of his left-hand pump was half off; and his cut foot showed white and red through the torn sock.
"The master! The master!" cried Charolais in a tone of extravagant relief; and he danced round the room snapping his fingers.
"You're wounded?" cried Victoire.
"No," said Arsene Lupin.
The front-door bell rang out again, startling, threatening, terrifying.
The note of danger seemed to brace Lupin, to spur him to a last effort.
He pulled himself together, and said in a hoarse but steady voice: "Your waistcoat, Charolais. . . . Go and open the door . . . not too quickly . . . fumble the bolts. . . . Bernard, shut the book-case. Victoire, get out of sight, do you want to ruin us all? Be smart now, all of you. Be smart!"
He staggered past them into his bedroom, and slammed the door. Victoire and Charolais hurried out of the room, through the anteroom, on to the landing. Victoire ran upstairs, Charolais went slowly down. Bernard pressed the button. The doors of the lift shut and there was a slow whirring as it went down. He pressed another button, and the book-case slid slowly across and hid the opening into the lift-
