BETWEEN US THREE--FANTOMAS!
For the second time, the Grand Duchess Alexandra solemnly repeated to
the Queen:
"I have the honor to take leave of your Majesty, and I dare to hope that
I may hear news of your Majesty when I reach my journey's end. I shall
be away a long while from the court of Hesse-Weimar and from its august
Sovereign for whom I profess the deepest respect."
The interview between the Queen and the woman she deemed her mortal
enemy took place about eleven o'clock, two days after the famous ball in
the midst of which the detective Juve had so unfortunately been mistaken
for Fantomas, and thrown into a gloomy dungeon where he had since been
kept in solitary confinement. Opinion at Hesse-Weimar was divided
between the theory that the thief had succeeded in hiding the famous
diamond before he was caught, and the theory that when he discovered its
hiding place, he had found an empty jewel case. Naturally, the identity
of the Grand Duchess with the famous Lady Beltham,[3] established by
Juve, was unknown in Hesse-Weimar, nor did anyone suspect that her
sudden departure was in any way connected with the arrest of the pseudo
Fantomas.
[Footnote 3: See "Fantomas," Vols. I, II, III.]
The Queen was at first unwilling to believe in the retreat of her enemy,
but she was at length obliged to accept the fact when Alexandra made her
formal adieux.
"There was a rumor that you were going to leave us," she replied, "but I
scarcely credited it, Madame."
The adventuress, who by a series of extraordinary circumstances had been
enabled to pass herself as a cousin of the reigning family, looked at
the Queen sadly:
"Your Majesty is not very kind to me," she exclaimed with tears in her
voice, "and I hoped for a more friendly farewell at the moment when I am
taking my departure for the new world."
The Queen was touched by these words; with an impulsive movement she
opened her arms to the false Grand Duchess, who flung herself into them
in a long embrace.
The two women now had a heart to heart talk in which the Queen confessed
her fears and distrust. She even went to the length of admitting her
belief that Alexandra had had designs upon the throne of Hesse-Weimar.
The adventuress looked with pitying contempt upon the little Queen
Hedwige:
"Your Majesty has been outrageously deceived," she replied, "I belong to
a race which is incapable of such treachery."
Completely reassured, the Queen became very tender and ended
affectionately by wishing the pseudo Duchess a good journey. The two
women parted friends.
* * * * *
On a siding in the Glotzbourg station stood a private car, which had
been placed at the service of the Grand Duchess, waiting to be connected
with the Paris express from Berlin.
Inside, the Duchess, dressed in a quiet traveling costume, sat talking
to Prince Gudulfin. The young man was pale and anxious:
"Your orders have been carried out, Madame, are you satisfied?"
The pseudo Grand Duchess thanked the Prince with a softened look, and
the latter continued in a low voice:
"Madame, you know that my followers are prepared to try a _coup
d'etat_--for pity's sake accept the homage of my love, give me a word of
hope, and I will overthrow the present dynasty and mount the throne
myself with you as my Queen."
"That is nothing but a mad dream, Prince ... something impossible to
happen ... we have not the right even to think of it."
"You are more than unkind to me, Madame ... you are enigmatic ...
mysterious."
At this moment a newsboy was heard crying an extra edition of the
_Hesse-Weimar Gazette_. The Duchess rose quickly and bought a copy.
In large headlines she read the following:
"Death of Fantomas. The bandit ends his days in prison."
Alexandra sat down and became absorbed in the details, paying no further
attention to Prince Gudulfin.
At length after a long pause, he spoke bitterly:
"This bandit seems to interest you more than I do, Madame."
The Grand Duchess made a vague gesture of denial.
The Prince sighed:
"Ah, you might remember that in this sinister business, the account of
which you are now reading, it is owing to me your wishes have been
carried out. You have been obeyed blindly."
Lady Beltham was spared the necessity of replying, for at this moment
the express entered the station with a deafening roar. As it was
scheduled to remain only a few minutes, the private car was hurriedly
attached to the end of the train. In the ensuing hurry and scurry of
passengers who were anxiously being scrutinized by the Grand Duchess,
there appeared a man dressed in dark clothes, and wearing a gray beard.
He was searching hurriedly through the cars for an empty seat. The
Duchess gave a faint cry at the sight of him, and withdrew to the back
of her compartment.
Who was it?
The train whistled and the last good-byes were said.
Prince Gudulfin pleaded so urgently for a tender word, that the
adventuress, with the consummate art of the actress, leaned out,
whispering:
"Hope, Prince, hope ... some day, perhaps ... later ... and remember
that even the most virtuous of women, when she cannot give
encouragement, is not averse to leaving regrets behind her."
* * * * *
During the evening which preceded Lady Beltham's departure, Juve sat in
his cell eating his frugal repast.
For forty-eight hours he had seen no one except his two jailors, and he
was beginning to worry over his situation. There had now been plenty of
time for them to discover their mistake in arresting him. His eyes had
pained him greatly the first day but were now slowly recovering. Feeling
a desire to sleep, Juve stretched himself on his bed and gave way to
reflection.
What had happened?
It was not difficult to guess. The officers of the Palace, finding him
in the King's bedroom, a smoking revolver beside him and a Lancer crying
"Thief! thief!" had naturally arrested him, thinking him guilty.
Fantomas, after blinding him with pepper, had changed back into his
uniform and escaped with the diamond. But what was Lady Beltham doing
there known to the Hesse-Weimar people as the Grand Duchess Alexandra?
What new and diabolical projects were on foot to bring the monster and
his mistress together in this honest, bourgeois court of Hesse-Weimar?
As for the diamond, of what possible use could it be to the thief? It
would be harder to get rid of than the obelisk or the Vendome column!
While these thoughts were passing slowly through Juve's mind, he felt an
intense desire to sleep come over him, his limbs suddenly became numb
and heavy; and then a sudden terror seized him.
"I have been poisoned!" he cried, making a superhuman effort to rise;
but the narcotic was slowly but surely overpowering him. Finally, he
lost all idea of his surroundings and sank back on his bed unconscious.
* * * * *
Had the day come?
A pale light touched with yellow and silver rays, crept softly through
the half-opened door and reached the face of a sleeping man; causing him
to stir and to open his eyes, blinking and yawning. It was Juve.
The first thing his gaze lighted upon was a round moon in a blue sky
sown with stars. The detective who had gone to sleep in a dungeon,
smiled instinctively at the heavens and the fresh, pure air which filled
the room. By degrees his mind went back to the events of the past night,
the heavy sleep that had come over him, and he wondered how much time
had elapsed since he had lost consciousness. He had, besides, the
impression that beneath his ample and warm bed clothes he was quite
naked. His movements, too, seemed constricted as though he were lying in
a narrow frame bed placed on the ground.
But where was he?
Thanks to the moonlight, he could perceive that he was in a room on the
ground floor. Outside, shapes flitted by, and these Juve soon found to
be bats hurrying to their nearby lairs. An owl hooted in the distance.
The detective determined to make an effort to get up. To his surprise
he met with no resistance and easily climbed out of the sort of box in
which he had been lying.
As his eyes became accustomed to the semi-obscurity, he started upon
seeing the bed he had been lying in. It was a coffin.
Juve then shuddered at the thought of the horrible death he might have
undergone. He might have been buried alive! But a further surprise was
in store for him. Not far away stood another coffin, and in this second
one lay a corpse.
The dead man was about fifty, strongly built and robust. A small clot of
blood had congealed on his temple and this was enough to show Juve the
cause of his death.
He had been shot through the head with a revolver, and his death had
been instantaneous. The rigidity of the body showed that the crime had
been committed some time before. And then he made a still further
discovery. By the side of the coffin lay a pile of clothes, and to
Juve's amazement he recognized them as being his own!
"Well," he exclaimed, "there can be no harm in putting them on, since
they are mine." A further search disclosed, tucked away in a corner of
the coffin, his pocketbook. Not only that, but some generous person had
stuffed it literally full of bank notes, and in a small pocket he also
found a first-class ticket from Glotzbourg to the frontier.
"What on earth does all this mean?" he exclaimed.
A search of his erstwhile bed now brought to light a sheet torn from a
railway time-table, upon which a certain train was underscored in red
ink. From another corner of the coffin he brought out a false beard and
a pair of yellow spectacles! In a twinkling Juve dressed himself and
crossing to the door, pushed it open and looked out.
"The deuce!" he cried, "that's a funereal outlook!"
Before him stretched away on all sides ... tombstones! tombstones big
and little--some with crosses, others with crowns and flowers.
Juve was in a cemetery, and the strange room in which he found himself
was the mortuary chapel. Nothing disturbed the impressive silence of
this vast resting place. In the distance a clock struck five, and far
off Juve perceived the silhouette of the Glotzbourg Cathedral.
The detective pulled himself together and began to piece out by his
well-known habit of induction some solution to this incomprehensible
mystery.
"To begin with," he exclaimed, "my being still alive is evidently due
to the will of my adversaries. It is possible that the police of
Hesse-Weimar may have discovered their mistake, and taken this method of
setting me at liberty. Or, it has been given out that I am dead, and
they intend to bury this poor fellow in my place....
"No, that's stupid. I was forgetting it is Fantomas who is supposed to
be caught, then are they going to give out that Fantomas is dead?...
That seems out of the question.... Besides this man didn't die a natural
death, he was killed! I can't make head or tail of it."
Juve paced up and down, rejecting one hypothesis after another. Finally,
with a shrug of his shoulders, he cried:
"Bah! I shall know all in good time. Let's get to the most pressing
problem. I have been given money, a ticket with the time of departure
marked on the time-table, that is as much as to say:
"'My dear Sir, you are to go to the Station and take the 1.22 train,
first class, for the frontier, there you will be left to your own
devices ... but be careful to use the disguise given you.'"
"Well," continued Juve to himself, "I haven't the least desire to thwart
my mysterious friends, having no wish to prolong my visit here."
Soon afterward Juve set out toward the town. As he walked the dawn broke
on the horizon.
* * * * *
For three hours the Berlin express had been speeding across Hesse-Weimar
on its way to Paris. Night was beginning to fall and multi-colored
signals showed their points of light as the train sped past way
stations.
Juve, plunged in his thoughts, paid no attention to what was passing
without. He had picked up a copy of the _Hesse-Weimar Gazette_ before
leaving, and in it had read the following:
"The desperate bandit, Fantomas, arrested two days ago in the Royal
Palace while in the act of stealing the diamond, has committed suicide
by shooting himself through the head with a small revolver he had hidden
in his clothes. His body is now lying in the mortuary chapel of the
cemetery awaiting the inevitable autopsy."
This information but confirmed Juve in the hypothesis he had formed. But
there still remained a point to be cleared up. Undoubtedly the public
were being duped ... but who was duping them, and why? If Juve was
thought to be Fantomas, they wouldn't have let him escape and put a dead
man in his place. On the other hand, if they knew that Juve was not
Fantomas, why the devil had this suicide story been invented?
A new idea suddenly flashed through Juve's mind.
"Suppose that not only the people of Hesse-Weimar but also the
Government have been fooled!"
A glimpse caught of Prince Gudulfin descending from the private car at
the Hesse-Weimar station, was sufficient to start this train of thought.
By association of ideas the sight of the Prince brought to Juve's mind
the figure of the Grand Duchess Alexandra, who was no other than Lady
Beltham. And Lady Beltham suggested Fantomas, whom Juve was inclined to
credit not only with his arrest but also with his liberation.
When the train pulled into the Frontier Station Juve, still wearing his
false beard and whiskers, jumped down and hurried to the ticket office
to buy his transportation to Paris. As he was returning, he happened to
glance at the private car attached to the train at Glotzbourg, when, in
spite of his self-control, he could not repress a cry of triumph.
One of the window curtains was suddenly raised and then immediately
lowered again, but Juve had time to recognize a face. It was that of the
Grand Duchess Alexandra ... otherwise Lady Beltham. The train whistled.
Juve had only just time to regain his compartment. He began pacing up
and down the corridor, rubbing his hands, almost jumping for joy. At
last the mystery was cleared. He understood what had been going on. Lady
Beltham had fainted when Juve was arrested. Why?
Evidently, because she had accepted the general opinion that he was
Fantomas. After coming to herself and learning that the monster was in
prison, she had made up her mind to effect his escape cost what it
might.
But how was she to set about it?
Doubtless Lady Beltham, in her capacity of Grand Duchess, had many
devoted friends, and it was evidently with their aid that the evasion
had been brought about. And Lady Beltham, herself a dupe, still imagined
it was her lover she had saved; when in reality she had set at liberty
his most determined enemy.
As the air now began to grow chilly, Juve returned to his compartment
and picked up his overcoat. He was about to put it on, when he stopped
in amazement.
On the lining was pinned a paper with the following words scribbled in
pencil:
"America Hotel, Paris."
For a long time Juve, with bent brows, read and reread these words. They
could only have been brought here by Lady Beltham herself while Juve
was away getting his ticket. What did this mysterious address portend?
If Lady Beltham believed she was communicating with Fantomas, she
certainly would have no need to write to him; she would know well enough
where to find him.
Furthermore, why didn't she simply walk through the several intervening
cars and talk to him? What could be the motive powerful enough to
prevent the mistress rejoining her lover? Upon second thoughts Juve
doubted the hypothesis that Lady Beltham had intended to instigate the
release of Fantomas. Might she not have become weary of the yoke which
joined her to this monster and be really repentant of her crimes? It
would not be the first time she had tasted remorse--and, instead of
saving Fantomas, was aware that Juve had been set at liberty.
"Yes," echoed Juve, "this second hypothesis is evidently the right one
and Lady Beltham has ranged herself upon the side of law."
The detective, with a defiant glance at the deepening evening shadows,
proclaimed grandiloquently:
"So be it, Lady Beltham, it shall not be said that a gallant man repays
you with ingratitude, and if you care to have it so we will say in
unison:
"Between us three, Fantomas!"
* * * * *
The train thundered through the night. It was only at seven in the
morning that the suburbs of Paris showed through an uncertain fog.
Saint Denis, the fortifications, and then the train slowed up and
stopped under the great glass dome of the Gare du Nord. Juve, waking
with a start, hastily sprang out and made his way to the private car in
the hope of seeing Lady Beltham. But the Lady had already
disappeared.... Juve caught up with her just in time to see her enter an
automobile which instantly got under way. He managed to catch the number
of the car, but could not find a taxi rapid enough to make the attempt
of overtaking her.
"Oh, well," he exclaimed, "I know how to find her."
A sudden thought struck him:
"The delay accorded me by M. Annion expires to-day, and the arrest of
the false Frederick-Christian is about due. I don't suppose Fandor has
taken any steps, but I'd better find out what is happening."
Juve consulted his watch:
"Half-past seven, I can call on the Minister of the Interior."
He sprang into a taxi and cried:
"Number eleven, Rue des Saussaies!"