“That’s a hundred millions gone to Jericho,” grinned Don Luis.  “A pretty trick, but a bit expensive.  Good-bye, Mornington inheritance!  Good-bye, Don Luis Perenna!  And now, my dear Lupin, if you don’t want Weber to take his revenge, beat a retreat and in good order.  One, two; left, right; left, right!”

As he spoke, he locked, on the inside, the folding doors between the drawing-room and the first-floor anteroom; then, returning to his study, he locked the door between this room and the drawing-room.

The deputy chief was banging at the iron curtain with all his might and shouting so loud that they were bound to hear him outside through the open window.

“You’re not making half enough noise, deputy!” cried Don Luis.  “Let’s see what we can do.”

He took his revolver and fired off three bullets, one of which broke a pane.  Then he quickly left his study by a small, massive door, which he carefully closed behind him.  He was now in a secret passage which ran round both rooms and ended at another door leading to the anteroom.  He opened this door wide and was thus able to hide behind it.

Attracted by the shots and the noise, the detectives were already rushing through the hall and up the staircase.  When they reached the first floor and had gone through the anteroom, as the drawing-room doors were locked, the only outlet open to them was the passage, at the end of which they could hear the deputy shouting.  They all six darted down it.

When the last of them had vanished round the bend in the passage, Don Luis softly pushed back the door that concealed him and locked it like the rest.  The six detectives were as safely imprisoned as the deputy chief.

“Bottled!” muttered Don Luis.  “It will take them quite five minutes to realize the situation, to bang at the locked doors, and to break down one of them.  In five minutes we shall be far away.”

He met two of his servants running up with scared faces, the chauffeur and the butler.  He flung each of them a thousand-franc note and said to the chauffeur: 

“Set the engine going, there’s a sportsman, and let no one near the machine to block my way.  Two thousand francs more for each of you if I get off in the motor.  Don’t stand staring at me like that:  I mean what I say.  Two thousand francs apiece:  it’s for you to earn it.  Look sharp!”

He himself went up the second flight without undue haste, remaining master of himself.  But, on the last stair, he was seized with such a feeling of elation that he shouted: 

“Victory!  The road is clear!”

The boudoir door was opposite.  He opened it and repeated: 

“Victory!  But there’s not a second to lose.  Follow me.”

He entered.  A stifled oath escaped his lips.

The room was empty.

“What!” he stammered.  “What does this mean?  They’re gone....  Florence—­”

Certainly, unlikely though it seemed, he had hitherto supposed that Sauverand possessed a false key to the lock.  But how could they both have escaped, in the midst of the detectives?  He looked around him.  And then he understood.