human
I have just made a decision, the most important decision of my life, continued the detective,
gpt
A dream?
human
So she said. She may have been lying or she may have been put up to it; I know nothing about her, not even her name, but that's of no consequence; the point is that in this dream, as she called it, she brought together the two most important events in my life.
gpt
Hm! What _was_ the dream?
human
She says she saw me twice, once in a forest near a wooden bridge where a man with a beard was talking to a woman and a little girl. Then she saw me on a boat going to a place where there were black people.
gpt
That was Brazil?
human
I suppose so. And there was a burning sun with a wicked face inside that kept looking down at me. She says she often dreams of this wicked face, she sees it first in a distant star that comes nearer and nearer, until it gets to be large and red and angry. As the face comes closer her fear grows, until she wakes with a start of terror; she says she would die of fright if the face ever reached her _before_ she awoke. That's about all.
gpt
Did she try to interpret this dream?
human
No.
gpt
Why did she tell you about it?
human
She acted on a sudden impulse, so she says. I'm inclined to believe her; but never mind that. Pougeot, he rose in agitation and stood leaning over his friend,
gpt
You think I resigned from the police force two years ago, don't you?
human
Of course.
gpt
Everyone thinks so. Well, it isn't true. I didn't resign; _I was discharged._
human
Discharged! Paul Coquenil discharged!
gpt
Yes, sir, discharged from the Paris detective force for refusing to arrest a murderer--that's how the accusation read.
human
But it wasn't true?
gpt
Judge for yourself. It was the case of a poacher who killed a guard. I don't suppose you remember it?
human
Down near Saumur, wasn't it?
gpt
Exactly. And it was near Saumur I found him after searching all over France. We were clean off the track, and I made up my mind the only way to get him was through his wife and child. They lived in a little house in the woods not far from the place of the shooting. I went there as a peddler in hard luck, and I played my part so well that the woman consented to take me in as a boarder.
human
Wonderful man!
gpt
For weeks it was a waiting game. I would go away on a peddling tour and then come back as boarder. Nothing developed, but I could not get rid of the feeling that my man was somewhere near in the woods.
human
One of your intuitions. Well?
gpt
Well, at last the woman became convinced that they had _nothing to fear from me_, and she did things more openly. One day I saw her put some food in a basket and give it to the little girl. And the little girl went off with the basket into the forest. Then I knew I was right, and the next day I followed the little girl, and, sure enough, she led me to a rough cave where her father was hiding. I hung about there for an hour or two, and finally the man came out from the cave and I saw him talk to his wife and child near a bridge over a mountain torrent.
human
The picture that girl saw in the dream!
gpt
Yes; I'll never forget it. I had my pistol ready and he was defenseless; and once I was just springing forward to take the fellow when he bent over and kissed his little girl. I don't know how you look at these things, Pougeot, but I couldn't break in there and take that man away from his wife and child. The woman had been kind to me and trusted me, and--well, it was a breach of duty and they punished me for it; but I couldn't do it, I _couldn't_ do it, and I didn't do it.
human
And you let the fellow go?
gpt
I let him go _then_, but I got him a week later in a fair fight, man to man. They gave him ten years.
human
And discharged you from the force?
gpt
Yes. That is, in view of my past services, they _allowed_ me to resign.
human
Outrageous! Unbelievable! muttered Pougeot.
gpt
No doubt you were technically in the wrong, but it was a slight offense, and, after all, you got your man. A reprimand at the most, _at the most_, was called for, and _not_ with you, not with Paul Coquenil.
human
I'm proud of you, old friend, I honor you.
gpt
You take it just as I thought you would, just as I took it myself--until to-day. It seems like a stupid blunder, doesn't it? Well, it wasn't a blunder; _it was a necessary move in the game_.
human
The game? What game?
gpt
A game involving a great crime.
human
You are sure of that?
gpt
Perfectly sure.
human
You have the facts of this crime?
gpt
No. It hasn't been committed yet.
human
Not committed yet? repeated the other, with a startled glance.
gpt
But you know the plan? You have evidence?
human
I have what is perfectly clear evidence _to me_, so clear that I wonder I never saw it before. Lucien, suppose you were a great criminal, I don't mean the ordinary clever scoundrel who succeeds for a time and is finally caught, but a _really great criminal_, the kind that appears once or twice, in a century, a man with immense power and intelligence.
gpt
Like Vautrin in Napoleon's day?
human
Vautrin was a brilliant adventurer; he made millions with his swindling schemes, but he had no stability, no big purpose, and he finally came to grief. There have been greater criminals than Vautrin, men whose crimes have brought them _everything_--fortune, social position, political supremacy--_and who have never been found out_.
gpt
Do you really think so?
human
There have been a few like that with master minds, a very few; I have documents to prove it --he pointed to his bookcases;
gpt
I'd try to get rid of him.
human
Exactly. Coquenil paused, and then, leaning closer to his friend, he said with extraordinary earnestness:
gpt
Lucien, for over two years _some one has been trying to get rid of me!_
human
The devil! started Pougeot.
gpt
How long have you known this?
human
Only to-day, frowned the detective.
gpt
I ought to have known it long ago.
human
Hm! Aren't you building a good deal on that dream?
gpt
The dream? Heavens, man, snapped Coquenil,
human
I'm building _nothing_ on the dream and nothing on the girl. She simply brought together two facts that belong together. Why she did it doesn't matter; she did it, and my reason did the rest. There is a connection between this Rio Janeiro offer and my discharge from the force. I know it. I'll show you other links in the chain. Three times in the past two years I have received offers of business positions away from Paris, tempting offers. Notice that--_business positions away from Paris!_ Some one has extraordinary reasons for wanting me out of this city and _out of detective work_.
gpt
And you think this 'some one' was responsible for your discharge from the force?
human
I tell you I know it. M. Giroux, the chief at that time, was distressed at the order, he told me so himself; he said it came from _higher up_.
gpt
You mean that Paris has a criminal able to overrule the wishes of a chief of police?
human
Is that harder than to influence the Brazilian Government? Do you think Rio Janeiro offered me a hundred thousand francs a year just for my beautiful eyes?
gpt
You're a great detective.
human
A great detective repudiated by his own city. That's another point: why should the police department discharge me two years ago and recommend me now to a foreign city? Don't you see the same hand behind it all?
gpt
It's queer, he muttered;