Don Luis turned the cripple over and over and was pretty rough about it.  Then he resumed: 

“I wish to impress upon you, my dear sir, that the upshot would have been exactly similar if I had attacked you directly and from the start in the open air.  But, having said this, I confess that chance favoured me to some purpose.  It has often failed me, in the course of our struggle, but this time I had no cause to complain.

“I felt myself in such luck that I never doubted for a second that, having found the entrance to the subterranean passage, I should also find the way out.  As a matter of fact, I had only to pull gently at the slight obstacle of a few stacked bricks which hid the opening in order to make my exit amid the remains of the castle keep.

“Guided by the sound of your voice, I slipped through the stones and thus reached the back of the grotto in which Florence lay.  Amusing, wasn’t it?

“You can imagine what fun it was to hear you make your little speeches:  ’Answer me, yes or no, Florence.  A movement of your head will decide your fate.  If it’s yes, I shall release you.  If it’s no, you die.  Answer me, Florence!  A sign of your head:  is the answer yes or no?’ And the end, above all, was delicious, when you scrambled to the top of the grotto and started roaring from up there:  ’It’s you who have asked to die, Florence.  You asked for it and you’ve got it!’

“Just think what a joke it was:  at that moment there was no one in the grotto!  Not a soul!  With one effort, I had drawn Florence toward me and put her under shelter.  And all that you were able to crush with your avalanche of rocks was one or two spiders, perhaps, and a few flies dozing on the flagstones.

“The trick was done and the farce was nearly finished.  Act first:  Arsene Lupin saved.  Act second:  Florence Levasseur saved.  Act third and last:  the monster vanquished ... absolutely and with a vengeance!”

Don Luis stood up and contemplated his work with a satisfied eye.

“You look like a sausage, my son!” he cried, yielding at last to his sarcastic nature and his habit of treating his enemies familiarly.  “A regular sausage!  A bit on the thin side, perhaps:  a saveloy for poor people!  But there, you don’t much care what you look like, I suppose?  Besides, you’re rather like that at all times; and, in any case, you’re just the thing for the little display of indoor gymnastics which I have in mind for you.  You’ll see:  it’s an idea of my own, a really original idea.  Don’t be impatient:  we shan’t be long.”

He took one of the guns which the cripple had brought to the well and tied to the middle of the gun the end of a twelve or fifteen yards’ length of rope, fastening the other end to the cords with which the cripple was bound, just behind his back.  He next took his captive round the body and held him over the well: 

“Shut your eyes, if you feel at all giddy.  And don’t be frightened.  I’ll be very careful.  Ready?”