The Glue of The Devil's Footprint;

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 72, 26 March 1930, Page 21

The Glue of The Devil's Footprint;

SYNOPSIS OF SATURDAY'S INSTALMENI ' The adventures or Vidocq and his sweet noart Francine Is tlie story or, one of tli mn,t remarkable series or crimes in th «tnrv or France. In the previous insta) mpnt the story was told or Vidocq's moc: • ionture by the police and imprisonmem ingratiated himself with a hand o iwminals, learned their movements am laid the plans lor the breaking up of desperate gang. As Vidocq emerged cautiously fron {he filthy cellar, his features mufflfec in the generous folds of a neckcloth, ai old woman wrapped in a ragged cape -ff-ho sat huddled in a doorway, raised her head for an instant and lifted the matted grey hair from her face. It was 1 1 Francine, faithful and tireless. Vidocq made a warning gesture, then without a word disappeared into the mist of approaching dawn. By devious ways he Gained the Surete headquarters in the Sue de Jerusalem. It was a principle w ith Vidocq that no man should know liis true appearance. When an hour later he entered his office to receive the reports of his spies, bushy whiskers and 1 „rey-flecked hair had transformed him fnto a typical police officer. None of the erstwhile felons of his secret brigade had fathered definite information, and he finally summoned his lieutenant, Coco-Lacour. "What'have you discovered?" he asked briefly. The little ferret-faced Parisian waged'his head despondently. There was no wound on Count Mancini—not a bruise even. He was found flat on his face in just such a devil's circle as the Duchesse. We are fighting ffhoete, Francois. I've questioned the servants. They swear a huge bat— At the word Vidocq started up, but the Parisian waved him back. "Sit down—yes, a bat, as 'big as a man, was seen perched a tree, it iad glowing eyes, and •, ' Vidocq thumped the table angrily. / "Have done, mon vieux. Did you -ibreak stones and carry a chain and hall for ten years at Brest without ' learning some of the tricks of our pretty criminals? The Bat is a man. 11l wa <rer that we'll have him in the cells soon. Did you look for footsteps—was the house robbed?" ' . "There were some footprints like an "animal's, hut none made by a man," Lacour replied with a shiver. -As for robbery—l Waited until jou came before searching the house. Vidocq nodded and rose. "Send two men to Francine in case she needs help. She watches Ticque- , tonne's cellar in the Rue aux Loups. Then come with me. I'll look at these footprints myself." The morning was bleak and cold and the trees in Count Mancini's park loomed dimly, through swirling streamers of snistf like menacing evil sentries. Half wayialong to the Lacour halted and pointed to a circle of blackened, ashes soaked with dew/around which a double line of footprints- jnade a complete circle. Vidocq advanced and knelt by these, scrutinis;, ing, every detail, and making notes of their depth and size. At last his companion became impatient. : : .- "N6 nead for such precision, Francois.' You see what they are — devil's footprints! Something with a naked foot and a hoof like a goat danced about the Count's body." "Why do you say danced?" Vidocq queried. , "If the thing, whatever- it was','.had danced, it would have blurred its own trail. But ont a single- mark is - smudged.. No—these traces were made slowly and purposely." "And that?" Lacour asked, pointing to the circle of ashes. "What do .you think of it?". For answer Vidocq feent over the charred ring and sniffed at it repeatedly. "Aromatic herbs have been burnt here. Probably, just to make a mystery. Where was this fantastic bat'seen?"

Lacour" indicated a beech 'beside the path. Vidocq examined the tree and ' the ground beneath it, then with a leap '•he seized: a'branch and drew himself up. When five minutes later he dropped to the ground beside his friend his eyes gleamed with triumph. "This bat wore c'Jothes," he said, holding out his hand. In the palm lay a shred of lustrous silk. "I found it hanging from a twig. Doubtless the fellow Wears s6me queer disguise to frighten ignorant servants. We'll search the house, now and examine the Count's papers. If nothing -was stolen, then there must be a connection between the death of the Duchess and this Italian." Vidocq showed his badge to the majorddmo, and in his. presence opened cupboards and desks, but neither money nor jewels was, missing, nor did the Count's papers give them any result. C6co-Lacour shook his head sadly when Vidocq withdrew, apparently baffled, and accompanied him in silence to his office. Great was his surprise, therefore, ■when Vidocq threw a scrap of paper on the table with dramatic gesture. A red circle occupied the centre, and around it ran the familiar. foot and hoof prints, crudely painted in black, while in a corner were the ominous words: "You have only two days left! Proclaim the truth or you.diel" "Since when does the Devil write threatening notes? Hein—tell me that, won vieux?" Vidocq said with a chuckle. -"I found this in the bedroom. Away with you to the Rue aux Loups. I must know if Cervalet has left Ticquetonne's cellar, and if so, where he went. You'll find me in one of the taverns near the Count's house, or . in the servants' hall of the Duchesse de la Corciere's mansion. I shall go as a gipsy fortune-teller. It's a trade which I learnt well in ray youth." Late that night, after a hurried interview with M. Henry and a search in the secret police archives, he transformed himself into a Normandy peasant and returned to the cellar tavern of the pere Tiequetonne. He had found the connecting link. - j

The Ducliessc de la Cor'ciSre and Count' ■Mancini Viad been lovers, <l>ut they had ®lso shared some guilty secret, which from the many rumours he had sifted had been more than just the fear of a scandal. The Duke • had. died suddenly and mysteriously some 15 years previously, and soon after his death, servants and neighbours had .been struck ®y a curious change in his son, then a child of five. It was as though another had taken his place. Vidocq did not doubt that this had indeed happened and _ the real iheir had been killed or abducted. It now remained to discover the Count and the Duchesse had 'been murdered by The Bat, and -to capture the creature and his band. When

Vidocq returned to the Bue aux Loupe, Francine, hideous in her rags, sidled up with a dismal whine, and 'begged for alms. Vidocq dropped his knotted stick, ■and as he stooped to recover it she whispered in his ear.-

"Be careful, my love, Cervalet lias not moved from the cellar, and unless there is a secret exit The Bat and liis men are there also." "Go now, little one, and snatch some sleep," her lover murmured tenderly. "My men shall guard every approach. If I give you 110 sign by to-morrow afternoon, search for. me, hut take care not to arouse suspicion, for I may be a prisoner." It . was fortunate Cervalet had given him the password, for at sight of this stranger in the peasant's dress, the innkeeper snatched a pistol from a shelf. Ignoring the weapon Vidocq called hoarsely for wine. "There are bats flying about your door!" he added, "they frightened me." At the words Ticquetonne slipped the pistol into his smock and stuffling forward peered info his visitor's face. "Bats?" he croaked. "What do you know about them? Vidocq nodded towards the secret door. "Is Cervalet there?" Tiequetonnei glanced at the men and women sprawling on the barrels, to see if they had heard, then he pressed a secret spring, and hardly waiting for the panel to slide aside, pushed him through the opening. Cervalet lay on a mattress, apparently asleep, but at Vidocq's entry he started up. His keen eyes -instantly pierced the disguise and he grinned ferociously.

"Made good use of your time, I see, Did you get the-money?"

Vidocq held out a handful of silver,

"Yes, here's your share. What news?"

"I have been out all day. I found Lamort and he will see you, but we go by secret ways, so although his lair is far away, I must blindfold you." Vidocq grunted; the convict's eyes were shifty and he sensed a lie, nevertheless he suffered a scarf to be bound over his face. When this was done Cervalet seized Vidocq by the hand and guided him through an opening so narrow that his shoulders brushed the sides, and down •'some steps. Thereafter they marched, for an hour along echoing passages redolent of stale wine. Cervalet issuing,whispered instructions as they turned, twisted, and stumbled up and down crumbling stairs. The elaborate ruse did. not deceive Vidocq; he felt for and found the same projections and worn hollows again and again, and his uncanny senses told him that the room they at last entered was close by Ticquetonne's cellar. Abruptly the scarf was torn' away and he stood staring with incredulous eyes at a scene worthy of a madman's dream. On two sides of a triangular table sat a score of black-robed men, their features hidden by masks that aped "the most loathsome diseases. Blotched, speckled, and scarred with scarlet, these hideous faces made even Vidocq's hardened nerves tense with disgust. He shivered and tried not to look at their leader, enthroned at the point of this fearsome triangle, but the steady, unblinking stare of two glowing eyes caught and held -his unwilling gaze. The sheen of many shaded candles spared him no detail of the horror he faced. It was the image of death; rigid, motionless, frozen, and had it not been for the eyes, alive with cruelty and lust, he would have believed that the thing was fashioned 1 of wax. He was powerless to move; his senses swam; he felt as though he were falling; falling through a thousand years into a bottomless pit, while those inhuman eyes burned redly. Frantically he began to count the stones in the walls, the stains on the table, praying for a sound to break the spell. But the lifeless face of The Bat blurred his thoughts. It was no mask, he saw full well. The skin, yellow as ancient parchment, stretched tightly over fleshless cheeks, and bulging jaw. Pointed teeth gleamed unnaturally in a lipless mouth, and in> place of the nose were two hollows. Hair there was none, but a silken cap covered the skull; while the body, fleshless as the face, was clad from top to toe in black. As though divining his struggle for sanity., this creature suddenly lifted its hands and exposed two shining wings attached- to the arms, which fell in loose folds to .the knees. It was this movement which gave him respite. The strain relaxed, and slowly his reeling senses steadied. Monstrous though the creature was, his reason told him Tt was mortal, and therefore it could be killed. He shook himself like a dog and. shifted his eyes to the men with their grotesque masks, and suddenly rage throbbed through his veins and gave him courage. . - "Have done with your acting, he cried. 'Tin too hardened to be caught by such tricks. Men or ..devils, I'm not afraid!" and the sound of his voice restored his balance. It also appeared

This is the story of one of the most remarkable series of crimes which ever stirred the people of France. How the desperate gang of murderers were arrested by Vidocq, himself at one time'a famous criminal, now turned detective in the pay frrench Police, i a here nar rated by Mr. Ashton-Wolfe from documents in the archives which he has been permitted to examine by t he Prefect of Policc in Paris.

to irritate the evil Lamort, who realised that for once he had met his match. The pallid face began to twitch and a whistling voice issued from the lipless mouth. "Bind him and put him in the cell. I read treachery in his thoughts. Let him taste the dark. Later, perhaps, I will put him to the test. Just now I have much to do." Before Vidocq could move, someone seized his ankles and jerked him to the floor; a rope was twisted about his wrists and legs, he was, lifted by sinewy arms and thrown into a recess in the wall and the'door slammed shut. Almost he could have laughed aloud. Violence at least he understood and his muscles had tensed unconseiousty to the pull of the knots. It needed but a twist and his hands were free of their bonds, yet ready to slip back in a second, should his captors come. A tiny shaft of light'filtered through a crack near the hinges, and by kneeling, he was able to see • into the room. The conclave around the table was break-, fng up. He watched the horrible Bat rise and limp with a queer, stiff-jointed gait towards a couch. Again Vidocq shivered, for he perceived that one of the creature's lego was shaped like a goat's and ended in a hoof. This, then, was the explanation of the footprints around the witch's circle, and Pierre Lamort was truly the murderer of the Duchesse and her lover.

As The Bat flung himself down, a sliding door opened, and'Ticquetonne entered with wine and food. •

The drink and probably a renewal of the air brought him .partly to his senses. He remembered with relief that Francine and his men knew where he was. They would search for him soon, and somehow, he felt sure, they would find

this hidden retreat. He tried to keep his mind alert, but as time dragged endlessly on, the pain in his limbs became torture, and his lungs battled to extract life from the tainted air. • \ \ ,

How many hours or days he had lain at the mercy of his captors, he could not tell, but that it was more than a night and a day he gathered from the food which an old crono was servingpand from the heap of dirty platters in a corner. To his surprise she placed a steaming dish and a jug before him. A grateful thrill contracted his nerves, as for an instant she lifted her tousled hair and 'lie recognised Francine. Feigning to give him some bread, she whispered: .

"Eat, beloved, soon you will be free: but for God's sake do not touch the wine." A moment her eyes gazed into his and the love-light in their depths caused his blood to pvlse quickly.

Only a few of the band were there, drinking and throwing dice; The Bat had gone and with him most of the men. Soon he saw that those who remained were kcting queerly. The wine they had drunk was drugged, and the drug was strong, for one after another, they rose, staggered blindly a moment and fell to the floor, twisting in pain. Francine was already at the secret door, waiting for her lover, but realising tliat he was still helpless, she ran back and poured water over his face and down his spine, while he rubbed and slapped his legs until the sting of renewed circulation caused him to groan in pain. "Oh, hurry, my love!." Francine gasped. "It is nearly midnight and that creature Lamort may return. I am horribly afraid. Tiequetonne and his wife are locked in a room behind the cellar. We caught Cervalet and learnt where you were. These beasts here will not move again. I could not risk a slow narcotic,, the wine is poisoned. Their lives for yours! The Bat and the others were followed by Coco-Lacour. They have gone to Versailles to the house of the murdered Duchesse. It is your chance to trap them. Coco believes they intend to kill her son, and lie is waiting there with all your men until you come."

The hurried words and the shock of the icy water brought Vidocq to his feet. Leaning 'on Francine, he stumbled to the door. "I'have sworn to earn our pardon," he cried fiercely. "My body shall not fail me now. That monster killed Mancini and the Duchesse and I can prove it." He halted a moment in the cellar and gulped a flagon of pure wine, then hand in hand, he and Francine ran through deserted byways to the Surete. But now that the crisis was past and her lover free, Francine became weak and fearful. A storm of weeping shook her, while she clung desperately to him an prayed that he should not leave her alone. The salt tang of her tears on his lips caused Vidocq to waver, but he steeled himself with the thought that the arrest of The Bat would free them for ever from the menace of the galleys.

"Comey Francinej" lie murmured. "You are overwrought. I'll-take you home first, . but' then. I must go. Remember what this capture wiU mean to us." - - • : . When he had seen his sweetheart shut, safely in her room, he chose a; fast horse and' galloped to Vefsa'iiles.' .'Tq his relief the.mansion of'the murdered' Duchesse was silent and dark.and the garden appeared to.be deserjted; but in -the shadow of the lodge he came upon a y group of his men, huddled -together, with chattering teeth, in mortal .fear.-of The Bat. CocoLacour, ..lie/learnt,. had* gone forward d alone to reconnoitre.i' Some time before q several furtive shapes had been seen near ~ the. gates, but they had since disappeared. Vidocq at once ordered the men, who I were well-armed, to' creep through the i shrubbery and to signal when the house 1 was' surrounded'} thfen he advanced noiseb leSsly, keeping, well'within the shadows. The silence was complete and already he b believed The Bat had been warned of 3 their presence, when an unearthly whist--3 ling scream made his flesh creep with r dread. Wild yells of terror echoed this 1 dreadful sound, followed by the thud of J running footsteps and a, bent figure t -dashed into his. outflung arms. * It was Coco-Lacour, crazed with terror. [ Vidocq seized his shoulder and shook him ' roughly. "There—my God —over there!" the Parisian chattered hysterically, pointing ,to the house. "Run, -Francois—the devil . has the Duke;" Again the fierce, inhuman cry sobbed . through the night, and. abruptly dancing flames: shot .up not fifty yards away. Against .their glare he saw huge fluttering wings and a distorted shape that seemed to leap in long, flying strides, around a figure prone on the path. Vidocq at once drew a pistol and fired, then his whistle shrilled and he rushed forward sword in hand. At the shot the leaping form had halted and, turned, snarling like a. beast. Even Vidocq's iron nerve failed him for an instant at sight of the fiendish face and glowing eyes of The Bat. Then he remembered his mission and, springing towards him, he thrust with all his might. To his relief, the blade sank into living flesh and lie ' felt the hilt thud against the ribs. So great had been his momentum that he stumbled and fell to his knees, while Pierre Lamort collapsed across the ring of flames, sprawling in a contorted heap beside the body of.the young Duke de la C'orciere. Instantly the park became a battlefield men came running from every .side, pistols • spat redly, yells and curses rent the air, and hurtling bodies crashed through the bushes. But Vidocq had regained his feet rnd his booming voice issued terse commands which rallied his men. '- Coco-Lacour had seen The Bat collapsc and realised that they were dealing with mortals, Thereupon he had fetched the gendarmes stationed outside the grounds, and ten minutes later The Bat's accomplices were securely bound and the fight was over. The ring of fire was still smouldering and spirals of pungent smoke enveloped The Bat and'his victim. A spasm of frightful nausea seized Vidocq when he tried, to cross the glowing circle; his brain reeled and he would have fallen liad not Lacour caught him and dragged him to safety.

"Poison," Vidocq gasped. "They may not be dead —help. Hie.to get tliern out, but c6ver your face ami don't breathe." ' At terrible risk, for the fumes from the burning herbs were indeed a deadly poison, the two bodies were pulled away; but too late. The Bat had died by the sword', which had pierced his heart, and the Duke was already dead when Vidocq had attacked his rnuiderei. What the poison was no one discovered, but one of the prisoners admitted that it came from the East, where The Bat had lived for many years. ; When the doctors examined this strange being, they found that his body was horribly scarred' and disfigured as though at some time he had suffered unspeakable'torture. His right foot had been cut and shaped to resemble, an animal's hoof, probably by a savage people, who had of set purpose manufactured a monster. Yet once lie had been comely, for Pierre Lamort. the infamous Bat, was the true son of the Duke and Buchesse dc la Corcicre. lie had been taken from his mother and o-iven to wandering gipsies by the Count Slancini, who had compelled the Ducliesse to rear their illegitimate boy. in his place. This was proven by the documents the police discovered. No doubt his misshapen form had suggested the bat's wings to his distorted mind, a method for terrifying his many , vieI tims. That lie, too, liacl recently uiscovered his true name, was proven by the murders of his unnatural parents and -half-brother. : Vidocq's first , care when tho men who had been with The Bat were safely under lock and key, was to send police and . soldiers to . remove the bodies of those whom Frar.cine "had poisoned in tho cellar tavern. He and Coco-Lacour had barely returned to the Suretc when 0110 of his servants istumbled into his office with livid face and palsied limbs. Gibbering and moaning, the fellow sank at his master's feet, incapable of speech. Vidocq wasted no time in vain questions. A cold presentiment gripping his heart, ho rushed downstairs and flung himself on a horse. Followed by Coco-Lacour, he galloped madly to his home. On the floor of her bedroom lay faithful Francine, a dagger in her heart. Held by the blade was a sheet of paper, wet with blood, on which had been traced the fiendish red circle and footprints. • Lacour pointed with- shaking finger at a scrawl beneath this emblem:

The Bat is dead," Vidocq read, his eyes dim. with tears, "but his friends live to avenge him. Your turn shall come, traitor and spy." From that moment Vidoeq's hatred of all criminals became a wild passion. Francine's face floated before his eyes in all liis raids on the underworld. He received a pardon for his bravery and skill, but elected to remain chief of the Surete, and soon he became a terror to evil-doers. Many were the attempts made on his life, but all failed. He lived to be eighty, and his fantastic adventures have inspired a legion of poets and playwrights. . .- This strange man disdained to profit by his position. There is a letter in th« archives,, written by Vidocq a - year before he died, to the prefect of police, in which he reminds him that he cap-

tured more than fifteen thousand murderers, bandits, and robbers, during his career. The letter concludes with a request for a grant of money in return for these valiant deeds, since in his old age he is penniless and alone. The Ministry of Justice acceded to this request, but because he had once been a galley felon, though as the records show, wrongly convicted, his unique services to the police have not yet received official recognition. The next story of Vidoeq's exploits is entitled, "The Untameable Rebel of Paris."