“Beautrelet, I was at the Élysée last night. They look upon this matter as a state secret of the utmost gravity. There are serious reasons for concealing the existence of this citadel—reasons of military strategy, in particular. It might become a revictualling centre, a magazine for new explosives, for lately-invented projectiles, for anything of that sort: the secret arsenal of France, in fact.” “But how can they hope to keep a secret like this? In the old days, one man alone held it: the king. To-day, already, there are a good few of us who know it, without counting Lupin’s gang.” “Still, if we gained only ten years’, only five years’ silence! Those five years may be—the saving of us.” “But, in order to capture this citadel, this future arsenal, it will have to be attacked, Lupin must be dislodged. And all this cannot be done without noise.” “Of course, people will guess something, but they won’t know. Besides, we can but try.” “All right. What’s your plan?” “Here it is, in two words. To begin with, you are not Isidore Beautrelet and there’s no question of Arsène Lupin either. You are and you remain a small boy of Étretat, who, while strolling about the place, caught some fellows coming out of an underground passage. This makes you suspect the existence of a flight of steps which cuts through the cliff from top to bottom.” “Yes, there are several of those flights of steps along the coast. For instance, to the right of Étretat, opposite Bénouville, they showed me the Devil’s Staircase, which every bather knows. And I say nothing of the three or four tunnels used by the fishermen.” “So you will guide me and one-half of my men. I shall enter alone, or accompanied, that remains to be seen. This much is certain, that the attack must be delivered that way. If Lupin is not in the Needle, we shall fix up a trap in which he will be caught sooner or later. If he is there—” “If he is there, he will escape from the Needle by the other side, the side overlooking the sea.” “In that case, he will at once be arrested by the other half of my men.” “Yes, but if, as I presume, you choose a moment when the sea is at low ebb, leaving the base of the Needle uncovered, the chase will be public, because it will take place before all the men and women fishing for mussels, shrimps and shell-fish who swarm on the rocks round about.” “That is why I just mean to select the time when the sea is full.” “In that case, he will make off in a boat.” “Ah, but I shall have a dozen fishing-smacks, each of which will be commanded by one of my men, and we shall collar him—” “If he doesn’t slip through your dozen smacks, like a fish through the meshes.” “All right, then I’ll sink him.” “The devil you will! Shall you have guns?” “Why, of course! There’s a torpedo-boat at the Havre at this moment. A telegram from me will bring her to the Needle at the appointed hour.”