The Secret of Sarek

  THE SECRET OF SAREK

  by

  MAURICE LEBLANC

  Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos

  "We're Done For! They Are Aiming At Us!"]

  FRONTISPIECE

  A. L. Burt CompanyPublishers New York

  Published by arrangement with The Macaulay Company

  Copyright, 1920By The Macaulay Company

  Printed in U. S. A.

  FOREWORD

  The war has led to so many upheavals that not many people now rememberthe Hergemont scandal of seventeen years ago. Let us recall the detailsin a few lines.

  One day in July 1902, M. Antoine d'Hergemont, the author of a series ofwell-known studies on the megalithic monuments of Brittany, was walkingin the Bois with his daughter Veronique, when he was assaulted by fourmen, receiving a blow in the face with a walking-stick which felled himto the ground.

  After a short struggle and in spite of his desperate efforts,Veronique, the beautiful Veronique, as she was called by her friends,was dragged away and bundled into a motor-car which the spectators ofthis very brief scene saw making off in the direction of Saint-Cloud.

  It was a plain case of kidnapping. The truth became known next morning.Count Alexis Vorski, a young Polish nobleman of dubious reputation butof some social prominence and, by his own account, of royal blood, wasin love with Veronique d'Hergemont and Veronique with him. Repelled andmore than once insulted by the father, he had planned the incidententirely without Veronique's knowledge or complicity.

  Antoine d'Hergemont, who, as certain published letters showed, was aman of violent and morose disposition and who, thanks to his capricioustemper, his ferocious egoism and his sordid avarice, had made hisdaughter exceedingly unhappy, swore openly that he would take the mostruthless revenge.

  He gave his consent to the wedding, which took place two months later,at Nice. But in the following year a series of sensational eventstranspired. Keeping his word and cherishing his hatred, M. d'Hergemontin his turn kidnapped the child born of the Vorski marriage and set sailin a small yacht which he had bought not long before.

  The sea was rough. The yacht foundered within sight of the Italiancoast. The four sailors who formed the crew were picked up by afishing-boat. According to their evidence M. d'Hergemont and the childhad disappeared amid the waves.

  When Veronique received the proof of their death, she entered aCarmelite convent.

  These are the facts which, fourteen years later, were to lead to themost frightful and extraordinary adventure, a perfectly authenticadventure, though certain details, at first sight, assume a more or lessfabulous aspect. But the war has complicated existence to such an extentthat events which happen outside it, such as those related in thefollowing narrative, borrow something abnormal, illogical and at timesmiraculous from the greater tragedy. It needs all the dazzling light oftruth to restore to those events the character of a reality which, whenall is said, is simple enough.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE I THE DESERTED CABIN 11 II ON THE EDGE OF THE ATLANTIC 25 III VORSKI'S SON 43 IV THE POOR PEOPLE OF SAREK 67 V "FOUR WOMEN CRUCIFIED" 87 VI ALL'S WELL 113 VII FRANCOIS AND STEPHANE 133 VIII ANGUISH 149 IX THE DEATH-CHAMBER 167 X THE ESCAPE 181 XI THE SCOURGE OF GOD 200 XII THE ASCENT OF GOLGOTHA 221 XIII "ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!" 243 XIV THE ANCIENT DRUID 262 XV THE HALL OF THE UNDERGROUND SACRIFICES 283 XVI THE HALL OF THE KINGS OF BOHEMIA 309 XVII "CRUEL PRINCE, OBEYING DESTINY" 328 XVIII THE GOD-STONE 349

  THE SECRET OF SAREK