on gloves, that I might take
their imprint before your eyes--the rest can be guessed, can it not?...
The imprint taken, profiting by the confusion, Nanteuil slipped off the
glove which, as you see, was no thicker than a cigarette when rolled
up.... To throw it aside was risky: he pushed it up his sleeve while
pretending to arrange his cuff, and at the same time to put ink on his
ungloved hand and so hide his trick!... Only I saw it all.... Monsieur
Havard, it is not only the false Jacques Dollon I denounce, for Juve and
I fully realised that he was also the elusive Fantomas! Here is this
cloak with hooded mask, which is an irrefutable proof: besides he
himself declared he was Fantomas.... Monsieur Havard, all you have to do
now is seize this man: Juve and I will hand him over to you!"

It was a thrilling moment! Juve and Fandor, in this hour of decisive
victory, mutely embraced. Monsieur Havard advanced with raised hands
towards Nanteuil who retreated.

"Fantomas," he commenced, "in the name of the law I arr..."

The word was strangled in his throat!...

As he advanced another step, Nanteuil suddenly sprang backwards, and his
hand rested on the moulding of a wooden panel.... At the same moment,
Monsieur Havard, as if hampered by some invisible obstacle, stretched
his length on the floor!

Juve and Fandor were about to rush to his aid ... but while Fandor, in
his turn, measured his length on the floor also, Juve yelled:

"Good lord!... We are caught!... He escapes!..."

Whilst the detective made a frantic effort to move a step--_he seemed
nailed to the floor_--Fantomas, quick as lightning, leaped over the
prone body of Monsieur Havard, gained the door, and banged it to behind
him!... They heard a triumphant burst of laughter.... Fantomas was
escaping!

"This is sorcery!" shouted the chief of the detective force, in a voice
hoarse with rage.

"Take your boots off!... Take your boots off!" yelled Juve, who, with
bare feet, was rushing through the house, revolver in hand, hoping to
come up with the banker bandit!...

But, when the detective arrived at the entrance gateway of the house, he
found the policemen brought by Monsieur Havard chatting away quietly ...
they had not seen a thing ... the street was deserted ... in a second
Fantomas had disappeared, vanished into thin air ... he, the elusive
one, had got away: once more he had escaped those who were pursuing him
with such keen determination!

*