There was a pause--terrible, heart-sickening.
Michel drew himself up.
"What then, Chief?"
Juve"s anger gave place to compa.s.sion.
"It is really not your fault, my poor Michel. How could you imagine the infernal trick this bandit was playing on you?... I bear you no grudge for it, Michel!"
But Michel was inconsolable. He had committed an irreparable blunder!
Juve slipped his arm through that of his miserable subordinate. The pair made their way to Headquarters at the head of the little column of subordinates who, understanding that Juve had not found what he sought, were cursing inwardly at the failure of their expedition....
The moment Juve realised that Michel had allowed Vagualame-Fantomas to escape, he had called off his men. He did not wish the Russian revolutionaries cornered and arrested at present.... Possibly Vagualame believed Juve and his men had come to find the Nihilists, and, having failed, had left the premises in a rage!
Sophie would report to the bandit--but she had not heard everything!
Thought Juve:
"He will hardly guess that I entered the a.s.sembly below by the secret door and made them believe I was Trokoff!... It leaves a way open for future transactions!... Some day, not so far ahead, I may return, may find that devil"s Will o" the Wisp of a bandit there and nab him at last!"... Did Michel suspect there were Nihilists on the premises?
"Tell me," questioned Juve: "Did you overhear any suspicious talk?...
This Sophie did not say anything interesting?"
"Nothing whatever, Chief."
"Your men, Michel, do not know what individual we are after?"
Michel laughed.
"Oh, they are a hundred leagues off the truth!... That they were out to arrest Fantomas!... Just imagine, Chief! This afternoon, a complaint was lodged at Headquarters with reference to the theft of a bear! The theft was committed at Troyes, at the fair.... Our men are persuaded that to-night"s search has to do with this bear-stealing case!... All the more so because, just as we started on this expedition, one of my men, whose home is at Sceaux, told us that his brother, a driver down there, had been ordered to go in five days"
time, with two horses, and at five in the morning, on the road to Robinson, and take a gipsy van twenty kilometres from there!... He thought there was something very queer about such a rendezvous as that!"
Juve"s interest in this piece of news was keen!
x.x.x
APPALLING ACCUSATIONS
"But, Commandant, you cannot possibly maintain that I am not Jerome Fandor, journalist!"
The interview between Commandant Dumoulin and Fandor had already lasted an hour. It was unlike that which had taken place six days before, when Dumoulin had dealt summarily with the Fandor-Vinson case.
Since then Fandor had occupied cell 27, and had had no communication with the outside world. Fandor had raged furiously against things in general, against Dumoulin in particular, and against himself most of all. He acknowledged that Juve had done his utmost to extricate him from the tangled web he had involved himself in as Fandor-Vinson.
Each day brought him one distraction which he would willingly have foregone: he pa.s.sed long exhausting hours in Commandant Dumoulin"s office. He found the commandant detestable. Dumoulin was hot-blooded, noisy, unmethodical, always in a state of fuss and fume! He would begin his interrogations calmly, would weigh his words, would be logical, but little by little, his real nature--a tempestuous one--would get the upper hand.
For the twentieth time Fandor had insisted on his ident.i.ty, and Dumoulin, tapping the case papers with an agitated hand, had replied:
"I recognise that you are Jerome Fandor, exercising the profession of a journalist--since it seems journalism is a profession! But that is not the question; the problem I have to elucidate! I have to ascertain when, and at what exact moment, one Jerome Fandor took the personality of Corporal Vinson!"...
"I have already told you, Commandant!... Please read my deposition of the day before yesterday. I will recapitulate:
"Sunday, November 13th, at five o"clock in the evening, at my domicile, rue Richer, I received the visit of a soldier whom I did not know. He stated that he was called Corporal Vinson, and informed me that he had become part and parcel of the spy system; that he regretted it, and, not being able to extricate himself, he was going to commit suicide.... Desiring to give this unfortunate a chance of rehabilitating himself, desiring also to come to close quarters with this gang of spies, I decided to a.s.sume his personality, and take advantage of his entrance into a regiment where he was not known, and to go there in his place. It was in these conditions that I left eight days after, on Sunday, November 20th, for Verdun."
"You maintain that you did not a.s.sume the personality of Vinson before that date?"
"I do maintain that, Commandant."
"But that is the pivot of the whole business, and the important point yet to be proved!"
"That is not difficult," declared Fandor: "I have alibis who will support my statement."
The commandant raised his arms to heaven.
"Alibis! Alibis!... What do they prove, after all?"
"The truth, Commandant.... When I am in Paris it is evident I am not in Chalons or Verdun."
Dumoulin was evidently trying to find an argument to meet the accused"s logic.
"Peuh!" declared he: "With fellows like you, who are perpetually disguising themselves, changing their faces as I change my collars, one never knows."... Suddenly Dumoulin"s face lighted up.
"Tuesday, November 29th, you were in the shoes of Vinson--is that so?"
"Yes, Commandant."
"Very well. This same Tuesday, November 29th, you were at the Elysee ball as Jerome Fandor! So you see!"
Dumoulin was triumphant.
"I had twenty-four hours" leave, Commandant--quite regular!" protested Fandor.
"Ah!" growled the commandant, glancing knowingly at Lieutenant Servin, who with impa.s.sive countenance was listening to this discussion: "Don"t talk to me about leave!... Heaven alone knows how easily you spies succeed in obtaining leave!"
Fandor was about to protest vehemently against being numbered with the spies, when the commandant started another subject.
"Added to this, there is something very serious in your case."
"Good Heavens! What now?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Fandor.
Dumoulin looked mysterious.
"We will speak of it later on.... The next step is to confront you with certain witnesses: Lieutenant Servin, see if the witnesses are there!"
Fandor himself had demanded this confrontation. He did not deny having a.s.sumed the personality of Corporal Vinson, dating from the day when the corporal entered officially on his duties as a unit of the 257th of the line, in garrison at Verdun. But the enquiry wished to establish that, anterior to this, Fandor had already taken the place of the real Vinson: the military authorities seemed to attach immense importance to this point. Fandor had then decided that the simplest way was to be brought face to face with soldiers who had known Vinson at Chalons: they would state that the Vinson presented to them in the person of Fandor was not the Vinson they had known.