ke that, old Juve! Here have I been waiting for you a good
quarter of an hour!... You will have to give the coachman an address,
anyhow, and that will tell me where you are taking me, why you have
made me get into evening clothes, and why you are in that unusual
get-up yourself--it's unheard of!"

"It is true, lad! I amuse myself making mysteries!... It is stupid....
Well, Fandor, we are going to a ball."...

"A ball!"

"Yes--and I think we shall lead someone there a fine dance, or I am
much mistaken."

"Who, then?"

"The master of the house!"

"You speak in riddles, Juve!"

"Not at all! Do you know where we are going, Fandor, lad?"

"I ask you that, Juve."

"Well, then--we are going to the house of--Fantomas--to arrest him!"

"Ye gods and little fishes!" cried Fandor.

Juve crossed the pavement and jumped into a carriage, making room for
his dear lad beside him.

"But, Juve," remonstrated Fandor: "You declared to me the other day
that it was impossible to arrest de Naarboveck--that he was
inviolable--but you did not tell me why.... Isn't that true?"

"It is true."

"And it is so no longer."

"It still is so."

After all he had been through, Fandor was in a state of high tension.
He caught Juve's hand and beat it with angry impatience.

"Don't quibble, Juve!... It is too deadly serious!... What do you
really mean?... We know that de Naarboveck is Fantomas, but you swore
to me that it is impossible to arrest Naarboveck. You still assert
this: nevertheless, you now declare that we are going to arrest
Fantomas! What the deuce do you mean?... I've had more than enough of
your ironical mockery, old man!"

Juve took out his watch and, with finger on the dial, said:

"Look! It is half past ten. We shall reach de Naarboveck's about a
quarter past eleven. It would be impossible for me to arrest him just
then; but at a quarter to twelve, midnight at latest, it will be quite
easy for me to put my hand on the collar of de Naarboveck--Fantomas! I
shall not bungle it!"

"Juve! You and your mysteries are maddening!"

"My dear Fandor, do pardon me for not being more explicit. I told you
Naarboveck was out of reach as far as arresting him goes. I also told
you that we were going to arrest Fantomas. It is exact; because all
that is subordinate to a will--a will I happen to have at my command
for the moment, but also a will which may raise some preventing
obstacle at the last moment, and so stop me from captur