Fantômas: 5 Book Collection. Marcel Allain

must," said the concierge with a heavy sigh. "Come up with me: it's the fifth floor," and as she climbed the stairs she grumbled: "It's a pity you didn't come when I was doing my work: I shouldn't have had to climb a hundred stairs a second time then; it counts up at the end of the day, and I'm not so young as I was."

      The stranger followed her up the stairs, murmuring monosyllabic sympathy, and regulating his pace by hers. Arrived at the fifth floor, the concierge drew a key from her pocket and opened the door of the flat.

      It was a small modest place, but quite prettily decorated. The door on the landing opened into a tiny sort of anteroom, from which one passed into a front room furnished with little but a round table and a few arm-chairs. Beyond this was a bedroom, almost filled by the large bed, which was the first thing one saw on entering, and on the right there was yet another room, probably a little office. Both the first room, which was a kind of general living room, and the bedroom had wide windows overlooking gardens as far as one could see. An advantage of the flat was that it had nothing opposite, so that the occupant could move about with the windows open if he liked, and yet have nothing to fear from the inquisitiveness of neighbours.

      The rooms had been shut up for several days, since the tenant had gone away indeed, and there was a stuffy smell about them, mingled with a strong smell of chemicals.

      "I must air the place," the concierge muttered, "or else M. Gurn won't be pleased when he comes back. He always says he is too hot and can't breathe in Paris."

      "So he does not live here regularly?" said the stranger, scanning the place curiously as he spoke.

      "Oh, no, sir," the concierge answered. "M. Gurn is a kind of commercial traveller and is often away, sometimes for a month or six weeks together," and the gossiping woman was beginning a long and incoherent story when the stranger interrupted her, pointing to a silver-framed photograph of a young woman he had noticed on the mantelpiece.

      "Is that Mme. Gurn?"

      "M. Gurn is a bachelor," Mme. Doulenques replied. "I can't fancy him married, with his roaming kind of life."

      "Just a little friend of his, eh?" said the man in the soft hat, with a wink and a meaning smile.

      "Oh, no," said the concierge, shaking her head. "That photograph is not a bit like her."

      "So you know her, then?"

      "I do and I don't. That's to say, when M. Gurn is in Paris, he often has visits from a lady in the afternoon: a very fashionable lady, I can tell you, not the sort that one often sees in this quarter. Why, the woman who comes is a society lady, I am sure: she always has her veil down and passes by my lodge ever so fast, and never has any conversation with me; free with her money, too: it's very seldom she does not give me something when she comes."

      The stranger seemed to find the concierge's communications very interesting, but they did not interrupt his mental inventory of the room.

      "In other words, your tenant does not keep too sharp an eye on his money?" he suggested.

      "No, indeed: the rent is always paid in advance, and sometimes M. Gurn even pays two terms in advance because he says he never can tell if his business won't be keeping him away when the rent falls due."

      Just then a deep voice called up the staircase:

      "Concierge: M. Gurn: have you any one of that name in the house?"

      "Come up to the fifth floor," the concierge called back to the man. "I am in his rooms now," and she went back into the flat. "Here's somebody else for M. Gurn," she exclaimed.

      "Does he have many visitors?" the stranger enquired.

      "Hardly any, sir: that's why I'm so surprised."

      Two men appeared; their blue blouses and metal-peaked caps proclaimed them to be porters. The concierge turned to the man in the soft hat.

      "I suppose these are your men, come to fetch the trunks?"

      The stranger made a slight grimace, seemed to hesitate and finally made up his mind to remain silent.

      Rather surprised to see that the three men did not seem to be acquainted with each other, the concierge was about to ask what it meant, when one of the porters addressed her curtly:

      "We've come from the South Steamship Company for four boxes from M. Gurn's place. Are those the ones?" and taking no notice of the visitor in the room, the man pointed to two large trunks and two small boxes which were placed in a corner of the room.

      "But aren't you three all together?" enquired Mme. Doulenques, visibly uneasy.

      The stranger still remained silent, but the first porter replied at once.

      "No; we have nothing to do with the gentleman. Get on to it, mate! We've no time to waste!"

      Anticipating their action, the concierge got instinctively between the porters and the luggage: so too did the man in the soft hat.

      "Pardon," said he politely but peremptorily. "Please take nothing away."

      One of the porters drew a crumpled and dirty memorandum book from his pocket and turned over the pages, wetting his thumb every time. He looked at it attentively and then spoke.

      "There's no mistake: this is where we were told to come," and again he signed to his mate. "Let's get on with it!"

      The concierge was puzzled. She looked first at the mysterious stranger, who was as quiet and silent as ever, and then at the porters, who were beginning to be irritated by these incomprehensible complications.

      Mme. Doulenques' mistrust waxed greater, and she sincerely regretted being alone on the fifth floor with these strangers, for the other occupants of this floor had gone off to their daily work long ago. Suddenly she escaped from the room, and called shrilly down the stairs:

      "Madame Aurore! Madame Aurore!"

      The man in the soft hat rushed after her, seized her gently but firmly by the arm, and led her back into the room.

      "I beg you, madame, make no noise: do not call out!" he said in a low tone. "Everything will be all right. I only ask you not to create a disturbance."

      But the concierge was thoroughly alarmed by the really odd behaviour of all these men, and again screamed at the top of her voice:

      "Help! Police!"

      The first porter was exasperated.

      "It's unfortunate to be taken for thieves," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Look here, Auguste, just run down to the corner of the street and bring back a gendarme. The gentleman can explain to the concierge in his presence, and then we shall be at liberty to get on with our job."

      Auguste hastened to obey, and several tense moments passed, during which not a single word was exchanged between the three people who were left together.

      Then heavy steps were heard, and Auguste reappeared with a gendarme. The latter came swaggering into the room with a would-be majestic air, and solemnly and pompously enquired:

      "Now then, what's all this about?"

      At sight of the officer every countenance cleared. The concierge ceased to tremble; the porter lost his air of suspicion. Both were beginning to explain to the representative of authority, when the man in the soft hat waved them aside, stepped up to the guardian of the peace and looking him straight in the eyes, said:

      "Criminal Investigation Department! Inspector Juve!"

      The gendarme, who was quite unprepared for this announcement, stepped back a pace and raised his eyes towards the man who addressed him: then suddenly raised his hand to his képi and came to attention.

      "Beg pardon, Inspector, I didn't recognise you! M. Juve! And you have been in this division a long time too!" He turned angrily to the foremost porter. "Step forward, please, and let's have no nonsense!"

      Juve, who had thus disclosed his identity as a detective, smiled, seeing that the gendarme assumed that the South Steamship Company's porter was a thief.