“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 note, or something like it, which had been left in Elizabeth Dollon’s possession. Thereupon, they send the corpse – 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 stock exchange are brought off, so that if Thomery disappears, the Barbey-Nanteuil bank would rake in huge profits... in haste, the assassins get rid of an accomplice who is in their way – that imbecile of a Jules, the rue Raffet servant – and they send Dollon’s corpse 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 should 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 one indeed!

You assert that this painter is dead, and yet 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: