"

"Why?"

"They can't arrest me."

"For what reason?"

"You've said it yourself, fat-head: a first-class, tremendous,
indisputable reason."

"What do you mean?"

"_I'm dead_!"

Mazeroux seemed staggered. The argument struck him fully. He at once
perceived it, with all its common sense and all its absurdity. And
suddenly he burst into a roar of laughter which bent him in two and
convulsed his doleful features in the oddest fashion:

"Oh, Chief, just the same as always!... Lord, how funny!... Will I come
along? I should think I would! As often as you like! You're dead and
buried and put out of sight!... Oh, what a joke, what a joke!"

* * * * *

Hippolyte Fauville, civil engineer, lived on the Boulevard Suchet, near
the fortifications, in a fair-sized private house having on its left a
small garden in which he had built a large room that served as his study.
The garden was thus reduced to a few trees and to a strip of grass along
the railings, which were covered with ivy and contained a gate that
opened on the Boulevard Suchet.

Don Luis Perenna went with Mazeroux to the commissary's office at Passy,
where Mazeroux, on Perenna's instructions, gave his name and asked to
have M. Fauville's house watched during the night by two policemen who
were to arrest any suspicious person trying to obtain admission. The
commissary agreed to the request.

Don Luis and Mazeroux next dined in the neighbourhood. At nine o'clock
they reached the front door of the house.

"Alexandre," said Perenna.

"Yes, Chief?"

"You're not afraid?"

"No, Chief. Why should I be?"

"Why? Because, in defending M. Fauville and his son, we are attacking
people who have a great interest in doing away with them and because
those people seem pretty wide-awake. Your life, my life: a breath, a
trifle. You're not afraid?"

"Chief," replied Mazeroux, "I can't say if I shall ever know what it
means to be afraid. But there's one case in which I certainly shall
never know."

"What case is that, old chap?"

"As long as I'm by your side, Chief."

And firmly he rang the bell.

CHAPTER THREE

A MAN DOOMED

The door was opened by a manservant. Mazeroux sent in his card.

Hippolyte received the two visitors in his study. The table, on which
stood a movable telephone, was littered with books, pamphlets, and
papers. There were two tall desks, with diagrams and drawings, and some
glass cases containing