s obediently descending the
steep slope of the embankment, by the gendarme's side, and then the two
men disappeared behind a clump of trees.

"I understand why that chap was not very keen on getting taken on here,"
said the foreman. "His conscience was none too easy!"

As they walked briskly in the direction of Beaulieu Juve asked the
sergeant:

"What has happened at the chateau, then?"

"They know who the murderer is, Inspector," the sergeant answered.
"Little Mlle. Therese----"

VI. "FANTOMAS, IT IS DEATH!"

Hurrying back towards the chateau with the sergeant, Juve ran into M. de
Presles outside the park gate. The magistrate had just arrived from
Brives in a motor-car which he had commandeered for his personal use
during the last few days.

"Well," said Juve in his quiet, measured tones, "have you heard the
news?" And as the magistrate looked at him in surprise he went on: "I
gather from your expression that you have not. Well, sir, if you will
kindly fill up a warrant we will arrest M. Charles Rambert."

Juve briefly repeated to the magistrate what the sergeant had reported
to him, and the sergeant added a few further details. The three men had
now reached the foot of the steps before the house and were about to go
up when the door of the chateau was opened and Dollon appeared. He
hurried towards them, with unkempt hair and haggard face, and excitedly
exclaimed:

"Didn't you meet the Ramberts? Where are they? Where are they?"

The magistrate, who was bewildered by what Juve had told him, was trying
to form a coherent idea of the whole sequence of events, but the
detective realised the situation at once, and turned to the sergeant.

"The bird has flown," he said. The sergeant threw up his hands in
dismay.

* * * * *

Inside the hall Juve and M. de Presles ordered Dollon to give them an
exact account of the discovery made by Therese in the course of the
previous night.

"Well, gentlemen," said the old fellow, who was greatly upset by the
discovery of the murderer of the Marquise de Langrune, "when I got to
the chateau early this morning I found the two old servants, Marie and
Louise, entirely occupied attending to the young mistress. Marie slept
in an adjoining room to hers last night, and was awakened about five
o'clock by the poor child's inarticulate cries. Mlle. Therese was bathed
in perspiration; her face was all drawn and there were dark rings under
her ey