Fandor burst out:
"You"re a cheerful host, Juve. You bottle up your guests in cages now!"
Juve placed a mattress at the bottom of the basket and laid two blankets over that, then he put a pillow on top. Patting the bedding to make it smooth, he declared with a laugh:
"I fear nothing, but I have taken precautions. I have posted two men in the porter"s lodge. I have loaded my revolver, and dined comfortably.
About half-past eleven I shall go to bed as usual. However, instead of going to sleep I shall endeavour to keep awake. At dinner I took three cups of coffee, and when you go I shall drink a fourth."
"Excuse me," said Fandor, "but I am not going away."
"There! You"ll sleep splendid inside that, Fandor."
The journalist, used to the devices of his friend, nodded his head. Juve had already taken off his coat and waistcoat and now drew from a box three belts half a yard in breadth and studded outside with sharp points. "Look, Fandor! I shall be completely protected when I am swathed in them. Oh," he added, "I was going to forget my leg guards!"
Juve went back to the box and took out two other rolls, also studded with spikes. Fandor looked in amazement at this gear and Juve observed laughingly:
"It will cost me a pair of sheets and maybe a mattress."
"What does it mean?"
"These defensive works have a double object. To protect me against Fantomas, or the "executioner" he will send, and also I shall be able to determine the civil status of the "executioner" in question."
Fandor, more and more puzzled, inspected the iron spikes, which were two or more inches in length.
"This contrivance is not new," said Juve; "Liabeuf wore arm guards like these under his jacket, and when the officers wanted to seize him they tore their hands."
"I know, I know," replied Fandor, "but----"
The detective all at once laid a finger on his lips.
"It"s now twenty past eleven, and I am in the habit of being in bed at half past. Fantomas is bound to know it: when he comes or sends, he must not notice anything out of the way. Get into your wicker case and shut the lid down carefully. By the by, I shall leave the window slightly open."
"Isn"t that a bit risky?"
"It is one of my habits, and not to make Fantomas suspicious I alter my ways in nothing."
Fandor settled himself in his case and Juve also got into bed. As he put out the light he gave a warning.
"We mustn"t close an eye or utter a word. Whatever happens, don"t move.
But when I call, strike a light at once and come to me."
"All right," replied Fandor.
"Fandor!"
Juve"s cry rent the stillness of the night, loud and compelling. The journalist leaped from his wicker-basket so abruptly that he knocked against the lamp stand and the lamp fell to the floor. Fandor searched for his matches in vain.
"Light up, Fandor!" shouted Juve.
The noise of a struggle, the dull thud of a fall on the floor, maddened the journalist. In the darkness he heard Juve groaning, sc.r.a.ping the floor with his boots, making violent efforts to resist some mysterious a.s.sailant.
"Be quick, in G.o.d"s name," implored the pain-wrung voice of the detective. Fandor trod on the gla.s.s of the lamp, which broke. He tripped, knocked his head against a press, rebounded, then suddenly uttered a terrible cry. His hands, outstretched apart, in the gloom, had brushed a cold, shiny body which slid under his palms.
"Fandor! Help, Fandor!"
Desperate, Fandor plunged haphazard about the disordered chamber, wrapped in darkness. Suddenly, he rushed into the study hard by, found there another lamp which he lit in haste, and hurried back with it.
A fearful sight wrung a cry of terror from him. Juve, on his knees on the floor, was covered with blood.
"Juve!"
"It"s all right, Fandor. Some one has bled, but not I."
The detective rushed to the open window and leaned out into the dark night.
"Listen!" he cried. "Do you hear that low hissing, that dull rustling?"
"Yes. I heard it just now."
"It was the "executioner.""
The detective drew back into the room, shut the window, pulled down the blinds, and then took off his armour. Curiously he examined the stains of blood, the tiny shreds of flesh that had remained on the points.
"We have no more to fear now," he said, "the stroke has been tried--and has failed."
"Juve! tell me what has just happened? I may be an idiot, but I don"t understand at all!"
"You are no fool, Fandor; far from it, but if in many circ.u.mstances you reason and argue with considerable aptness, I grant you far less deductive faculty. That does not seem to be your forte."
Fandor seated himself before the detective, and the latter held forth.
"When we found ourselves faced with the first crime, that of the Cite Frochot, and our notice was drawn to the elusive Fantomas, we were unable to decide in what manner that hapless Mme. Raymond, whom we then took for Lady Beltham, had been done to death. Now, remember, Fandor, that during that night of mystery, hidden behind the curtains in Chaleck"s study we heard weird rustlings and faint sort of hissings, didn"t we?"
"We did," admitted Fandor, at a loss, "but go on, Juve."
"When we were called to investigate the attack on the American, Dixon, it was easy for us to conclude that the attempt of which the pugilist had been the object was the outcome of the same plan of battle as that which cost the widow Valgrand her life. The mysterious "executioner,"
which Chaleck did not disguise from Lady Beltham, was thus a being endowed with vigour enough to completely crush a woman"s body, and likely do as much to that of an ordinary man. But the "executioner" in question was not strong enough to get the better of the grand physique of the champion pugilist, since it failed in its attempt.
"This instrument "of limited power," if I may so describe it, must then be, not a mechanism which nothing can resist, but a living being! It must also be a creature striking panic, terrifying, formidable: you ask why, Fandor?"
"Yes, to be sure."
"I am going to tell you. If our poor friend Josephine were not still in a high fever she would certainly uphold me. You remember the business on the Boulevard Pereire? Chaleck or Fantomas wants to be rid of the woman he loved under the guise of Loupart, since he has gone back to Lady Beltham. Moreover, Josephine chatters too much with Dixon, with the police.
"Chaleck, Fantomas, therefore, goes up to Josephine"s. After having told the poor creature I know not what yarn, he departs, leaving behind in his hold-all, the instrument. Now this last, when it shows itself, so terrifies the poor girl that she throws herself out of the window."
"I begin to see what you mean," said the journalist.