Juve replied to this:
"Oh, as for that, perfectly! The motives are clear as crystal!... Madame de Vibray was ruined, and really committed suicide because--you will pardon me, I am sure--because the Bourse transactions you advised were not successful.... She poisoned herself, and went to Jacques Dollon"s studio to die: perhaps she felt for him a secret attachment! Fate willed it that the a.s.sa.s.sins should choose this very evening to make their way into the painter"s studio ... by means of this first corpse they created an alibi for themselves, and prepared the scene which was bound to mislead justice and make lawyers and police believe in the murder of Madame de Vibray and the suicide of her murderer.... Unfortunately for them, Dollon was discovered before the poison they administered had done its deadly work on him, and Dollon was arrested.... You can imagine the fury, the distracted state of the guilty! Dollon had seen them--he was going to speak at the legal interrogation--very well, then--they will kill him--and they do kill him...."
"But Jacques Dollon lives, since his imprints are found here, there and everywhere!..." cried Monsieur Barbey.
Fandor replied:
"They kill Jacques Dollon, since it has been formally established that Jacques Dollon was seen dead; and once they have killed Dollon, they think that a dead man cannot be arrested by the police, and _they accept this dead man as one of their band_.... He, they decide, shall steal the pearls of Princess Danidoff!..."
"This is raving lunacy!"
"All that is pretty clearly proved, Monsieur Nanteuil!... It is he also who stole the millions in the rue du Quatre Septembre, a sensational robbery which would have ruined your bank, had not this issue of bullion been well covered by an insurance: this insurance signified that you were no losers by this robbery--in fact, owing to an ingenious combination of insurances, you have actually gained by the robbery! As we are on this subject, I might add that were I a member of the Band I should propose restoring to you the vanished ingots--robbers find bullion somewhat difficult to put into circulation: you might buy them back; then turn them into false coin, for instance--that would be all profit--for you!..."
"I wonder at you--making such a joke as that!" remarked Nanteuil.
"Please wonder at me!... To continue!... Having carried out their plan successfully, these robbers remembered something they had forgotten--a compromising paper, or something like it, which had been left in Elizabeth Dollon"s possession. Thereupon, they send the dead man--Jacques Dollon--to look for it: he attempts to murder his sister: I arrive just in time to open the windows before she is past all human aid.... Meanwhile a series of cleverly arranged deals on the Bourse are brought off, so that if Thomery disappeared the Barbey-Nanteuil Bank would rake in important profits ... in haste the a.s.sa.s.sins get rid of an accomplice who is in their way--that duffer of a Jules, the rue Raffet servant, and they send Dollon to kill Thomery. After that they decide to rob your Bank which is stuffed with gold; for, were it not for this theft, it would be your Bank, burdened as it is, with Thomery shares, which would pay out to speculators the differences in value between past and present prices--which amounts would have to come out of the money paid in the day before. Messieurs, with regard to this, Thomery"s death did you a great service.... Without his death, which enriched you, you would have had to settle up your sales by a certain date, and you would have lost more than you gained at the moment, owing to the sole fact of his disappearance!... I think you are very grateful to Jacques Dollon because of what he has done for you."
Monsieur Nanteuil, on hearing these last words, rose. He walked up to the journalist and said, in a voice quivering with some emotion:
"For my part, Monsieur Fandor, I think your way of explaining the Dollon affair is a very strange way!... You a.s.sert that this painter is dead, and you make him behave as if he were alive!... Besides, I have understood your words! In truth, what you say is senseless: you make wild statements! You have involved our Bank in every one of the Dollon crimes!... You have shown us as interested parties in all these robberies!"
Fandor said quietly:
"Nevertheless, it is unquestionably true that you are the gainers by these crimes: beginning with Madame de Vibray and ending with Thomery.
Madame de Vibray might have brought an action against you for the loss of her fortune, owing to your risky speculations and bad management.
Thomery"s murder brought down his shares with a run, and you found that a most advantageous state of affairs--you gained by it!... But, of course, this is coincidence, since you are not Fantomas, since you are not Jacques Dollon, since you cannot imitate the imprint of his thumb!... I have only said this to show ..." Fandor stopped short.
"Hark!... Someone is coming upstairs! Here is Monsieur Havard!"
As the bankers were hurrying impatiently to the door, Fandor said in a bantering tone:
"Do not stir a step further, I beg of you! Not a step! Let us receive the chief of the detective force exactly in the position we were, not an hour ago, when we encountered him whom the chief has now come to arrest!"
Barbey and Nanteuil returned to their former positions. Those in the room could hear voices on the other side of the door exchanging brief remarks. The lock was being picked. Monsieur Havard entered and hurried up to the journalist.
"Well, my dear Fandor, I have followed all your instructions to the letter!... Ah! you here, too, Juve! Well?... Speak! Anything fresh since your extraordinary telephone communication?... What were you telling me?"
"I was saying, Monsieur Havard, that the a.s.sa.s.sin had entered this room, and a.s.suredly had not left it--that he was here!..."
"Here?"
Monsieur Havard had recognised the bankers at the first glance.... His question betrayed a certain incredulity which piqued Fandor.
"Here! Yes! That is absolutely so, because it is impossible that he can have left the room! Besides, you shall convince yourself of that!...
Monsieur Nanteuil, will you do me a small service? Will you draw a plan of the first floor of your house?"
The banker rose and seated himself at his writing-table, which was placed in a corner of the room.
"I am at your disposal." And he began to trace a plan, a pretty rough one, of the various rooms which made up the first floor of his house.
"Is that what you want?" he asked.
Jerome Fandor rose quickly and went towards Nanteuil.
The journalist"s nerves must have been out of order--in a jumpy state, despite his apparent calm, for, in approaching the writing-table, he suddenly staggered, nearly fell, tried to regain his balance, and that so clumsily that he upset the contents of a large ink-pot on the writing-desk....
"Take care!" said Monsieur Nanteuil, who, to save himself from coming into contact with this inky inundation, threw himself back in his chair, and lifted his hands above the flood of ink....
The banker repeated:
"Take care!... Here is a fresh catastrophe!..."
But he did not finish what he intended to say! Quick as thought, Fandor steadied himself, and before anyone could guess his intention he seized the banker"s right hand, pushed it forcibly into the wide-spreading ink, then, immediately after, pressed it on to a sheet of blotting paper which took the hand"s imprint quite clearly....
This imprint he glanced at but a moment.... Like a flag, he waved it above his head!
"_It is the Jacques Dollon imprint!_" he shouted. "_The hand of Monsieur Nanteuil, whose characteristics are known in the anthropometric section, has just left the imprint of--Jacques Dollon!..._"
The journalist"s action created a momentary stupour!
Juve rushed to him.
"Bravo! Bravo!" he cried.
But Monsieur Havard had gone quite pale. He said in a low voice:
"I don"t understand!"
Barbey and Nanteuil retained their self-possession!
Then Monsieur Barbey rose. He looked fixedly at his partner. He spoke in a tone of sad finality:
"I suspected this!... Farewell...."
A shout of horror answered him: he had drawn a sharp dagger from inside his coat, and had plunged it in his heart up to the hilt!
Juve knelt by the fallen man. Monsieur Havard kept a sharp eye on Nanteuil.
"Here, then, is Jacques Dollon, the dead-alive!... Here is the elusive Fantomas!" said the chief of the detective force.
But the bandit brazened it out as he recoiled before the chief.
"Why do you arrest me because of this imprint?" he demanded. "It is a piece of juggling on the part of this journalist!... Take a fresh imprint of my hand, my fingers, my thumb, and you will see whether my hand could possibly leave such an impression as that put on the blotting pad, by some sleight-of-hand trick of this much too smart reporter!" He stretched out his arm in the direction of the blotting pad, as though begging for a fresh trial....
Fandor marched up to Nanteuil.
"Useless," said he, in a curt tone. "I have been watching you!... I know the trick!"