Fandor cut short his admirer: "Now tell me what brings you here!"
"Oh, well, here goes! I was reading your article yesterday, about how Jacques Dollon, no more dead than you or I, had escaped over the roofs of the Palais de Justice. That made me laugh, because I am the keeper of the landing stage at the Pont Neuf Station. This affair is supposed to have happened in my parts, don"t you see?... Well, I had just come to the bit where you also suppose that the corpse might easily have been devoured by rats inside the sewer.... Well, Monsieur Fandor, I can a.s.sure you that it was nothing of the sort...."
The journalist was all eyes and ears. He signed to Elizabeth that she must keep quiet, so as not to intimidate the good fellow.
"Come now, what is it you have seen?"
"What I"ve seen?... Why, I saw Dollon break bounds!"
At this statement Elizabeth grew white as a sheet. She jumped up, and with clasped hands rushed towards the keeper:
"Speak, speak quickly, I implore you!" she cried.
Fandor drew Elizabeth back gently, and whispered a few words to her. He turned to the keeper:
"Mademoiselle has also come to make a statement regarding this affair,"
he explained. "That is why she is so interested in what you have just told us.... But tell us how you saw Jacques Dollon escape!"
"Well, I had got up a bit earlier than usual to see that the anchors and mooring were all right, and I thought I saw what looked like a big bundle fall into the river from the sewer opening--only I was half asleep and didn"t take much notice; for, what with all the rain we"ve been having, there"s no end of filthy stuff tumbling out of the mouth of the sewers. But, a few minutes after that, I noticed that the bundle, instead of going with the flow of the current, was drifting across the Seine, plainly making for the bank. There could be no mistake about that!"
Elizabeth Dollon cried:
"And then? And then?"
"Then, my little lady, what if this surprise packet didn"t turn off behind an arch of the Pont-Neuf! I didn"t see what became of it--but no one will get it out of my head that it isn"t some jolly dog who had no wish to show himself--that"s what I think!"
The keeper paused, then went on:
"That"s all I have to tell you, Monsieur Fandor ... it might serve for one of your articles some time or other ... only you mustn"t say that I told you. I might get into trouble with my chiefs about it!"
Elizabeth Dollon was no longer listening. She had turned to Fandor, and with shining eyes murmured:
"He lives!... He lives!..."
Fandor thanked the keeper, and got rid of him. Directly the door closed on him he darted to Elizabeth:
"Poor child!" he cried, full of pity for her.
"Ah! Don"t pity me! I don"t need your pity now!... My brother is alive!... That man has seen him!"
Fandor had to undeceive her:
"Your brother is certainly dead," he declared. "If he were the individual in question, it would not have been yesterday morning, but the morning before that, when the keeper saw him; and I do a.s.sure you ..."
"But this good fellow is telling the truth then?"
"I a.s.sure you that I have good reasons, the best of reasons, for believing, for being certain, that the swimmer who crossed the Seine was not your brother!"
"Great Heaven! Who was it then?"
Fandor hesitated a moment.... Should he divulge his secret? All he said was:
"It was not your brother--I know that!"
So decisive was his tone, so great the sympathy vibrating through his words, that Elizabeth Dollon, once more convinced that Fandor was not speaking at random, bent her head and shed tears of deepest grief and bitter disappointment.
Fandor allowed the sorrow-stricken girl to give way to her grief for a few minutes; then he gently asked her:
"Mademoiselle Elizabeth, shall we have a little talk?... You see I simply cannot tell you everything, yet I would gladly help you!... But first and foremost, I beg of you to put quite out of your mind this hope that your brother is still alive!..."
Sadly Elizabeth wiped away her tears, and in a voice which she tried to steady, said:
"Oh, what is to become of me! I thought I had found in you a support, a help, and now you abandon me! And I had put my faith in your goodness of heart!... There are your articles on the one hand, and your att.i.tude on the other--what am I to make of it? It is driving me to despair! And if you only knew how much I need to be supported, encouraged; I feel as if I should go out of my senses--out of my mind ... and I am alone, so terribly alone!"
The poor girl"s voice was broken by sobs, her whole body was shaken by them. Fandor went up to her, and spoke to her in a low tone affectionately: he felt great sympathy and an immense pity for this unhappy young creature, who charmed and attracted him. He tried to console her, and to change the current of her thoughts:
"Come now, Mademoiselle, do try to control yourself a little! I have promised to help you, and I certainly shall--you may be sure of it. But consider now--if I am to be of real use to you, I must know a little about you: you, yourself, your family, your brother; who your friends are, and who are your enemies! I must enter into your existence, not as a judge, but as a comrade who is interested in all that concerns you.
Will you not confide in me? Once I know what there is to know we might then unite our efforts to some purpose, and find out what really has happened, since the mystery remains inexplicable."
Elizabeth Dollon felt the young man was sincere, and that what he said in such a gentle voice was true.
This poor human waif asked no more than to be allowed to cling to whoever would take pity on her and be kind. She now spoke to Jerome Fandor of her childhood without suspecting in the least that the same Jerome Fandor--Charles Rambert--used to play with her in those days.[7]
[Footnote 7: See _Fantomas_.]
She mentioned the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Marquise de Langrune--the first tragic episode of her life; then had come the horrible death of her father, old Steward Dollon, who had pa.s.sed from the service of the Marquise to that of the Baroness de Vibray, and then perished, the victim of a criminal.
She explained how Jacques Dollon and she had come to settle in Paris, feeling themselves rich on the savings they had inherited from their parents. Elizabeth had become a dressmaker, and Jacques had become an artist-craftsman. Gradually the young man"s talent and industry had enabled his sister to leave her workroom and come to live with him. His reputation was a growing one, and the two young people looked forward to an existence of honest comfort in the near future. They got to know some people, one or two of whom were rich, and had shown their interest in the brother and sister.
Jerome Fandor interrupted her:
"You always remained on good terms with the Baroness de Vibray?"
At this question the girl"s eyes flashed:
"They have put into print shameful things about this poor dear Baroness, and about my brother also. The papers have represented her as eccentric, as mad; they have said worse things than that, you know that, don"t you?... They have declared that there was a very intimate relation between her and my brother--I cannot say more--it is too hateful! It is all false--as false as false can be! The Baroness was particularly interested in Jacques, but a.s.suredly that was owing to the long standing relations between her family and ours.... The suicide of the Baroness has been a sad addition to my grief, for I was very fond of her!..."
Fandor had been listening attentively to Elizabeth"s story. He now said:
"You have used the word "suicide," mademoiselle: do you then really think, as everyone seems to do, that your patroness killed herself of her own free will?"
Elizabeth reflected a minute before replying:
"That was what she wrote--and one must believe that, nevertheless ..."
"Nevertheless?"
Elizabeth hesitated, pa.s.sed her hand over her forehead, then said: