Ah! you here, too, Juve! Well?... Speak! Anything fresh since
your extraordinary telephone communication?... What were you telling
me?"

"I was saying, Monsieur Havard, that the assassin had entered this room,
and assuredly had not left it--that he was here!..."

"Here?"

Monsieur Havard had recognised the bankers at the first glance.... His
question betrayed a certain incredulity which piqued Fandor.

"Here! Yes! That is absolutely so, because it is impossible that he can
have left the room! Besides, you shall convince yourself of that!...
Monsieur Nanteuil, will you do me a small service? Will you draw a plan
of the first floor of your house?"

The banker rose and seated himself at his writing-table, which was
placed in a corner of the room.

"I am at your disposal." And he began to trace a plan, a pretty rough
one, of the various rooms which made up the first floor of his house.

"Is that what you want?" he asked.

Jerome Fandor rose quickly and went towards Nanteuil.

The journalist's nerves must have been out of order--in a jumpy state,
despite his apparent calm, for, in approaching the writing-table, he
suddenly staggered, nearly fell, tried to regain his balance, and that
so clumsily that he upset the contents of a large ink-pot on the
writing-desk....

"Take care!" said Monsieur Nanteuil, who, to save himself from coming
into contact with this inky inundation, threw himself back in his chair,
and lifted his hands above the flood of ink....

The banker repeated:

"Take care!... Here is a fresh catastrophe!..."

But he did not finish what he intended to say! Quick as thought, Fandor
steadied himself, and before anyone could guess his intention he seized
the banker's right hand, pushed it forcibly into the wide-spreading ink,
then, immediately after, pressed it on to a sheet of blotting paper
which took the hand's imprint quite clearly....

This imprint he glanced at but a moment.... Like a flag, he waved it
above his head!

"_It is the Jacques Dollon imprint!_" he shouted. "_The hand of Monsieur
Nanteuil, whose characteristics are known in the anthropometric section,
has just left the imprint of--Jacques Dollon!..._"

The journalist's action created a momentary stupour!

Juve rushed to him.

"Bravo! Bravo!" he cried.

But Monsieur Havard had gone quite pale. He said in a low voice:

"I don't understand!"

Barbey and Nanteuil retained their self-possession!

Then Monsieur Barbey rose. H