cried Fandor. "Here's a go! What a pretty petard in
prospect!... Jacques Dollon was innocent; you arrest him; he is so
terrified that he hangs himself! Well, old boy, I must say you make some
fine blunders on Clock Quay!"

"It is nobody's fault!" protested the young barrister.

"That is to say," retorted Fandor, "it is everybody's fault! By Jove! If
you let innocent prisoners hang themselves in their cells, I am no
longer surprised that you leave the guilty at liberty to walk the
streets at their sweet will!"

"Don't make a joke of it, old boy!... You understand, of course, that so
far no one in the Palais has seen the letter! It has just been brought
to the Public Prosecutor's office by Madame de Vibray's solicitor,
Maitre Gerin. You came on the scene only a few minutes after I had sent
up the original to the examining magistrate. The case is in Fuselier's
hands."

"Is he in his office?"

"Certainly! He should proceed with the examination relative to poor
Dollon this morning."

"Very well then, I will go up. I shall jolly soon get out of this booby
of a Fuselier the information I need to make one of the best reports I
have ever written. And you know, I am ever so obliged to you for the
matter you've given me! But, mind you, I am going to put together a bit
of copy that will not deal tenderly with our gentlemen of the robe--the
lot of you! No, it is a bad, unlucky business enough, but it is even
more funny--it is tragi-comedy!"

"For my part ..." began Fandor's barrister friend.

"Yes, yes! Good day, Pontius Pilate!" cried Fandor. "I am going up to
Fuselier.... We must meet to-morrow!"

Hastening along the corridors, Fandor gained the office of the examining
magistrate.

* * * * *

Fandor had known the magistrate a long while. Was not Fuselier the
justice who, with Detective Juve, had had everything to do with the
strangely mysterious cases associated with the name of Fantomas? In the
course of his various judicial examinations he had often been able to
give Fandor information and help. At first hostile to the constant
preoccupation of Juve and Fandor--for long the arrest of Fantomas was
their one aim--the young magistrate had gradually come to believe in
what had seemed to him nothing but the detective's hypothesis.
Open-minded, gifted with an alert intelligence, Fuselier had carefully
followed the investigations of Juve and Fandor. He knew every detail,
every vicissitude c