is, an officer falls mortally wounded
when passing in a taxicab, going possibly to some appointed
meeting-place in one of the restaurants of the Bois. His taxi is
surrounded by a crowd of vehicles, and without having time even to see
his attacker, without anyone having seen him, Brocq collapses,
mortally wounded, killed as though in battle, by a shot, a mysterious
shot, fired from a weapon of the most perfect kind.... Come now,
Fandor! Is that not a crime worthy of Fantomas?"

But the journalist was not convinced.

"True, this crime is worthy of Fantomas, but I do not think Fantomas
has committed it.... You go too far, Juve! You are the victim of your
hobby. Believe me, you exaggerate--you cannot trace every strange and
subtle crime to this criminal!"

"If you do not attribute this crime to Fantomas, then at whose door do
you lay it?" demanded the detective, who was well aware that he must
guard against being the victim of a Fantomas obsession.

"Juve," replied Fandor, "I have been charged by Dupont to look into
the Brocq affair, and have had to postpone my holiday to do it--that
is how you see me this morning.... Well, I have begun my enquiry, and
am trying to find out the exact truth regarding this unfortunate
officer's death.... I have visited certain of his relations,
interviewed the people who have known him, I have been able to get
into touch with this Bobinette, who seems to be the last person who
approached him a little before his assassination, and I have also
arrived at a conclusion."

"And that is--Fandor?"

"A conclusion, Juve, which does not involve Fantomas in the slightest
degree, a conclusion which, I assure you, has the advantage of being
more certain, plainer, more absolutely definite than yours."...

"And that is--Fandor?"

"Juve, this officer belonged to the Second Bureau of the Staff
Officer's Headquarters."...

"Yes, and?"...

"Juve, when an officer of the Second Bureau disappears in such tragic
conditions, do you know what one presumes to be the reason of that
disappearance?"

"What?"

"Juve, I assert that if Captain Brocq is dead it is because there is a
spy in the pay of a foreign power, who, being under supervision,
perhaps on the point of being arrested, has resolved that the captain
must die in order to save himself.... A document has been stolen, and
it is precisely this fact which makes me disbelieve in the
intervention of Fantomas."...

"You do not believe me, Juve?"