him time to reply. He half rose from his seat, and,
bending close to Fandor, looked him straight in the eyes.

"Tell me, my boy! Suppose that after six months of truce, six months
of tranquillity, your whole existence is again violently upset? If you
understood that the efforts and dangers and struggles and tenacity of
six long years were entirely wasted, and that the results you thought
you had achieved did not exist--that you had to begin all over
again--that once more you had to play a match with not only your life
for stakes, but your honour as well--tell me, Fandor, would you not be
stirred to your depths?"

Our journalist feigned indifference: it was the best way to draw Juve
on, he well knew.

"What do you mean, Juve?"

"What do I mean, my boy? You shall hear! Do you know who killed
Captain Brocq?"

"No! Who?"

"Fantomas!"

At this sinister name Fandor jumped up as though thunderstruck.

"Fantomas?... You accuse Fantomas of having killed Captain Brocq?"

Juve nodded assent.

The two men stared at each other in horror-struck silence.

Fantomas!

What a flood of memories, horrid, menacing, that name evoked! There
flashed through Fandor's mind all that he knew of the atrocities which
could be imputed to Fantomas. He seemed to live over again the recent
years of continual struggle, of almost daily contest with the
mysterious criminal--Fantomas!... But had not Juve declared--and not
so long ago--after the drama of rue Norvins,[2] when the elusive
monster had been driven to flight--had not Juve declared that Fantomas
had vanished for good and all! Now, at this precise moment, he was
accusing this criminal of a fresh crime!... Fandor thought, too, of
the conclusions he had himself arrived at, whilst studying the Brocq
affair from his own point of view: that it was a drama of spies and
spying.... Surely either he was mistaken--or Juve was!... Was it a
murder, or a political assassination?... No longer pretending
indifference, he questioned Juve anxiously:

[Footnote 2: See _The Exploits of Juve_, vol. ii, _Fantomas Series_.]

"You accuse Fantomas? In the name of death and destruction, why?"

Juve had regained his self-possession. By pronouncing the word
"Fantomas," by giving utterance to his secret fears, he had relieved
his feelings.

"Fandor!" said he, in a quiet voice: "Consider carefully all the
details and circumstances of this drama! In open day, on one of the
most frequented promenades of Par