His eye caught a movement. The huge stack of magazines, looking as if it would topple over, so much on the slant was it, was slowly moving into an upright position again! He leaped forward, thrusting his revolver between the opening of the two portions, and prevented them from joining completely!...
What was going on behind this tricky collection of magazines, which had undoubtedly just opened to give pa.s.sage to Vagualame and Bobinette?
Juve glued his ear to the fissure which marked the edge of the hidden door.... Ah!... Voices of men in discussion!... Juve could not distinguish all that the voices were saying, but a word reached his ear, clear, unmistakable--_Fantomas_!
He listened intently.
"You are right," remarked an invisible speaker: "It is to Fantomas we owe all these police visits and annoyances--his crimes exasperate the police--and to justify themselves in the opinion of the public they track us down more vigorously than ever!"
Another voice answered:
"I know for certain that these coppers are after Fantomas to-night!"
Shouts and hoots resounded.
Menacing voices repeated:
"Since Fantomas is indirectly our persecutor, let us avenge ourselves on Fantomas!... What matters one life compared with the cause we defend--the cause of a whole people!... If Fantomas is in our way, troubles us, let us kill him!... Trokoff will be here to-morrow, this evening perhaps! Trokoff will guide us! Trokoff will find this mysterious bandit who does us so much harm! Trokoff is a valiant man!... We do not know him, but we know what he has done!"
Juve smiled a sardonic smile. He thrust his hand into the opening wedged apart by his revolver, widened the s.p.a.ce, opened the secret door, and entered the a.s.sembly room of the Nihilists.
"G.o.d save Russia!"
Juve p.r.o.nounced these words with unction, in a solemn voice.
"G.o.d save Poland," was the reply. The oldest man present, who had thus been spokesman for the a.s.sembly advanced towards the stranger.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
Without the quiver of an eyelid, an eyelash, Juve answered: "I am he whom you have awaited.... He who will direct your arms--guide you! I am Trokoff!"
"Let but one of these inspired fanatics, who hold life cheap, guess that I belong to the police, and they would kill me without mercy or pity," thought Juve, as he faced the a.s.sembly of revolutionaries with a serene countenance.
There were no threatening looks. They believed themselves to be in the presence of Trokoff. Had he not opened the door?... Only Trokoff, the expected, the longed for, could have done that!
The a.s.sembly acclaimed him:
"Trokoff! We for Russia welcome you! G.o.d be with you, Trokoff! Heaven guard you!"
"G.o.d be with you, brothers!"
Juve advanced, scrutinising each in turn: neither Vagualame nor Bobinette were among them.
Juve addressed them:
"My brothers! You know that the police are now searching the shop overhead: it is a serious moment!"
One of the Nihilists stepped forward.
"We know it, Trokoff! Our brother, Vagualame, accompanied by a young disciple, came to warn us but a minute ago. Be a.s.sured, brother! The police are not searching for us this evening.... It is the vile wretch Fantomas they are after!... A criminal ruffian, foe of all liberty, whom we have condemned to death.... Therefore we are not disquieted.
Vagualame has just left us.... He will direct the suspicions of the police into another channel. He told us he knew a way of quieting their suspicions."...
"If only Michel does not allow this arch-bandit to slip through his fingers!" reflected Juve, as he listened with unmoved countenance to these remarkable statements. Before the Nihilist could say more, Juve made a declaration:
"Vagualame deceives himself, brother. I must go up at once to give him the aid of my strong arm, otherwise we are finished!... I know only the secret entrance here: guide me to the other exit, so that I may not attract the attention of the police: we do not want our secret entrance discovered!"
"It shall be as you desire, brother. Follow me; but be prudent."
Marching at the Nihilist"s heels, after many twists and turns, Juve arrived at the foot of a quite ordinary staircase.
"You have only to mount, brother Trokoff. These stairs lead straight into the shop. If the police ask where you come from, you have only to say that you were looking in the first cellar for a book!... But what matters it if they do visit the cellars! They will never find the hidden door!"
Juve bent his head.
"Thanks, brother! Peace be with you!"
The Nihilist turned away. No sooner was he out of sight than Juve tore up the stairs to complete the arrest of Vagualame and Bobinette!
Inspector Michel had not stirred from his appointed place by the door leading to the street.
He had been on guard about half an hour when Juve, livid, frantic, rushed towards him.
"You have let them go out, Michel!" he shouted: "They are not here!"
"No one has gone out at this door, Chief! I give you my word on it!...
But, may I ask how you managed to slip back again without my having noticed you! Deuced clever, I call it!... No one, I say, has left these premises either before or after you!"
"What"s that you say?" Juve stared at Michel as if he had taken leave of his senses.
"What I say, Chief, is--the only individuals whom I have allowed to pa.s.s out are you and your woman prisoner."
"I and my woman prisoner?" Juve could have howled with rage. He caught the calm, collected Michel by the coat collar, and dragged him outside the shop. Juve looked so desperate, so at his wit"s end, that Michel wondered.
"Come now, Chief!" he remonstrated; "I am not dreaming, am I?... Ten minutes ago you came to me here, and you said:
""Don"t move, Michel! Let me pa.s.s. I am Juve! I take a prisoner to the station and will return.""
Juve had grown deadly calm.
"I was disguised, Michel, was I not?"
"Yes. You had put on your Vagualame disguise."
Juve bit his lip till the blood came. That arch-bandit had done him again! Juve could not but admire his coolness and resource. He had known how to take in Michel, because Michel had arrested Juve when disguised as Vagualame at de Naarboveck"s house.... Michel would naturally think his chief had again a.s.sumed the Vagualame disguise for a purpose! Oh, it was the devil"s own cleverness!
Juve glared at Michel.
"It was the real Vagualame, I tell you!" shouted Juve.... "It was not I disguised as Vagualame!... It was Vagualame in person, I tell you!... It is Vagualame himself whom you have allowed to escape!"