moulin in particular, and against himself most of
all. He acknowledged that Juve had done his utmost to extricate him
from the tangled web he had involved himself in as Fandor-Vinson.

Each day brought him one distraction which he would willingly have
foregone: he passed long exhausting hours in Commandant Dumoulin's
office. He found the commandant detestable. Dumoulin was hot-blooded,
noisy, unmethodical, always in a state of fuss and fume! He would
begin his interrogations calmly, would weigh his words, would be
logical, but little by little, his real nature--a tempestuous
one--would get the upper hand.

For the twentieth time Fandor had insisted on his identity, and
Dumoulin, tapping the case papers with an agitated hand, had replied:

"I recognise that you are Jerome Fandor, exercising the profession of
a journalist--since it seems journalism is a profession! But that is
not the question; the problem I have to elucidate! I have to ascertain
when, and at what exact moment, one Jerome Fandor took the personality
of Corporal Vinson!"...

"I have already told you, Commandant!... Please read my deposition of
the day before yesterday. I will recapitulate:

"Sunday, November 13th, at five o'clock in the evening, at my
domicile, rue Richer, I received the visit of a soldier whom I did not
know. He stated that he was called Corporal Vinson, and informed me
that he had become part and parcel of the spy system; that he
regretted it, and, not being able to extricate himself, he was going
to commit suicide.... Desiring to give this unfortunate a chance of
rehabilitating himself, desiring also to come to close quarters with
this gang of spies, I decided to assume his personality, and take
advantage of his entrance into a regiment where he was not known, and
to go there in his place. It was in these conditions that I left eight
days after, on Sunday, November 20th, for Verdun."

"You maintain that you did not assume the personality of Vinson before
that date?"

"I do maintain that, Commandant."

"But that is the pivot of the whole business, and the important point
yet to be proved!"

"That is not difficult," declared Fandor: "I have alibis who will
support my statement."

The commandant raised his arms to heaven.

"Alibis! Alibis!... What do they prove, after all?"

"The truth, Commandant.... When I am in Paris it is evident I am not
in Chalons or Verdun."

Dumoulin was evidently trying to find an argument to meet