And those who crowded round him, anxiously looking on, all uttered one
exclamation.
The two marks of teeth were identical.
Identical! Certainly, before declaring the identity of every detail, the
absolute analogy of the marks of each tooth, they must wait for the
results of the expert's report. But there was one thing which there was
no mistaking and that was the complete similarity of the two curves.
In either fruit the rounded arch was bent according to the same
inflection. The two semicircles could have fitted one into the other,
both very narrow, both a little long-shaped and oval and of a restricted
radius which was the very character of the jaw.
The men did not speak a word. M. Desmalions raised his head. Mme.
Fauville did not move, stood livid and mad with terror. But all the
sentiments of terror, stupor and indignation that she might simulate with
her mobile face and her immense gifts as an actress, did not prevail
against the compelling proof that presented itself to every eye.
The two imprints were identical! The same teeth had bitten into
both apples!
"Madame--" the Prefect of Police began.
"No, no," she cried, seized with a fit of fury, "no, it's not
true.... This is all just a nightmare.... No, you are never going to
arrest me? I in prison! Why, it's horrible!... What have I done? Oh, I
swear that you are mistaken--"
She took her head between her hands.
"Oh, my brain is throbbing as if it would burst! What does all this mean?
I have done no wrong.... I knew nothing. It was you who told me this
morning.... Could I have suspected? My poor husband ... and that dear
Edmond who loved me ... and whom I loved! Why should I have killed them?
Tell me that! Why don't you answer?" she demanded. "People don't commit
murder without a motive.... Well?... Well?... Answer me, can't you?"
And once more convulsed with anger, standing in an aggressive
attitude, with her clenched hands outstretched at the group of
magistrates, she screamed:
"You're no better than butchers ... you have no right to torture a woman
like this.... Oh, how horrible! To accuse me ... to arrest me ... for
nothing! ... Oh, it's abominable! ... What butchers you all are! ... And
it's you in particular," addressing Perenna, "it's you--yes, I know--it's
you who are the enemy.
"Oh, I understand! You had your reasons, you were here last
night.... Then why don't they arrest you? Why not you, as you were
here and I was not and know nothing, absolutely nothing of what
happened.... Why isn't it you?"
The last words were pronounced in a hardly intelligible fashion. She had
no strength left. She had to sit down, with her head bent over her knees,
and she wept once more, abundantly.
Perenna went up to her and, raising her forehead and uncovering the
tear-stained face, said:
"The imprints of teeth in both apples are absolutely identical. There is
therefore no doubt whatever but that the first comes from you as well as
the second."
"No!" she said.
"Yes," he affirmed. "That is a fact which it is materially impossible to
deny. But the first impression may have been left by you before last
night, that is to say, you may have bitten that apple yesterday, for
instance--"
She stammered:
"Do you think so? Yes, perhaps, I seem to remember--yesterday morning--"
But the Prefect of Police interrupted her.
"It is useless, Madame; I have just questioned your servant, Silvestre.
He bought the fruit himself at eight o'clock last evening. When M.
Fauville went to bed, there were four apples in the dish. At eight
o'clock this morning there were only three. Therefore the one found in
the garden is incontestably the fourth; and this fourth apple was marked
last night. And the mark is the mark of your teeth."
She stammered:
"It was not I ... it was not I ... that mark is not mine."
"But--"
"That mark is not mine.... I swear it as I hope to be saved.... And I
also swear that I shall die, yes, die.... I prefer death to prison.... I
shall kill myself.... I shall kill myself--"
Her eyes were staring before her. She stiffened her muscles and made a
supreme effort to rise from her chair. But, once on her feet, she
tottered and fell fainting on the floor.
While she was being seen to, Mazeroux beckoned to Don Luis and whispered:
"Clear out, Chief."
"Ah, so the orders are revoked? I'm free?"
"Chief, take a look at the beggar who came in ten minutes ago and who's
talking to the Prefect. Do you know him?"
"Hang it all!" said Perenna, after glancing at a large red-faced man who
did not take his eyes off him. "Hang it, it's Weber, the deputy chief!"
"And he's recognized you, Chief! He recognized Lupin at first sight.
There's no fake that he can't see through. He's got the knack of it.
Well, Chief, just think of all the tricks you've played on him and ask
yourself if he'll stick at anything to have his revenge!"
"And you think he has told the Prefect?"
"Of course he has; and the Prefect has ordered my mates to keep you in
view. If you make the least show of trying to escape them, they'll
collar you."
"In that case, there's nothing to be done?"
"Nothing to be done? Why, it's a question of putting them off your scent
and mighty quickly!"
"What good would that do me, as I'm going home and they know where I
live?"
"Eh, what? Can you have the cheek to go home after what's happened?"
"Where do you expect me to sleep? Under the bridges?"
"But, dash it all, don't you understand that, after this job, there will
be the most infernal stir, that you're compromised up to the neck as it
is, and that everybody will turn against you?"
"Well?"
"Drop the business."
"And the murderers of Cosmo Mornington and the Fauvilles?"
"The police will see to that."
"Alexandre, you're an ass."
"Then become Lupin again, the invisible, impregnable Lupin, and do your
own fighting, as you used to. But in Heaven's name don't remain Perenna!
It is too dangerous. And don't occupy yourself officially with a business
in which you are not interested."
"The things you say, Alexandre! I am interested in it to the tune of a
hundred millions. If Perenna does not stick to his post, the hundred
millions will be snatched from under his nose. And, on the one occasion
when I can earn a few honest centimes, that would be most annoying."
"And, if they arrest you?"
"No go! I'm dead!"
"Lupin is dead. But Perenna is alive."
"As they haven't arrested me to-day, I'm easy in my mind."
"It's only put off. And the orders are strict from this moment onward.
They mean to surround your house and to keep watch day and night."
"Capital. I always was frightened at night."
"But, good Lord! what are you hoping for?"
"I hope for nothing, Alexandre. I am sure. I am sure now that they will
not dare arrest me."
"Do you imagine that Weber will stand on ceremony?"
"I don't care a hang about Weber. Without orders, Weber can do nothing."
"But they'll give him his orders."
"The order to shadow me, yes; to arrest me, no. The Prefect of Police has
committed himself about me to such an extent that he will be obliged to
back me up. And then there's this: the whole affair is so absurd, so
complicated, that you people will never find your way out of it alone.
Sooner or later, you will come and fetch me. For there is no one but
myself able to fight such adversaries as these: not you nor Weber, nor
any of your pals at the detective office. I shall expect your visit,
Alexandre."
On the next day an expert examination identified the tooth prints on the
two apples and likewise established the fact that the print on the cake
of chocolate was similar to the others.
Also, the driver of a taxicab came and gave evidence that a lady engaged
him as she left the opera, told him to drive her straight to the end of
the Avenue Henri Martin, and left the cab on reaching that spot.
Now the end of the Avenue Henri Martin was within five minutes' walk of
the Fauvilles' house.
The man was brought into Mme. Fauville's presence and recognized
her at once.
What had she done in that neighbourhood for over an hour?
Marie Fauville was taken to the central lockup, was entered on the
register, and slept, that night, at the Saint-Lazare prison.
That same day, when the reporters were beginning to publish details of
the investigation, such as the discovery of the tooth prints, but when
they did not yet know to whom to attribute them, two of the leading
dailies used as a headline for their article the very words which Don
Luis Perenna had employed to describe the marks on the apple, the
sinister words which so well suggested the fierce, savage, and so to
speak, brutal character of the incident:
"THE TEETH OF THE TIGER."