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Exploits of Juve (version 2)

<h2>XXXIII</h2> <h3>A SCANDAL IN THE CLOISTER</h3> Slight sounds, scarcely audible, disturbed the peace of the cloister. In the absolute silence of the night, vague noises could be distinguished. Furtive steps, whisperings, doors opened or shut cautiously. Then the blinking light of a candle shone at a casement, two or three other windows were illuminated and the hubbub grew general. Voices were heard, frightened interjections, the stir increased in the long corridor on which cells opened. Generally the curtains of these cells were discreetly drawn; now they were being pulled aside. Drowsy faces looked out of the gloom; the excitement increased. "Sister Marguerite! Sister Vincent! Sister Clotilde! What is it? What is happening? Listen!" The alarmed nuns gathered at the far end of the passage. The worthy women, roused from[Pg 281] their rest, had hastily arranged their coifs, and chastely wrapped themselves in their flowing robes. They turned their frightened faces toward the chapel. "Burglars!" murmured the Sister who was treasurer of the convent, thinking of the cup of gold that the humble little sisterhood preserved as a relic with jealous care. Another Sister, recently come from the creuse, from which she had been driven by the laws, did not conceal her fears. "More emissaries of the government! They are going to turn us out!" The Senior, Sister Vincent, quivering with alarm, stammered: "It is a revolution—I saw that in '70." A heap of chairs under the vaulting suddenly toppled down. Panic stricken, the sisters crowded closed together, not daring to go to the chapel, which was joined to the passage by a little staircase. "And the Mother Superior, what did she think of it all—what would she say?" They drew near the cell, a little apart from the others, occupied by the lady, who, on taking the headship of the "House," had brought with her precious personal assistance and a good deal of money as well. Sister Vincent, who had[Pg 282] gone forward and was about to enter the little chamber, drew back. "Our Holy Mother," she informed the others, "is at her prayers." At this very moment broken cries rang down the passage. Sister Frances, the janitress, who everyone believed was calmly slumbering in her lodge, suddenly appeared, her eyes wild, her garments in disarray. The sisters gathered round her, but the helpless woman shrieked, quite beside herself. "Let me go! Let us flee! I have seen the devil! He is there! In the church! It is frightful!" Mad with terror, the Sister explained in disjointed phrases what had alarmed her. She had heard a noise and fancied it might be the gardener's dog shut by mistake in the chapel. Then behold! At the moment she entered the choir the stained-glass window above the shrine of St. Clotilde, their patroness, suddenly gave way, and through the opening appeared a supernatural being who came toward her ejaculating words she could not understand. Armed with a great cudgel, he struck right and left, making a terrible uproar. Thereupon the janitress made an effort to escape, but the demon barred her path, and in[Pg 283] a sepulchral voice commanded her to go for the Mother Superior and bid her come at once, if she did not want the worst of evils to fall upon the sisterhood. She had scarcely finished when an echoing crash was heard. The sisters suppressed a cry, and as they turned, pale with dread, before them stood their Mother Superior. With a sweeping gesture, she vaguely gave a blessing as if to endow them with courage, then turned to the janitress. "My dear Sister Françoise, calm yourself! Be brave! God will not forsake us! I intend to comply with the desire of the stranger. I will go alone—with God alone!" Lady Beltham made a mighty effort to disguise the emotion she felt. Slowly she went down the steps and entered the sanctuary, where she halted in a state of terror. The choir was lit up. The tapers were flaring on the high altar, and in the middle of the chapel, wrapped in a large black cloak, his face hidden by a black mask, stood a man, mysterious and alarming. "Lady Beltham!" At the sound of this voice, Lady Beltham fancied she recognised her lover. "What do you want? What are you doing? It is madness!"[Pg 284] "Nothing is madness in Fantômas!" Lady Beltham pressed her hands to her heart, unable to speak. The voice resumed: "Fantômas bids you leave here, Lady Beltham. In two hours you will go from this convent; a closed motor will be waiting for you at the back of the garden, at the little gate. The vehicle will take you to a seaport, where you will board a vessel which the driver will indicate; when the voyage is over you will be in England: there you will receive fresh orders to make for Canada." Lady Beltham wrung her hands in despair. "Why do you wish to force me to leave my dear companions?" "Were you not ready to leave everything, Lady Beltham, to make a new life for yourself with—him you love?" "Alas!" "Remember last Tuesday night at the Neuilly mansion!" "Ah! You should have carried me off then, not left me time to think it over. Now I am no longer willing." "You will go! Yes or no. Will you obey?" "I will—for, after all, I love you!" The two tragic beings were silent for a moment, listening; outside the church the uproar[Pg 285] grew in violence, brief orders were being shouted, a blowing of whistles. Suddenly, uttering a hoarse cry, the ruffian exclaimed: "The police! The police are on the track of Fantômas! Juve's police. Well, this time Fantômas will be too much for them. Lady Beltham—till we meet again." Beating a rapid retreat behind a pillar of the chapel he vanished. Lady Beltham found herself alone in the chapel. Five minutes later the heavy steps of the police sounded in the passages. They went through the house, searching for clues, then disappeared in the darkness of the night. Lady Beltham addressed the nuns: "A great peril threatens our sisters of the Boulevard Jourdan. They must be warned at all costs and at once. And it is necessary that I, and I only, should go to warn them. Have no fear. No harm will happen to me. I know what I am doing." Under the appalled eyes of the sisterhood the Mother Superior slowly passed from the assembled community with a sweeping gesture of farewell. The moment she was alone, she ran to the far end of the garden and passed through the little gate in the wall behind the chapel. She was gone![Pg 286] While these strange occurrences were in progress at the peaceful convent of Nogent, and the flight of Lady Beltham at the bidding of Fantômas was effected under the eyes of the sisters, no little stir was manifest in the environs of La Chapelle, in the dreaded region where the hooligans, forming the celebrated gang of Cyphers, have their haunts. A certain misrule reigned in the confederation, due to the fact that Loupart had not been seen for some time. None of its members believed for an instant the newspaper story that Loupart had turned out to be Fantômas—the elusive, the superhuman, the improbable, the weird Fantômas. This was beyond them. Good enough to stuff the numskull of the law with such a tale, but there was no use for it among the gang of Cyphers. That same evening there was considerable excitement at the station in the Rue Stephenson. Detectives, inspectors, real or sham hooligans, were assembled there. "Who is that gentleman?" asked M. Rouquelet, the Commissary of the district, pointing to a young man seated in a corner of the room, taking notes on a pad. Juve, to whom the query was addressed, turned his head.[Pg 287] "Why, it's Fandor, Jerome Fandor, my friend." Juve was seated at the magistrate's table, comparing papers, documents, and material evidence; he had, standing round him men in uniform or mufti. One might have thought it the office of a general staff during a battle. The door opened to a man dressed like a market gardener. "Well, Léon?" asked Juve. "M. Inspector, it is done. We have nabbed the 'Cooper.'" A sergeant of the 19th Arrondissement appeared and saluted. "M. Inspector, my men are bringing in 'The Flirt.' Her throat is cut." "Is her murderer taken?" "Not yet—there are several of them—but we know them. The wounded woman was able to tell us their names. They 'bled' her because they suspected her of giving us information." M. Rouquelet telephoned to Lâriboisière for an ambulance, and the officers went to see the victim, who was lying on a stretcher in the hall. At that moment, the sound of a struggle hurried Juve to the entrance of the station. Some officers were hauling in a youth with a pallid complexion and wicked eyes. Fandor recognised the captive.[Pg 288] "It's that little collegian who bit my finger the night of the Marseilles Express!" Léon, who had drawn near, likewise identified the youth. "I know him, that's Mimile. His account is settled, he is jugged!" The hall of the station filled once more: an old woman, dragged in forcibly, was groaning and bawling at the top of her voice: "Pack of swine! Isn't it shameful to treat a poor woman so!" "M. Superintendent," explained one of the men, "we caught this woman, Mother Toulouche—in the act of stowing away in her bodice a bundle of bank notes just passed to her by a man. Here they are." The constable handed the packet to the magistrate, and Fandor, who was watching, could not repress an exclamation. "Oh!—Notes in halves! Suppose they belong to M. Martialle! Allow me, M. Rouquelet, to look at the numbers." "In with Mother Toulouche!" cried the Superintendent, then rubbing his hands he turned to Juve and cried: "A fine haul, M. Inspector. What do you think?" But Juve did not hear him; he had drawn Fan[Pg 289]dor into a corner of the office and was explaining: "I have done no more at present than have Lady Beltham shadowed, but I do not mean to arrest her. You see, if I asked Fuselier for a warrant against Lady Beltham, a person legally dead and buried more than two months ago, that excellent functionary would swallow his clerk, stool and all, in sheer amazement." At that moment a cyclist constable, dripping with sweat and quite out of breath, came in and hastening straight to Juve, cried: "I come from Nogent!" "Well?" "Well, M. Inspector, they saw a masked man come out of the convent, wrapped in a big cloak. They gave chase—he fired a revolver twice and killed two officers." "Good God! It was certainly——" "We thought, too—that perhaps—after all—it was—it was Fantômas!" "Juve!" called the Commissary. "You are wanted on the telephone. Neuilly is asking for you." The detective picked up the receiver. "Hello! hello! Is that you, Michel? Yes. What is it? In a motor? Oh, you have taken the driver. But he—curse it! Who the devil is[Pg 290] this man who always escapes us? What? He is in Lady Beltham's house! You have surrounded the house? Good, keep your eyes open! Do nothing till I come." Juve hung up the receiver and turned to Fandor. "Fantômas is at Lady Beltham's; shut up in the house. I am going there." "I'll go with you." As the two men left the station, they were met by Inspector Grolle. "We have taken 'The Beard' at Daddy Korn's," he cried. "Confound that!" shouted Juve, as he jumped into a taxi with Fandor. "Neuilly! Boulevard Inkermann, and top speed!" <hr style="width: 65%;"/>[Pg 291] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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