“Simple enough,” replied Fandor... “Fantômas knows the danger criminals run, owing to the exact science of forensics: he knows that every imprint denounces the assassin: he knows that it is difficult to do anything without leaving such imprints – and that is why, every time he has committed a crime, he has taken care to glove his hands in the skin of Jacques Dollon.

Nanteuil, cornered, attempted fresh denial.

“You are talking mere newspaper romance,” he sneered.Fandor looked the banker in the eye.

“Fantômas!” he said. “Do not attempt to deny what it is no longer possible to deny!... The trick is remarkably clever, and you have reason to be proud of your invention.

Perhaps I should never have discovered it, if in this very room, this very night, you had not been careless enough to leave that thumb-print on my collar!... No one had left the room, therefore the guilty person was still here – he had to be: therefore, it followed, that someone here had the hands of Dollon!... But how could this someone have the hands of Dollon?... Of course, naturally, the idea of these corpse-gloves occurred to me!”

Fandor turned to the chief of the detective force.

“Monsieur Havard, Madame de Vibray committed suicide because she lost her fortune through Barbey-Nanteuil mismanagement – she might even have been poisoned by them! But that does not matter! Her death might compromise the Bank: they carried her dead body to Jacques Dollon’s studio, and they tried to poison this painter, in order to put the law off their track. As you know Dollon was saved! He was a dangerous witness. They killed him in his cell, some crooked warder being accessory to the fact – killed him before his innocence could be established!

Then they took his hands, that they might commit murders with them!

“Dollon is dead, as I have held all along. It is Nanteuil who has committed the crimes ascribed to the most unfortunate Dollon. These crimes have vastly profited the Barbey-Nanteuil Bank – as I pointed out just now!” Whilst Nanteuil stood speechless, whilst Barbey, whom they had lifted to a sofa, was gasping out his last blood-streaked breath, whilst Juve was giving little nods of agreement to what his young protégé was saying, Fandor was treating Monsieur Havard to a further version of the affair. “When I telephoned you, I was morally certain of the coming arrest. Not a soul left the room after the hands of Dollon had left imprints on my collar and on my neck.