To go carefully over the enormous roof of the Palais de Justice was no light task! One has only to consider the immensity of this monumental edifice, its complicated architecture, the countless little courts enclosed within its vast confines, to understand the difficulties with which the intrepid journalist had to contend. But Jérôme Fandor was not the man to be discouraged in the face of difficulties: he was determined to brave them – conquer them! He examined, minutely, the entire roofing of the Palais; he did not leave a corner or a shred of shadow unexplored; there was not a gutter which he had not searched from end to end.

When, after two hours of strenuous exertion, he returned to his starting-point, the chimney of Marie Antoinette, he was forced to confess that if Jacques Dollon had mounted to the roof of the Palais de Justice, he certainly had not remained there. Fandor unfolded his plan once more. It fluttered in the night breeze, as he carefully numbered all the chimneys opening onto this roof; then, one by one, he identified them with the real chimneys before his eyes. He exclaimed joyfully:“There now! It’s just what I suspected!” He had discovered there was one chimney not down on the plan: “Where does it lead?” At all costs he must find out – make sure. He hastened to this extra chimney. Its opening was large enough to allow the passage of a man; also, here again, stones had been recently loosened, and a rope had rubbed against them.

“What the devil is this chimney?” thought Fandor.

“Another mystery! This chimney is not a chimney; there is not a trace of soot on it, even old soot!” After a moment’s reflection, he added:

“Can it be for ventilation only? But a ventilation hole could only connect to one of the apartments in the Palais itself, and how the devil could they drop a corpse down there? It would have been crazy in the highest degree to attempt it... No, it is not by that route that they’ve carried off Dollon’s body... But then by what way?” He glued his ear to the chimney. After a while, Fandor could make out a vague, intermittent sound; could catch a little, far-away, splashing sound.

“Can the chimney connect with the Seine?” he asked himself. “No, we are too far off it. Why this opening then?...

Ah, I have it! It is a drain, a sewer, it joins ups with!” To verify that, there was nothing for it but to descend into this chimney, which was no chimney. So be it!