Once more a wave of sensation ran through the court. There was not a
single person present who had not heard of Juve and his wonderful
exploits, or who did not regard him as a kind of hero. All leaned
forward to watch him as he followed the usher to the witness-box, wholly
unaffected in manner and not seeking to make any capital out of his
popularity. Indeed, he seemed rather to be uneasy, almost nervous, as
one of the oldest pressmen present remarked audibly.
He took the oath, and the President of the Court addressed him in
friendly tones.
"You are quite familiar with procedure, M. Juve. Which would you prefer:
that I should interrogate you, or that I should leave you to tell your
story in your own way? You know how important it is; for it is you who
are, so to speak, the originator of the trial to-day, inasmuch as it was
your great detective skill that brought about the arrest of the
criminal, after it had also discovered his crime."
"Since you are so kind, sir," Juve answered, "I will make my statement
first, and then be ready to answer any questions that may be put to me
by yourself, or by counsel for the defence."
Juve turned to the dock and fixed his piercing eyes on the impassive
face of Gurn, who met it unflinchingly. Juve shrugged his shoulders
slightly, and, turning half round to the jury, began his statement. He
did not propose, he said, to recite the story of his enquiries, which
had resulted in the arrest of Gurn, for this had been set forth fully in
the indictment, and the jury had also seen his depositions at the
original examination: he had nothing to add to, or to subtract from,
his previous evidence. He merely asked for the jury's particular
attention; for, although he was adducing nothing new in the case
actually before them, he had some unexpected disclosures to make about
the prisoner's personal culpability. The first point which he desired to
emphasise was that human intelligence should hesitate before no
improbability, however improbable, provided that some explanation was
humanly conceivable, and no definite material object rendered the
improbability an impossibility. His whole statement would be based on
the principle that the probable is incontestable and true, until proof
of the contrary has been established.
"Gentlemen," he went on, "hitherto the police have remained impotent,
and justice has been disarmed, in presence of a number of serious cases
of crime, committed recently and still unsolved. Let me recall these
cases to your memory: they were the murder of the Marquise de Langrune
at her château of Beaulieu; the robberies from Mme. Van den Rosen and
the Princess Sonia Danidoff; the murder of Dollon, the former steward of
the Marquise de Langrune, when on his way from the neighbourhood of
Saint-Jaury to Paris in obedience to a summons sent him by M. Germain
Fuselier; and, lastly, the murder of Lord Beltham, prior to the cases
just enumerated, for which the prisoner in the dock is at this moment
standing his trial. Gentlemen, I have to say that all these cases, the
Beltham, Langrune and Dollon murders, and the Rosen-Danidoff burglaries,
are absolutely and indisputably to be attributed to one and the same
individual, to that man standing there--Gurn!"
Having made this extraordinary assertion, Juve again turned round
towards the prisoner. That mysterious person appeared to be keenly
interested in what the detective said, but it would have been difficult
to say whether he was merely surprised, or not rather perturbed and
excited as well. Juve hushed, with a wave of his hand, the murmur that
ran round the court, and resumed his address.
"My assertion that Gurn is the sole person responsible for all these
crimes has surprised you, gentlemen, but I have proofs which must, I
think, convince you. I will not go into the details of each of those
cases, for the newspapers have made you quite familiar with them, but I
will be as brief and as lucid as I can.
"My first point, gentlemen, is this: the murderer of the Marquise de
Langrune and the man who robbed Mme. Van den Rosen and Princess Sonia
Danidoff are one and the same person.
"That is shown beyond dispute by tests made in the two cases with a
Bertillon dynamometer, an instrument of the nicest exactitude, which
proved that the same individual operated in both cases; that is one
point made good. And next, the man who robbed Mme. Van den Rosen and
Princess Sonia is Gurn. That is proved to equal demonstration by the
fact that the burglar burned his hand while engaged upon his crime, and
that Gurn has a scar on his hand which betrays him as the criminal; the
scar is faint now perhaps, but I can testify that it was very obvious at
the time of a disturbance which occurred at a low café named the
Saint-Anthony's Pig, where, accompanied by detective Lemaroy, who is
still in hospital for treatment for injuries received on that occasion,
I attempted, and failed, to arrest this man Gurn.
"Thus, gentlemen, I prove that the Langrune and Danidoff cases are the
work of but one man, and that man, Gurn.
"I come to another point. As you know, the murder of the Marquise de
Langrune was attended by some strange circumstances. At the inquest it
was proved that the murderer most probably got into the house from
outside, opening the front door with a skeleton key, and that he
obtained admission into the bedroom of the Marquise, not by burglarious
means--I lay insistence upon that--but by the simple means of her having
opened the door to him, which she did on the strength of his name, and,
finally, that if robbery was the motive of the crime, the nature of the
robbery remained a mystery.
"Now I have ascertained, gentlemen, and--if, as I shall ask you
presently, you decide to have an adjournment and a supplementary
investigation--I shall be able to prove two important facts. The first
is that the Marquise had in her possession a lottery ticket which had
just won a large first prize; this ticket had been sent to her by M.
Etienne Rambert. This ticket was not found at the time, but it was
subsequently traced to a person, who for the moment has utterly
disappeared, who declared that it was given to him by M. Etienne
Rambert. And it is further noteworthy that M. Etienne Rambert seemed to
be in greater funds from that time. The second fact I have ascertained
is that, although M. Etienne Rambert pretended to get into a first-class
carriage of a slow train at the gare d'Orsay, he most certainly was not
in that train between Vierzon and Limoges: I can, if you wish, call a
witness who inspected all the compartments of that carriage, and can
prove that he was not there.
"The probable, almost certain, inference is that M. Etienne Rambert got
into that slow train at the gare d'Orsay for the definite purpose of
establishing an alibi, and then got out of it on the other side, and
entered an express that was going in the same direction, and in front of
the slow train.
"You may remember that it was shown that all trains stopped at the mouth
of the Verrières tunnel, near Beaulieu, and that it was possible for a
man to get out of the express, commit the crime and then return--I would
remind you of the footprints found on the embankment--and get into the
slow train which followed the express at an interval of three hours and
a half, and get out of that train at Verrières station. The passenger
who did that, was the criminal, and it was M. Etienne Rambert.
"As I have already proved that it was Gurn who murdered the Marquise de
Langrune, it seems to follow necessarily that M. Etienne Rambert must be
Gurn!"
Juve paused to make sure that the jury had followed his deductions and
taken all his points. He proceeded, in the most tense hush.
"We have just identified Gurn with Rambert and proved that Rambert-Gurn
is guilty of the Beltham and Langrune murders, and the robbery from Mme.
Van den Rosen and Princess Sonia Danidoff. There remains the murder of
the steward, Dollon.
"Gentlemen, when Gurn was arrested on the single charge of the murder of
Lord Beltham, you will readily believe that his one fear was that all
these other crimes, for which I have just shown him to be responsible,
might be brought up against him. I was just then on the very point of
finding out the truth, but I had not yet done so. A single link was
missing in the chain which would connect Gurn with Rambert, and identify
the murderer of Lord Beltham as the author of the other crimes. That
link was some common clue, or, better still, some object belonging to
the murderer of Lord Beltham, which had been forgotten and left on the
scene of the Langrune murder.
"That object I found. It was a fragment of a map, picked up in a field
near the château of Beaulieu, in the path which Etienne Rambert must
have followed from the railway line; it was a fragment cut out of a
large ordnance map, and the rest of the map I found in Gurn's rooms,
thereby identifying Gurn with Rambert.
"Gentlemen, the fragment of map which was picked up in the field was
left in the custody of the steward Dollon. That unfortunate man was
summoned to Paris by M. Germain Fuselier. There was only one person who
had any interest in preventing Dollon from coming, and that person was
Gurn, or it would be better to say Rambert-Gurn; and you know that
Dollon was killed before he reached M. Germain Fuselier. Is it necessary
to declare that it was Gurn, Rambert-Gurn, who killed him?"
Juve said the last words in tones of such earnest and solemn
denunciation that the truth of them seemed beyond all doubt. And yet he
read incredulous surprise in the attitude of the jury. From the body of
the court, too, a murmur rose that was not sympathetic. Juve realised
that the sheer audacity of his theory must come as a shock, and he knew
how difficult it would be to convince anyone who had not followed every
detail of the case as he himself had done.
"Gentlemen," he said, "I know that my assertions about the multiple
crimes of this man Gurn must fill you with amazement. That does not
dismay me. There is one other name which I must mention, perhaps to
silence your objections, perhaps to show the vast importance I attach to
the deductions which I have just been privileged to detail to you. This
is the last thing I have to say:
"The man who has been capable of assuming in turn the guise of Gurn,
and of Etienne Rambert, and of the man of fashion at the Royal Palace
Hotel: who has had the genius to devise and to accomplish such terrible
crimes in incredible circumstances, and to combine audacity with skill,
and a conception of evil with a pretence of respectability; who has been
able to play the Proteus eluding all the efforts of the police;--this
man, I say, ought not to be called Gurn! He is, and can be, no other
than Fantômas!"
The detective suddenly broke off from his long statement, and the
syllables of the melodramatic name seemed to echo through the court,
and, taken up by all those present, to swell again into a dread murmur.
"Fantômas! He is Fantômas!"
For a space of minutes judges and jury seemed to be absorbed in their
own reflections; and then the President of the Court made an abrupt
gesture of violent dissent.
"M. Juve, you have just enunciated such astounding facts, and elaborated
such an appalling indictment against this man Gurn, that I have no doubt
the Public Prosecutor will ask for a supplementary examination, which
this Court will be happy to grant, if he considers your arguments worth
consideration. But are they? I will submit three objections." Juve bowed
coldly. "First of all, M. Juve, do you believe that a man could assume
disguise with the cleverness that you have just represented? M. Etienne
Rambert is a man of sixty; Gurn is thirty-five. M. Rambert is an elderly
man, slow of movement, and the man who robbed Princess Sonia Danidoff
was a nimble, very active man."
"I have anticipated that objection, sir," Juve said with a smile, "by
saying that Gurn is Fantômas! Nothing is impossible for Fantômas!"
"Suppose that is true," said the President with a wave of his hand, "but
what have you to say to this: you charge Etienne Rambert with the murder
of Mme. de Langrune; but do you not know that Etienne Rambert's son,
Charles Rambert, who, according to the generally received, and most
plausible, opinion was the real murderer of the Marquise, committed
suicide from remorse? If Etienne Rambert was the guilty party, Charles
Rambert would not have taken his own life."
Juve's voice shook a little.
"You would be quite right, sir, if again it were not necessary to add
that Etienne Rambert is Gurn--that is to say, Fantômas! Is it not a
possible hypothesis that Fantômas might have affected the mind of that
lad: have suggested to him that it was he who committed the crime in a
period of somnambulism: and at last have urged him to suicide? Do you
not know the power of suggestion?"
"Suppose that also is true," said the President with another vague wave
of his hand. "I will only put two incontestable facts before you. You
accuse Etienne Rambert of being Gurn, and Etienne Rambert was lost in
the wreck of the _Lancaster_; you also accuse Gurn of having murdered
Dollon, and at the time that murder was committed Gurn was in solitary
confinement in the Santé prison."
This time the detective made a sign as if of defeat.
"If I have waited until to-day to make the statement you have just
listened to, it was obviously because hitherto I have had no absolute
proofs, but merely groups of certainties. I spoke to-day, because I
could keep silent no longer; if I am still without some explanations in
detail, I am sure I shall have them some day. Everything comes to light
sooner or later. And as to the two facts you have just put before me, I
would reply that there is no proof that M. Rambert was lost in the wreck
of the _Lancaster_: it has not been legally established that he ever was
on board that ship. Of course, I know his name was in the list of
passengers, but a child could have contrived a device of that sort.
Besides, all the circumstances attending that disaster are still an
utter mystery. My belief is that a Fantômas would be perfectly capable
of causing an explosion on a ship and blowing up a hundred and fifty
people, if thereby he could dispose of one of his identities, especially
such a terribly compromising identity as that of Etienne Rambert."
The President dismissed the theory with a word.
"Pure romance!" he said. "And what about the murder of Dollon? I should
like, further, to remind you that the fragment of map which, according
to you, was the real reason for this man's death, was found on his
body, and does not correspond in the least with the hole cut in the map
you found in Gurn's rooms."
"As for that," Juve said with a smile, "the explanation is obvious. If
Gurn, whom I charge with the murder of Dollon, had been content merely
to abstract the real fragment, he would so to speak have set his
signature to the crime. But he was much too clever for that: he was
subtle enough to abstract the compromising fragment and substitute
another fragment for it--the one found on the body."
"Perhaps," said the President; "that is possible, but I repeat, Gurn was
in prison at the time."
"True! True!" said Juve, throwing up his hands. "I am prepared to swear
that it was Gurn who did the murder, but I cannot yet explain how he did
it, since he was in solitary confinement in the Santé."
Silence fell upon the court; Juve refrained from saying anything more,
but a sarcastic smile curled his lip.
"Have you anything else to say?" the President asked after a pause.
"Nothing: except that anything is possible to Fantômas."
The President turned to the prisoner.
"Gurn, have you anything to say, any confession to make? The jury will
listen to you."
Gurn rose to his feet.
"I do not understand a word of what the detective has just been saying,"
he said.
The President looked at Juve again.
"You suggest that there shall be a supplementary investigation?"
"Yes."
"Mr. Solicitor-General, have you any application to make on that
subject?" the President asked the Public Prosecutor.
"No," said the functionary. "The witness's allegations are altogether
too vague."
"Very well. The Court will deliberate forthwith."
The judges gathered round the President of the Court, and held a short
discussion. Then they returned to their places and the President
announced their decision. It was that after consideration of the
statement of the witness Juve, their opinion was that it rested merely
upon hypotheses, and their decision was that there was no occasion for a
supplementary enquiry.
And the President immediately called upon the Public Prosecutor to
address the Court.
Neither in the lengthy address of that functionary, nor in the ensuing
address of Maître Barberoux on behalf of the defendant, was the
slightest allusion made to the fresh facts adduced by the detective. The
theories he put forward were so unexpected and so utterly astonishing
that nobody paid the least attention to them! Then the sitting was
suspended while the jury considered their verdict. The judges retired
and guards removed the prisoner, and Juve, who had accepted the
dismissal of his application for a further enquiry with perfect
equanimity, went up to the press-box and spoke to a young journalist
sitting there.
"Shall we go out for a quarter of an hour, Fandor?" and when they were
presently in the corridor, he smote the young fellow in a friendly way
on the shoulder and enquired: "Well, my boy, what do you say to all
that?"
Jérôme Fandor seemed to be overwhelmed.
"You accuse my father? You really accuse Etienne Rambert of being Gurn?
Surely I am dreaming!"
"My dear young idiot," Juve growled, "do pray understand one thing: I am
not accusing your father, your real father, but only the man who
represented himself to be your father! Just think: if my contention is
right--that the Etienne Rambert who killed the Marquise is Gurn--it is
perfectly obvious that Gurn is not your father, for he is only
thirty-five years of age! He has merely represented himself to be your
father."
"Then who is my real father?"
"I don't know anything about that," said the detective. "That's a matter
we will look into one of these fine days! You take it from me that we
are only just at the beginning of all these things."
"But the Court has refused a supplementary enquiry."
"'Gad!" said Juve, "I quite expected it would! I have not got the proofs
to satisfy the legal mind; and then, too, I had to hold my tongue about
the most interesting fact that I knew."
"What was that?"
"Why, that you are not dead, Charles Rambert! I had to conceal that
fact, my boy, for the melancholy reason that I am a poor man and depend
on my job. If I had let out that I had known for a long time that
Charles Rambert was alive when he was supposed to be dead, and that I
had known him first as Jeanne and then as Paul, and yet had said nothing
about it, I should have been dismissed from the service as sure as eggs
are eggs--and it is equally certain that you would have been arrested;
which is precisely what I do not wish to happen!"
* * * * *
In tense silence the foreman of the jury rose.
"In the presence of God and man, and upon my honour and my conscience, I
declare that the answer of a majority of the jury is 'yes' to all the
questions submitted to them."
Then he sat down: he had made no mention of extenuating circumstances.
The words of the fatal verdict fell like a knell in the silent Court of
Assize, and many a face went white.
"Have you anything to say before sentence is passed?"
"Nothing," Gurn replied.
In rapid tones the President read the formal pronouncement of the Court.
It seemed horribly long and unintelligible, but presently the
President's voice became slower as it reached the fatal words: there was
a second's pause, and then he reached the point:
"--the sentence on the prisoner Gurn is death."
And almost simultaneously he gave the order:
"Guards, take the condemned away!"
Juve, who had returned to court with Fandor, spoke to the young
journalist.
"'Gad!" he exclaimed, "I know what pluck is. That man is a truly
remarkable man: he never turned a hair!"