The Eight Strokes of the Clock, Maurice Leblanc [summer books TXT] 📗

many days? Why should one victim ensure her a hundred and twenty days of sleep and another a hundred and twenty-five? What insanity! The calculation is mysterious and of course mad; but the fact remains that, at the end of a hundred or a hundred and twenty-five days, as the case may be, a fresh victim is sacrificed; and there have been six already and the seventh is awaiting her turn. Ah, monsieur, what a terrible responsibility for you! Such a monster as that! She should never have been allowed out of sight!”

M. de Lourtier-Vaneau made no protest. His air of dejection, his pallor, his trembling hands, all proved his remorse and his despair:

“She deceived me,” he murmured. “She was outwardly so quiet, so docile! And, after all, she’s in a lunatic asylum.”

“Then how can she⁠ ⁠… ?”

“The asylum,” explained M. de Lourtier, “is made up of a number of separate buildings scattered over extensive grounds. The sort of cottage in which Hermance lives stands quite apart. There is first a room occupied by Félicienne, then Hermance’s bedroom and two separate rooms, one of which has its windows overlooking the open country. I suppose it is there that she locks up her victims.”

“But the carriage that conveys the dead bodies?”

“The stables of the asylum are quite close to the cottage. There’s a horse and carriage there for station work. Hermance no doubt gets up at night, harnesses the horse and slips the body through the window.”

“And the nurse who watches her?”

“Félicienne is very old and rather deaf.”

“But by day she sees her mistress moving to and fro, doing this and that. Must we not admit a certain complicity?”

“Never! Félicienne herself has been deceived by Hermance’s hypocrisy.”

“All the same, it was she who telephoned to Madame de Lourtier first, about that advertisement.⁠ ⁠…”

“Very naturally. Hermance, who talks now and then, who argues, who buries herself in the newspapers, which she does not understand, as you were saying just now, but reads through them attentively, must have seen the advertisement and, having heard that we were looking for a servant, must have asked Félicienne to ring me up.”

“Yes⁠ ⁠… yes⁠ ⁠… that is what I felt,” said Rénine, slowly. “She marks down her victims.⁠ ⁠… With Hortense dead, she would have known, once she had used up her allowance of sleep, where to find an eighth victim.⁠ ⁠… But how did she entice the unfortunate women? How did she entice Hortense?”

The car was rushing along, but not fast enough to please Rénine, who rated the chauffeur:

“Push her along, Adolphe, can’t you?⁠ ⁠… We’re losing time, my man.”

Suddenly the fear of arriving too late began to torture him. The logic of the insane is subject to sudden changes of mood, to any perilous idea that may enter the mind. The madwoman might easily mistake the date and hasten the catastrophe, like a clock out of order which strikes an hour too soon.

On the other hand, as her sleep was once more disturbed, might she not be tempted to take action without waiting for the appointed moment? Was this not the reason why she had locked herself into her room? Heavens, what agonies her prisoner must be suffering! What shudders of terror at the executioner’s least movement!

“Faster, Adolphe, or I’ll take the wheel myself! Faster, hang it.”

At last they reached Ville d’Avray. There was a steep, sloping road on the right and walls interrupted by a long railing.

“Drive round the grounds, Adolphe. We mustn’t give warning of our presence, must we, M. de Lourtier? Where is the cottage?”

“Just opposite,” said M. de Lourtier-Vaneau.

They got out a little farther on. Rénine began to run along a bank at the side of an ill-kept sunken road. It was almost dark. M. de Lourtier said:

“Here, this building standing a little way back.⁠ ⁠… Look at that window on the ground-floor. It belongs to one of the separate rooms⁠ ⁠… and that is obviously how she slips out.”

“But the window seems to be barred.”

“Yes; and that is why no one suspected anything. But she must have found some way to get through.”

The ground-floor was built over deep cellars. Rénine quickly clambered up, finding a foothold on a projecting ledge of stone.

Sure enough, one of the bars was missing.

He pressed his face to the windowpane and looked in.

The room was dark inside. Nevertheless he was able to distinguish at the back a woman seated beside another woman, who was lying on a mattress. The woman seated was holding her forehead in her hands and gazing at the woman who was lying down.

“It’s she,” whispered M. de Lourtier, who had also climbed the wall. “The other one is bound.”

Rénine took from his pocket a glazier’s diamond and cut out one of the panes without making enough noise to arouse the madwoman’s attention. He next slid his hand to the window-fastening and turned it softly, while with his left hand he levelled a revolver.

“You’re not going to fire, surely!” M. de Lourtier-Vaneau entreated.

“If I must, I shall.”

Rénine pushed open the window gently. But there was an obstacle of which he was not aware, a chair which toppled over and fell.

He leapt into the room and threw away his revolver in order to seize the madwoman. But she did not wait for him. She rushed to the door, opened it and fled, with a hoarse cry.

M. de Lourtier made as though to run after her.

“What’s the use?” said Rénine, kneeling down, “Let’s save the victim first.”

He was instantly reassured: Hortense was alive.

The first thing that he did was to cut the cords and remove the gag that was stifling her. Attracted by the noise, the old nurse had hastened to the room with a lamp, which Rénine took from her, casting its light on Hortense.

He was astounded: though livid and exhausted, with emaciated features and eyes blazing with fever, Hortense was trying to smile. She whispered:

“I was expecting you⁠ ⁠… I did not despair for a moment⁠ ⁠… I was sure of you.⁠ ⁠…”

She fainted.

An hour later, after much useless searching around the cottage, they found the madwoman locked into a large cupboard