spite of all ridicule and sarcasm! For more than five
years I have been working for this wretch's death, for death is the only
thing that can put a stop to his crimes!" Juve paused a moment, but
Fandor made no comment. "And I am rather sick and sorry, too: because,
although I have reached this certainty that Gurn is Fantomas, and have
succeeded in convincing intelligent people, who were ready to study my
work in good faith, I have nevertheless not succeeded in establishing
legal proof that Gurn is Fantomas. Deibler and the Public Prosecutor,
and people generally, think that it is merely Gurn who is going to be
decapitated now. I may have secured this man's condemnation, but none
the less he has beaten me and deprived me of the satisfaction of having
brought him, Fantomas, to the scaffold! I have only consigned Gurn to
the scaffold, and that is a defeat!"

The detective stopped. From the boulevard Arago, from the end to which
the crowd had been driven back, cheers and applause and joyous shouts
broke out; it was the mob welcoming the arrival of the guillotine.

Drawn by an old white horse, a heavy black van arrived at a fast trot,
escorted by four mounted police with drawn swords. The van stopped a few
yards from Juve and Fandor; the police rode off, and a shabby brougham
came into view, from which three men in black proceeded to get out.

"Monsieur de Paris and his assistants," Juve informed Fandor: "Deibler
and his men." Fandor shivered, and Juve went on with his explanations.
"That van contains the timbers and the knife. Deibler and his men will
get the guillotine up in half an hour, and in an hour at the outside,
Fantomas will be no more!"

While the detective was speaking, the executioner had stepped briskly to
the officer in charge of the proceedings and exchanged a few words with
him. He signified his approval of the arrangements made, saluted the
superintendent of police of that division, and turned to his men.

"Come along, lads; get to work!" He caught sight of Juve and shook hands
with him. "Good morning," he said, adding, as though his work were of
the most commonplace kind: "Excuse me: we are a bit late this morning!"

The assistants took from the van some long cases, wrapped in grey canvas
and apparently very heavy. They laid these on the ground with the utmost
care: they were the timbers and frame of the guillotine, and must not be
warped or strained, for the guillotine is a nicely accurate machine!