l! If you don't know anything, don't let us waste time!
Let us begin the search! Hunt through the house! Search the garden from
end to end!..."

Fandor went on--his tone was ironic.

"And warn the police? Well, no, Monsieur Nanteuil, we will not make any
search whatever, you can rely on that!... For the last three months we
have been striving and struggling to solve a maddening mystery: we never
could reach a certain solution of it: we have been vainly pursuing an
assassin, who for ever escaped us ... and now, when for once, we get
hold of a definite fact, an indisputable reality, are we going to risk
muddling up the whole business?... Not if I know it!"

"What do you mean?" demanded Monsieur Barbey.

"Listen!" replied Fandor: "Some minutes ago, I was alone in this room;
Jacques Dollon entered the room, because I bear on my neck the imprint
of his thumb. Jacques Dollon was Fantomas, because he declared it
himself when he believed he would emerge victorious from the struggle.
Jacques Dollon--Fantomas--has not left this room, either by door or
window. On the other hand, you have entered the room--you Monsieur
Barbey, you Monsieur Nanteuil, and you Juve. Since these individuals
have entered the room, and no one has left it, it necessarily follows
that the personage, Jacques Dollon--Fantomas, must have entered among
you, and that he has remained here, between these four walls."

Simultaneously, Barbey and Nanteuil raised protesting voices: but Juve
continued to smile.

"Do you believe then?..."

But Jerome Fandor did not allow him to finish.

"I do not _think_ anything," said he. "I _know_ that I, Jerome Fandor,
am I, and that I am not Jacques Dollon!... Juve knows that he is Juve,
and that he is not Jacques Dollon. You, Monsieur Barbey; you, Monsieur
Nanteuil, you know who you are, and who you are not! None of us can
leave imprints similar to those of Jacques Dollon. But, I also know,
that Jacques Dollon has entered this room, and that he has not left
it--this is all that I know!"

To this extraordinary declaration, Monsieur Nanteuil, with an
incredulous shrug of the shoulders, exclaimed:

"This is downright madness, monsieur!"

But Juve congratulated Fandor.

"That's logic, my boy! You are going it strong, lad!"

Fandor continued.

"It follows, that if Jacques Dollon has not left the room, he must be
here in this room. He must be arrested. In order to arrest him, we must
beg Monsieur Havard to come here