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 Fantômas-Jacques Dollon in this room; but in this room he must inevitably be – he is in here!” 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 Fantômas, 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 Fantômas-Dollon crimes?”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 stock exchange transactions you advised were not successful... She poisoned herself, and went to Jacques Dollon’s studio to die – perhaps because she felt for him a secret attachment. Fate willed it that the assassins 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 subsequent 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 purged, then arrested.

“You can imagine the fury, the distracted state of the guilty gang? Dollon had seen them – he was going to speak at the police interrogation – very well then – they will kill him – they must 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!”