The Teeth of the Tiger, Maurice Leblanc [top 10 inspirational books TXT] 📗

crutch as he would a cane. He then walked round the outside of the grotto, making a careful inspection, the meaning of which escaped Don Luis for the time.

He was of a good height in this position; and Don Luis easily understood why the driver of the yellow taxi, who had seen him under two such different aspects, was unable to say whether he was very tall or very short.

But his legs, slack and unsteady, gave way beneath him, as if any prolonged exertion were beyond his power. He relapsed into his first attitude.

The man was a cripple, smitten with some disease that affected his powers of locomotion. He was excessively thin. Don Luis also saw his pallid face, his cavernous cheeks, his hollow temples, his skin the colour of parchment: the face of a sufferer from consumption, a bloodless face.

When he had finished his inspection, he came up to Florence and said:

“Though you’ve been very good, baby, and haven’t screamed so far, we’d better take our precautions and remove any possibility of a surprise by giving you a nice little gag to wear, don’t you think?”

He stooped over her and wound a large handkerchief round the lower part of her face. Then, bending still farther down, he began to speak to her in a very low voice, talking almost into her ear. But wild bursts of laughter, horrible to hear, interrupted this whispering.

Feeling the imminence of the danger, dreading some movement on the wretch’s part, a sudden murderous attack, the prompt prick of a poisoned needle, Don Luis had levelled his revolver and, confident of his skill, waited events.

What was happening over there? What were the words spoken? What infamous bargain was the villain proposing to Florence? At what shameful price could she obtain her release?

The cripple stepped back angrily, shouting in furious accents:

“But don’t you understand that you are done for? Now that I have nothing more to fear, now that you have been silly enough to come with me and place yourself in my power, what hope have you left? To move me, perhaps: is that it? Because I’m burning with passion, you imagine⁠—? Oh, you never made a greater mistake, my pet! I don’t care a fig if you do die. Once dead, you cease to count.⁠ ⁠…

“What else? Perhaps you consider that, being crippled, I shall not have the strength to kill you? But there’s no question of my killing you, Florence. Have you ever known me kill people? Never! I’m much too big a coward, I should be frightened, I should shake all over. No, no, Florence, I shan’t touch you, and yet⁠—

“Here, look what’s going to happen, see for yourself. I tell you the thing’s managed in my own style.⁠ ⁠… And, whatever you do, don’t be afraid. It’s only a preliminary warning.”

He had moved away and, helping himself with his hands, holding on to the branches of a tree, he climbed up the first layers of rock that formed the grotto on the right. Here he knelt down. There was a small pickaxe lying beside him. He took it and gave three blows to the nearest heap of stones. They came tumbling down in front of the grotto.

Don Luis sprang from his hiding-place with a roar of terror. He had suddenly realized the position: The grotto, the accumulation of boulders, the piles of granite, everything was so placed that its equilibrium could be shattered at any moment, and that Florence ran the risk of being buried under the rubbish. It was not a question, therefore, of slaying the villain, but of saving Florence on the spot.

He was halfway across in two or three seconds. But here, in one of those mental flashes which are even quicker than the maddest rush, he became aware that the tracks of trampled grass did not cross the central circus and that the scoundrel had gone round it. Why? That was one of the questions which instinct, ever suspicious, puts, but which reason has not the time to answer. Don Luis went straight ahead. And he had no sooner set foot on the place than the catastrophe occurred.

It all happened with incredible suddenness, as though he had tried to walk on space and found himself hurled into it. The ground gave way beneath him. The clods of grass separated, and he fell.

He fell down a hole which was none other than the mouth of a well four feet wide at most, the curb of which had been cut down level with the ground. Only this was what took place: as he was running very fast, his impetus flung him against the opposite wall in such a way that his forearms lay on the outer ledge and his hands were able to clutch at the roots of plants.

So great was his strength that he might just have been able to drag himself up by his wrists. But responding to the attack, the scoundrel had at once hurried to meet his assailant and was now standing at ten paces from Don Luis, threatening him with his revolver:

“Don’t move!” he cried, “or I’ll smash you!”

Don Luis was thus reduced to helplessness, at the risk of receiving the enemy’s fire.

Their eyes met for a few seconds. The cripple’s were burning with fever, like the eyes of a sick man.

Crawling along, watching Don Luis’s slightest movement, he came and squatted beside the well. The revolver was levelled in his outstretched hand. And his infernal chuckle rang out again:

“Lupin! Lupin! That’s done it! Lupin’s dive!⁠ ⁠… What a mug you must be! I warned you, you know, warned you in blood-red ink. Remember my words: ‘The place of your death is chosen. The snare is laid. Beware, Lupin!’ And here you are! So you’re not in prison? You warded off that stroke, you rogue, you! Fortunately, I foresaw events and took my precautions. What do you say to it? What do you think of my little scheme? I said to myself, ‘All the police will come