"Have you thought over a way we can effect the exchange?"
"But, my dear fellow, you must know what to do. I gave you full particulars in my letter."
"In your letter?"
"Yes.... I even enclosed a diagram."
There was a pause, the voice then asked:
"Will you pa.s.s me up this letter by ..."
Fandor interrupted:
"Why, it"s quite simple! Find the third naiad, counting from the one nearest the bridge."
Suddenly the voice explained:
"Look here, Sire, we are talking at cross purposes. I am asking you where we can exchange the diamond."
"The diamond?"
"Yes! Your diamond."
Fandor"s face grew pale.
"My diamond!"
"The diamond I went to Glotzbourg to get ... what"s the matter with you, Sire? Don"t you remember?... And what"s all this about a letter?"
"Why, Juve! I"m talking of the letter I left at your apartment in which I explained how you may reach me!"
"Juve! Juve! Oho!"
A burst of strident laughter, infernal and diabolical, reached Fandor, who now guessed the horrible truth.
"If it isn"t Juve who is speaking, who is it?" he cried. "For the love of G.o.d, who are you?"
"The person speaking to you ... is Fantomas."
"Fantomas!"
Staggering, terrified, Fandor screamed:
"Fantomas! Fantomas!... It can"t be possible! Fantomas has been arrested! Fantomas is in the hands of Juve!"
"Fantomas arrested?... Fantomas can"t be arrested! He will never be caught! He is above and beyond every attack, every menace! Fantomas is Death, Eternal Death, Pitiless Death, King Death! Good-bye!"
A long silence followed. Fandor was stunned by the awful reality. He experienced all the sensations of a man buried alive, condemned to death with torture. And then another thought flashed through his mind:
"The papers spoke of Fantomas"s arrest. But if Fantomas is at liberty, it must mean that Juve has been beaten! Juve went to Glotzbourg to arrest him. A man has been arrested under the name of Fantomas. That man must be Juve himself!"
And his letter! The first thing Fantomas would do would be to go to Juve"s apartment and destroy it.
"He has got me," he exclaimed. "He can choose his own time to kill me.
He can send down asphyxiating gas or a deluge of water through the connecting tube, or he can just leave me here to die slowly of hunger and thirst."
The journalist began pacing up and down his prison. He tried to recover his calm and argue the case out:
"Here I am in perfect health, clear in my mind and able to struggle to the bitter end. I have enough food and water to last me about nine or ten days. In my pocket I have my revolver, so that I can blow my brains out if it comes to the worst. But I won"t. I"ll fight! I"ll fight until I drop!"
CHAPTER XXII
BETWEEN US THREE--FANToMAS!
For the second time, the Grand d.u.c.h.ess Alexandra solemnly repeated to the Queen:
"I have the honor to take leave of your Majesty, and I dare to hope that I may hear news of your Majesty when I reach my journey"s end. I shall be away a long while from the court of Hesse-Weimar and from its august Sovereign for whom I profess the deepest respect."
The interview between the Queen and the woman she deemed her mortal enemy took place about eleven o"clock, two days after the famous ball in the midst of which the detective Juve had so unfortunately been mistaken for Fantomas, and thrown into a gloomy dungeon where he had since been kept in solitary confinement. Opinion at Hesse-Weimar was divided between the theory that the thief had succeeded in hiding the famous diamond before he was caught, and the theory that when he discovered its hiding place, he had found an empty jewel case. Naturally, the ident.i.ty of the Grand d.u.c.h.ess with the famous Lady Beltham,[3] established by Juve, was unknown in Hesse-Weimar, nor did anyone suspect that her sudden departure was in any way connected with the arrest of the pseudo Fantomas.
[Footnote 3: See "Fantomas," Vols. I, II, III.]
The Queen was at first unwilling to believe in the retreat of her enemy, but she was at length obliged to accept the fact when Alexandra made her formal adieux.
"There was a rumor that you were going to leave us," she replied, "but I scarcely credited it, Madame."
The adventuress, who by a series of extraordinary circ.u.mstances had been enabled to pa.s.s herself as a cousin of the reigning family, looked at the Queen sadly:
"Your Majesty is not very kind to me," she exclaimed with tears in her voice, "and I hoped for a more friendly farewell at the moment when I am taking my departure for the new world."
The Queen was touched by these words; with an impulsive movement she opened her arms to the false Grand d.u.c.h.ess, who flung herself into them in a long embrace.
The two women now had a heart to heart talk in which the Queen confessed her fears and distrust. She even went to the length of admitting her belief that Alexandra had had designs upon the throne of Hesse-Weimar.
The adventuress looked with pitying contempt upon the little Queen Hedwige:
"Your Majesty has been outrageously deceived," she replied, "I belong to a race which is incapable of such treachery."
Completely rea.s.sured, the Queen became very tender and ended affectionately by wishing the pseudo d.u.c.h.ess a good journey. The two women parted friends.
On a siding in the Glotzbourg station stood a private car, which had been placed at the service of the Grand d.u.c.h.ess, waiting to be connected with the Paris express from Berlin.
Inside, the d.u.c.h.ess, dressed in a quiet traveling costume, sat talking to Prince Gudulfin. The young man was pale and anxious: