"My father is ill and has been in bed for months. Besides, his room looks out on the other front." "And the servants?" "Their quarters and the kitchen are also on the other side. No one ever comes to this part. I walk here myself, but nobody else does." "It is probable, therefore, that I have not been seen either, especially as the trees hide us?" "It is most probable." "Then I can speak to you freely?" "Certainly, but I don't understand...." "You will, presently. Permit me to be brief. The point is this: four days ago, Mlle. Jeanne Darcieux...." "That is my name," she said, smiling. "Mlle. Jeanne Darcieux," continued Lupin, "wrote a letter to one of her friends, called Marceline, who lives at Versailles...." "How do you know all that?" asked the girl, in astonishment. "I tore up the letter before I had finished it." "And you flung the pieces on the edge of the road that runs from the house to Vendome." "That's true.... I had gone out walking...." "The pieces were picked up and they came into my hands next day." "Then ... you must have read them," said Jeanne Darcieux, betraying a certain annoyance by her manner. "Yes, I committed that indiscretion; and I do not regret it, because I can save you." "Save me? From what?" "From death." Lupin spoke this little sentence in a very distinct voice. The girl gave a shudder. Then she said: "I am not threatened with death." "Yes, you are, mademoiselle. At the end of October, you were reading on a bench on the terrace where you were accustomed to sit at the same hour every day, when a block of stone fell from the cornice above your head and you were within a few inches of being crushed." "An accident...." "One fine evening in November, you were walking in the kitchen-garden, by moonlight. A shot was fired, The bullet whizzed past your ear." "At least, I thought so." "Lastly, less than a week ago, the little wooden bridge that crosses the river in the park, two yards from the waterfall, gave way while you were on it. You were just able, by a miracle, to catch hold of the root of a tree." Jeanne Darcieux tried to smile. "Very well. But, as I wrote to Marceline, these are only a series of coincidences, of accidents...." "No, mademoiselle, no. One accident of this sort is allowable.... So are two ... and even then!... But we have no right to suppose that the chapter of accidents, repeating the same act three times in such different and extraordinary circumstances, is a mere amusing coincidence. That is why I thought that I might presume to come to your assistance. And, as my intervention can be of no use unless it remains secret, I did not hesitate to make my way in here ... without walking through the gate. I came in the nick of time, as you said. Your enemy was attacking you once more." "What!... Do you think?... No, it is impossible.... I refuse to believe...." Lupin picked up the chain and, showing it to her: