Arsène Lupin, gentleman-cambrioleur — Résumé 🇺🇸 English
During a gathering at the home of Monsieur de Dreux-Soubise, conversation turns to the infamous, unsolved theft of the Queen's Necklace from a century earlier. Among the guests is the Chevalier Floriani, a man acquainted with Sicilian magistracy who casually dissects the locked-room mystery. With chilling precision, Floriani deduces how a small child could have entered through a transom window using improvised tools, identifying the culprit as Raoul, the son of the house's former maid Henriette. The host and guests are left stunned as Floriani methodically proves each point, explaining how the young boy executed the heist to alleviate his mother's financial misery.
As the discussion continues, the atmosphere grows tense and ironic, leading the company to realize the startling truth. The Chevalier Floriani is none other than Raoul himself, now grown and boldly confronting his victims with the mastery of a master criminal. Rather than causing a scandal, the humiliated count and countess engage in a tense verbal duel with him regarding the historical necklace and its mount. Impressed and unnerved by his audacity, they are left powerless as the gentleman thief gracefully takes his leave.
Four days later, the stolen Queen's Necklace is mysteriously returned to Madame de Dreux-Soubise in a red leather case bearing cardinal arms. Shortly after, a sensational press report credits Arsène Lupin with recovering and returning the historic heirloom to its rightful owners. The narrator reflects on his own strange entanglement with Lupin, recalling a terrifying night when he was held paralyzed in his own bedroom by the mere shadow of a curtain while a burglary took place nearby. Believing he was guarded by an armed intruder, he spent agonizing hours frozen in fear until dawn broke, only to discover he had been terrorized by an empty fold of fabric.