By its wavering light Fandor could distinguish three men in the room....
Their clothes were torn: there was blood on their faces, they were
panting: they stared at one another.

Fandor recognised them instantly.

Leaning against the bed, a gash in his cheek, was Monsieur Barbey.

Lying on the floor, apparently half dead, was Monsieur Nanteuil.

Calmly lighting a candle was the telephone workman. He alone seemed
unmoved.

Fandor threw down his revolver and, coolly marching to the door, locked
it.

Monsieur Barbey followed the journalist with a look. He made a gesture
of discouragement and pointed to the window: its panes were smashed to
pieces.

"We are tricked--done!" he said. "The assassin has got away!"

But Fandor, with a shrug, marched up to the window, returned, and said
in a matter-of-fact tone:

"It is impossible that Fantomas could have made his escape that way!"

The workman nodded gravely.

"Monsieur Fandor," said he, "I am entirely of your opinion."

XXVII

THE IMPRINT

"Monsieur Fandor, I am entirely of your opinion!"

Hearing these words, Fandor, who had regained his self-possession, and
was ready to start fighting again if necessary, looked at the individual
who had made this statement--the individual whose face was oddly
familiar.

"Who are you?" he asked.

The individual smiled broadly.

"Don't you recognise me?" he asked.

He removed his wig, threw the candle light on himself, and smilingly
announced his style and title.

"Sergeant Juve, once of the detective force; formerly dead: now amateur
policeman!"

"You! You, Juve!" cried Fandor. "And to think I suspected you...."

But the two bankers interrupted at one and the same moment.

"What are you doing here?"

Juve smiled.

"The art I practise brought me! Since my interest in the Dollon affair
is so keen, I follow it up, I wish to find the secret of it, just
through love of my art. I dabble in it nowadays."

"But Juve--how did you get here?" questioned Fandor.

"Ah, ha! If you have made some psychological discoveries: if reasoning
has landed you here, now facts have led me here!... You know I was
shadowing the band of Numbers. You know that in the skin of Cranajour I
was intimate with those rascals. To my astonishment I found that my
wretched companions had dealings with the Barbey-Nanteuil bank, who, of
course, had no suspicion of it! Are you surprised then that I felt it
incumbent on me to visit this bank?.