
know you better. After that, the merest opportunity--"
"And did an opportunity offer?"
"Yes, one night. I was fastened up, or at least they thought I was. I
knew that the chief's favourite was alone in her tent close by. I went
there. I left her an hour afterward."
"And the tigress was tamed?"
"Yes, as thoroughly as Balzac's: tamed and blindly submissive."
"But there were several of them?"
"I know, Monsieur le President, and that was the difficulty. I was afraid
of rivalry. But all went well: the favourite was not jealous, far from
it. And then, as I have told you, her submission was absolute. In short, I had five staunch, invisible friends, resolved to do anything I wanted and suspected by nobody.
"My plan was being carried out before we reached the last halting-place. My five secret agents collected all the arms during the night. They dashed the daggers to the ground and broke them. They removed the bullets from the pistols. They damped the powder. Everything was ready for ringing up the curtain."
Valenglay bowed.
"My compliments! You are a man of resource. And your scheme was not
lacking in charm. For I take it that your five ladies were pretty?"