At last some one entered, ushering in a second person.  Don Luis recognized Valenglay and the Prefect of Police.

“That’s it,” he thought.  “I’ve got him.”

He saw this by the sort of vague sympathy perceptible on the old Premier’s lean and bony face.  There was not a sign of arrogance, nothing to raise a barrier between the Minister and the suspicious individual whom he was receiving:  just a manifest, playful curiosity and sympathy, It was a sympathy which Valenglay had never concealed, and of which he even boasted when, after Arsene Lupin’s sham death, he spoke of the adventurer and the strange relations between them.

“You have not changed,” he said, after looking at him for some time.  “Complexion a little darker, a trifle grayer over the temples, that’s all.”

And putting on a blunt tone, he asked: 

“And what is it you want?”

“An answer first of all, Monsieur le President du Conseil.  Has Deputy Chief Weber, who took me to the lockup last night, traced the motor cab in which Florence Levasseur was carried off?”

“Yes, the motor stopped at Versailles.  The persons inside it hired another cab which is to take them to Nantes.  What else do you ask for, besides that answer?”

“My liberty, Monsieur le President.”

“At once, of course?” said Valenglay, beginning to laugh.

“In thirty or thirty-five minutes at most.”

“At half-past seven, eh?”

“Half-past seven at latest, Monsieur le President.”

“And why your liberty?”

“To catch the murderer of Cosmo Mornington, of Inspector Verot, and of the Roussel family.”

“Are you the only one that can catch him?”

“Yes.”

“Still, the police are moving.  The wires are at work.  The murderer will not leave France.  He shan’t escape us.”

“You can’t find him.”

“Yes, we can.”

“In that case he will kill Florence Levasseur.  She will be the scoundrel’s seventh victim.  And it will be your doing.”

Valenglay paused for a moment and then resumed: 

“According to you, contrary to all appearances, and contrary to the well-grounded suspicions of Monsieur le Prefet de Police, Florence Levasseur is innocent?”

“Oh, absolutely, Monsieur le President!”

“And you believe her to be in danger of death?”

“She is in danger of death.”

“Are you in love with her?”

“I am.”

Valenglay experienced a little thrill of enjoyment.  Lupin in love!  Lupin acting through love and confessing his love!  But how exciting!

He said: 

“I have followed the Mornington case from day to day and I know every detail of it.  You have done wonders, Monsieur.  It is evident that, but for you, the case would never have emerged from the mystery that surrounded it at the start.  But I cannot help noticing that there are certain flaws in it.