“But—­”

“That mark is not mine....  I swear it as I hope to be saved....  And I also swear that I shall die, yes, die....  I prefer death to prison....  I shall kill myself....  I shall kill myself—­”

Her eyes were staring before her.  She stiffened her muscles and made a supreme effort to rise from her chair.  But, once on her feet, she tottered and fell fainting on the floor.

While she was being seen to, Mazeroux beckoned to Don Luis and whispered: 

“Clear out, Chief.”

“Ah, so the orders are revoked?  I’m free?”

“Chief, take a look at the beggar who came in ten minutes ago and who’s talking to the Prefect.  Do you know him?”

“Hang it all!” said Perenna, after glancing at a large red-faced man who did not take his eyes off him.  “Hang it, it’s Weber, the deputy chief!”

“And he’s recognized you, Chief!  He recognized Lupin at first sight.  There’s no fake that he can’t see through.  He’s got the knack of it.  Well, Chief, just think of all the tricks you’ve played on him and ask yourself if he’ll stick at anything to have his revenge!”

“And you think he has told the Prefect?”

“Of course he has; and the Prefect has ordered my mates to keep you in view.  If you make the least show of trying to escape them, they’ll collar you.”

“In that case, there’s nothing to be done?”

“Nothing to be done?  Why, it’s a question of putting them off your scent and mighty quickly!”

“What good would that do me, as I’m going home and they know where I live?”

“Eh, what?  Can you have the cheek to go home after what’s happened?”

“Where do you expect me to sleep?  Under the bridges?”

“But, dash it all, don’t you understand that, after this job, there will be the most infernal stir, that you’re compromised up to the neck as it is, and that everybody will turn against you?”

“Well?”

“Drop the business.”

“And the murderers of Cosmo Mornington and the Fauvilles?”

“The police will see to that.”

“Alexandre, you’re an ass.”

“Then become Lupin again, the invisible, impregnable Lupin, and do your own fighting, as you used to.  But in Heaven’s name don’t remain Perenna!  It is too dangerous.  And don’t occupy yourself officially with a business in which you are not interested.”

“The things you say, Alexandre!  I am interested in it to the tune of a hundred millions.  If Perenna does not stick to his post, the hundred millions will be snatched from under his nose.  And, on the one occasion when I can earn a few honest centimes, that would be most annoying.”

“And, if they arrest you?”

“No go!  I’m dead!”

“Lupin is dead.  But Perenna is alive.”

“As they haven’t arrested me to-day, I’m easy in my mind.”

“It’s only put off.  And the orders are strict from this moment onward.  They mean to surround your house and to keep watch day and night.”