"What has happened to that idiot Juve? Here for three days I've beenshut up in this beastly prison and no sign of him."
As the days passed, Fandor gradually lost his buoyancy of spirits andbecame more and more anxious.
"What can Juve be doing?" he repeated for the hundredth time.
The continual obscurity of the place began to weigh him down. This wasrelieved each day for a few moments by a thin shaft of light. Fandor wasquick to account for the phenomenon.
"It happens exactly at noon when the sun is directly overhead," hereasoned, "and finds an entrance through a crack in the bronze."
Many times he climbed to the body of the naiad in the hope ofdiscovering some method of escape, but at length he realized that thething was impossible.
He was seated one night deep in thought, puzzling his brains for thereason of Juve's defection, when a voice suddenly broke the silence.
"Can you hear me?"
Fandor bounded to his feet.
"Yes, I hear you."
"You must be getting uneasy?"
"Uneasy! I'm going mad! What a long time you've been!"
"That's true, I am a little late, but it hasn't been very easy."
Now that Fandor's mind was set at rest about his deliverance, he grewcurious to know the results of the detective's investigation.
"Well, you were successful?"
"Yes, quite successful."
"Do they know in Glotzbourg?"
"They must have some suspicion by now."
"When did you get back?"
"This morning."
"Only this morning! And did you get my letter?"
"Your what, Sire?... I don't catch."
"I say you must have got my letter, since you are here, and now pleaseget me out of this hole as quickly as possible ... it's awful being shutup here ... you can't imagine how I long for a breath of fresh air."
"Yes, yes, I understand, but I'm wondering how I'm to get you out."
"What's that?"
"Have you thought over a way we can effect the exchange?"
"But, my dear fellow, you must know what to do. I gave you fullparticulars in my letter."
"In your letter?"
"Yes.... I even enclosed a diagram."
There was a pause, the voice then asked:
"Will you pass me up this letter by ..."
Fandor interrupted:
"Why, it's quite simple! Find the third naiad, counting from the onenearest the bridge."
Suddenly the voice explained:
"Look here, Sire, we are talking at cross purposes. I am asking youwhere we can exchange the diamond."
"The diamond?"
"Yes! Your diamond."
Fandor's face grew pale.
"My diamond!"
"The diamond I went to Glotzbourg to get ... what's the matter with you,Sire? Don't you remember?... And what's all this about a letter?"
"Why, Juve! I'm talking of the letter I left at your apartment in whichI explained how you may reach me!"
"Juve! Juve! Oho!"
A burst of strident laughter, infernal and diabolical, reached Fandor,who now guessed the horrible truth.
"If it isn't Juve who is speaking, who is it?" he cried. "For the loveof God, who are you?"
"The person speaking to you ... is Fantomas."
"Fantomas!"
Staggering, terrified, Fandor screamed:
"Fantomas! Fantomas!... It can't be possible! Fantomas has beenarrested! Fantomas is in the hands of Juve!"
"Fantomas arrested?... Fantomas can't be arrested! He will never becaught! He is above and beyond every attack, every menace! Fantomas isDeath, Eternal Death, Pitiless Death, King Death! Good-bye!"
A long silence followed. Fandor was stunned by the awful reality. Heexperienced all the sensations of a man buried alive, condemned to deathwith torture. And then another thought flashed through his mind:
"The papers spoke of Fantomas's arrest. But if Fantomas is at liberty,it must mean that Juve has been beaten! Juve went to Glotzbourg toarrest him. A man has been arrested under the name of Fantomas. That manmust be Juve himself!"
And his letter! The first thing Fantomas would do would be to go toJuve's apartment and destroy it.
"He has got me," he exclaimed. "He can choose his own time to kill me.He can send down asphyxiating gas or a deluge of water through theconnecting tube, or he can just leave me here to die slowly of hungerand thirst."
The journalist began pacing up and down his prison. He tried to recoverhis calm and argue the case out:
"Here I am in perfect health, clear in my mind and able to struggle tothe bitter end. I have enough food and water to last me about nine orten days. In my pocket I have my revolver, so that I can blow my brainsout if it comes to the worst. But I won't. I'll fight! I'll fight untilI drop!"