"Arsène Lupin," said Patrice, under his breath. And, looking at Ya-Bon in amazement, "Are you in your right mind? What do you mean by Arsène Lupin? Are you suggesting Arsène Lupin to me?" Ya-Bon nodded his head. "Arsène Lupin? Do you know him?" "Yes," Ya-Bon signified. Patrice then remembered that the Senegalese used to spend his days at the hospital getting his good-natured comrades to read all the adventures of Arsène Lupin aloud to him; and he grinned: "Yes, you know him as one knows somebody whose history one has read." "No," protested Ya-Bon. "Do you know him personally?" "Yes." "Get out, you silly fool! Arsène Lupin is dead. He threw himself into the sea from a rock;[2] and you pretend that you know him?" [Footnote 2: _813_. By Maurice Leblanc. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.] "Yes." "Do you mean to say that you have met him since he died?" "Yes." "By Jove! And Master Ya-Bon's influence with Arsène Lupin is enough to make him come to life again and put himself out at a sign from Master Ya-Bon?" "Yes." "I say! I had a high opinion of you as it was, but now there is nothing for me but to make you my bow. A friend of the late Arsène Lupin! We're going it! . . . And how long will it take you to place his ghost at our disposal? Six months? Three months? One month? A fortnight?" Ya-Bon made a gesture. "About a fortnight," Captain Belval translated. "Very well, evoke your friend's spirit; I shall be delighted to make his acquaintance. Only, upon my word, you must have a very poor idea of me to imagine that I need a collaborator! What next! Do you take me for a helpless dunderhead?" CHAPTER IX PATRICE AND CORALIE Everything happened as M. Masseron had foretold. The press did not speak. The public did not become excited. The various deaths were casually paragraphed. The funeral of Essarès Bey, the wealthy banker, passed unnoticed. But, on the day following the funeral, after Captain Belval, with the support of the police, had made an application to the military authorities, a new order of things was established in the house in the Rue Raynouard. It was recognized as Home No. 2 attached to the hospital in the Champs-Élysées; Mme. Essarès was appointed matron; and it became the residence of Captain Belval and his seven wounded men exclusively. Coralie, therefore, was the only woman remaining. The cook and housemaid were sent away. The seven cripples did all the work of the house. One acted as hall-porter, another as cook, a third as butler. Ya-Bon, promoted to parlor-maid, made it his business to wait on Little Mother Coralie. At night he slept in the passage outside her door. By day he mounted guard outside her window. "Let no one near that door or that window!" Patrice said to him. "Let no one in! You'll catch it if so much as a mosquito succeeds in entering her room."