as fast as he possibly can! Jacques
Dollon is Fantomas, or I should say, Fantomas is Jacques Dollon.
Monsieur Havard will not hesitate to put himself to any inconvenience in
order to effect such a capture! I am going to call him up at once,
messieurs, thanks to this telephone!"

And profiting by the bewilderment of his hearers, Fandor, then and
there, telephoned to Police Headquarters; he spoke to one of the
officials, who undertook to inform his chief that he was wanted at the
telephone on most urgent business.

A minute or two later, Fandor was telling Monsieur Havard what had
happened. He terminated his narrative thus:

"I myself had locked the door of the room in which the struggle took
place. No one left the room, nor shall anyone leave it before your
arrival, I give you my word of honour on that! Come, post-haste. It is
of the utmost urgency. Bring a locksmith. He must open the great door of
the house. He will have to force open the door of the room in which we
now are. I must keep an incessant watch over this room. I do not see
Fantomas--Jacques Dollon--in this room; but in this room he must
inevitably be--he _is_ in it!"

Fandor, listening to Monsieur Havard's answer, repeated it to his
companions.

"In a very short time, the chief will be here; in a very short time,
messieurs, we shall witness the arrest of Fantomas, that is, of the most
inhuman monster that has ever existed!"

"It seems to me you are going too fast!" remarked Monsieur Barbey. "All
is mystery--yet you talk of making an arrest!"

"But what do you consider mysterious now?" asked Fandor, laughing.

"Why, everything! Take one thing: do you know what were the motives of
the different Fantomas-Dollon crimes?"

Juve replied to this:

"Oh, as for that, perfectly! The motives are clear as crystal!... Madame
de Vibray was ruined, and really committed suicide because--you will
pardon me, I am sure--because the Bourse transactions you advised were
not successful.... She poisoned herself, and went to Jacques Dollon's
studio to die: perhaps she felt for him a secret attachment! Fate willed
it that the assassins should choose this very evening to make their way
into the painter's studio ... by means of this first corpse they created
an alibi for themselves, and prepared the scene which was bound to
mislead justice and make lawyers and police believe in the murder of
Madame de Vibray and the suicide of her murderer.... Unfortunately for
them, Doll