"I can a.s.sure, dear Monsieur Nanteuil, that Fantomas has not left the room by this window!..."
"Because?..."
"Because this window has been broken by means of this chair: this chair, which he flung against the panes to put us on the wrong scent, and make us believe he had escaped that way!... Just look at this chair! It is still strewn with broken bits of gla.s.s ... look, there is even a little bit stuck into the wood!"
"But that proves nothing!... Fantomas has broken the window panes as best he could, and then made his escape!"
"In that case," insisted Fandor, "dear Monsieur Nanteuil, can you explain how it was he troubled to remove his cloak, hood and all; and, after that, how is it he has left no footprints in the flower-beds beneath the window? When day dawns you will see for yourself that my statement is correct, though I have not verified it! The flower-beds are too wide, too big, for a man jumping from here, to jump clear of them!
And the earth is soft enough to take and retain the footprints of a man who leaps down on to them from this height!... Nevertheless, such footprints are conspicuous by their absence!"
Monsieur Barbey seemed overwhelmed--aghast.
"If Fantomas did not escape by the window, how then did he get away?" he asked.
Fandor said in clear, distinct tones:
"Fantomas was not able to escape!..."
"But he cannot be in the room?... Where, then, can he have hidden himself?"
In a hard voice, Fandor made answer.
"He is not hidden in the room...."
"You think then that he has hidden himself somewhere in the house?"
Speaking in the same hard, decisive tone, Fandor a.s.serted:
"He is not hidden in the house! In the very height of the struggle, I kept a strict watch on the direction taken by the man who was doing his utmost to strangle me. I am positive I had my back against the door when I fired, so that exit was barred! Neither by door nor window did Fantomas escape!" Fandor"s tone was one of absolute a.s.surance.
"If you are certain of that," said Nanteuil, "can you tell us how Fantomas did escape?"
Fandor"s reply was to rise from his arm-chair. He took the candlestick from the table where Juve had placed it and walked towards a large mirror. He carefully examined his neck.
"Very curious!" said he, in a low voice...: "Now, monsieur, the man who tried to strangle me was Fantomas--we have seen him.... Well, this man had a wound on his thumb, or, more probably, he wounded me, anyhow he has left on my collar the mark of his thumb in blood--you guess what this thumb-mark is?"
Simultaneously, Barbey, Nanteuil, and Juve rushed towards the young journalist.... Fandor showed them a little red mark, clear cut on the white surface of the collar; it was a finger-print so characteristic, that the two bankers cried in a trembling voice:
"Again the imprint of Jacques Dollon!"
Silence fell--a pregnant silence. The four men gazed at one another.
Fandor soon started whistling a popular air. Juve smiled: Monsieur Barbey was the first to speak:
"Good Heavens! Do you mean to say that Jacques Dollon was here--in this room!... It is certain, you say, Monsieur Fandor, that he did not get away either by door or window--for pity"s sake explain the mystery!"
But Fandor contented himself with a smile and a question.
"Do you really think, then, that I know it?..."
Nanteuil stamped with impatience.
"But hang it all! If you don"t know anything, don"t let us waste time!
Let us begin the search! Hunt through the house! Search the garden from end to end!..."
Fandor went on--his tone was ironic.
"And warn the police? Well, no, Monsieur Nanteuil, we will not make any search whatever, you can rely on that!... For the last three months we have been striving and struggling to solve a maddening mystery: we never could reach a certain solution of it: we have been vainly pursuing an a.s.sa.s.sin, who for ever escaped us ... and now, when for once, we get hold of a definite fact, an indisputable reality, are we going to risk muddling up the whole business?... Not if I know it!"
"What do you mean?" demanded Monsieur Barbey.
"Listen!" replied Fandor: "Some minutes ago, I was alone in this room; Jacques Dollon entered the room, because I bear on my neck the imprint of his thumb. Jacques Dollon was Fantomas, because he declared it himself when he believed he would emerge victorious from the struggle.
Jacques Dollon--Fantomas--has not left this room, either by door or window. On the other hand, you have entered the room--you Monsieur Barbey, you Monsieur Nanteuil, and you Juve. Since these individuals have entered the room, and no one has left it, it necessarily follows that the personage, Jacques Dollon--Fantomas, must have entered among you, and that he has remained here, between these four walls."
Simultaneously, Barbey and Nanteuil raised protesting voices: but Juve continued to smile.
"Do you believe then?..."
But Jerome Fandor did not allow him to finish.
"I do not _think_ anything," said he. "I _know_ that I, Jerome Fandor, am I, and that I am not Jacques Dollon!... Juve knows that he is Juve, and that he is not Jacques Dollon. You, Monsieur Barbey; you, Monsieur Nanteuil, you know who you are, and who you are not! None of us can leave imprints similar to those of Jacques Dollon. But, I also know, that Jacques Dollon has entered this room, and that he has not left it--this is all that I know!"
To this extraordinary declaration, Monsieur Nanteuil, with an incredulous shrug of the shoulders, exclaimed:
"This is downright madness, monsieur!"
But Juve congratulated Fandor.
"That"s logic, my boy! You are going it strong, lad!"
Fandor continued.
"It follows, that if Jacques Dollon has not left the room, he must be here in this room. He must be arrested. In order to arrest him, we must beg Monsieur Havard to come here as fast as he possibly can! Jacques Dollon is Fantomas, or I should say, Fantomas is Jacques Dollon.
Monsieur Havard will not hesitate to put himself to any inconvenience in order to effect such a capture! I am going to call him up at once, messieurs, thanks to this telephone!"
And profiting by the bewilderment of his hearers, Fandor, then and there, telephoned to Police Headquarters; he spoke to one of the officials, who undertook to inform his chief that he was wanted at the telephone on most urgent business.
A minute or two later, Fandor was telling Monsieur Havard what had happened. He terminated his narrative thus:
"I myself had locked the door of the room in which the struggle took place. No one left the room, nor shall anyone leave it before your arrival, I give you my word of honour on that! Come, post-haste. It is of the utmost urgency. Bring a locksmith. He must open the great door of the house. He will have to force open the door of the room in which we now are. I must keep an incessant watch over this room. I do not see Fantomas--Jacques Dollon--in this room; but in this room he must inevitably be--he _is_ in it!"
Fandor, listening to Monsieur Havard"s answer, repeated it to his companions.
"In a very short time, the chief will be here; in a very short time, messieurs, we shall witness the arrest of Fantomas, that is, of the most inhuman monster that has ever existed!"
"It seems to me you are going too fast!" remarked Monsieur Barbey. "All is mystery--yet you talk of making an arrest!"
"But what do you consider mysterious now?" asked Fandor, laughing.
"Why, everything! Take one thing: do you know what were the motives of the different Fantomas-Dollon crimes?"