CHAPTER XXII
BETWEEN US THREE--FANTOMAS!
For the second time, the Grand Duchess Alexandra solemnly repeated tothe Queen:
"I have the honor to take leave of your Majesty, and I dare to hope thatI may hear news of your Majesty when I reach my journey's end. I shallbe away a long while from the court of Hesse-Weimar and from its augustSovereign for whom I profess the deepest respect."
The interview between the Queen and the woman she deemed her mortalenemy took place about eleven o'clock, two days after the famous ball inthe midst of which the detective Juve had so unfortunately been mistakenfor Fantomas, and thrown into a gloomy dungeon where he had since beenkept in solitary confinement. Opinion at Hesse-Weimar was dividedbetween the theory that the thief had succeeded in hiding the famousdiamond before he was caught, and the theory that when he discovered itshiding place, he had found an empty jewel case. Naturally, the identityof the Grand Duchess with the famous Lady Beltham,[3] established byJuve, was unknown in Hesse-Weimar, nor did anyone suspect that hersudden departure was in any way connected with the arrest of the pseudoFantomas.
[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 herformal adieux.
"There was a rumor that you were going to leave us," she replied, "but Iscarcely credited it, Madame."
The adventuress, who by a series of extraordinary circumstances had beenenabled to pass herself as a cousin of the reigning family, looked atthe Queen sadly:
"Your Majesty is not very kind to me," she exclaimed with tears in hervoice, "and I hoped for a more friendly farewell at the moment when I amtaking my departure for the new world."
The Queen was touched by these words; with an impulsive movement sheopened her arms to the false Grand Duchess, who flung herself into themin a long embrace.
The two women now had a heart to heart talk in which the Queen confessedher fears and distrust. She even went to the length of admitting herbelief that Alexandra had had designs upon the throne of Hesse-Weimar.
The adventuress looked with pitying contempt upon the little QueenHedwige:
"Your Majesty has been outrageously deceived," she replied, "I belong toa race which is incapable of such treachery."
Completely reassured, the Queen became very tender and endedaffectionately by wishing the pseudo Duchess a good journey. The twowomen parted friends.
* * * * *
On a siding in the Glotzbourg station stood a private car, which hadbeen placed at the service of the Grand Duchess, waiting to be connectedwith the Paris express from Berlin.
Inside, the Duchess, dressed in a quiet traveling costume, sat talkingto 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, andthe latter continued in a low voice:
"Madame, you know that my followers are prepared to try a _coupd'etat_--for pity's sake accept the homage of my love, give me a word ofhope, and I will overthrow the present dynasty and mount the thronemyself with you as my Queen."
"That is nothing but a mad dream, Prince ... something impossible tohappen ... 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 furtherattention 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 ofwhich you are now reading, it is owing to me your wishes have beencarried out. You have been obeyed blindly."
Lady Beltham was spared the necessity of replying, for at this momentthe express entered the station with a deafening roar. As it wasscheduled to remain only a few minutes, the private car was hurriedlyattached to the end of the train. In the ensuing hurry and scurry ofpassengers 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. TheDuchess gave a faint cry at the sight of him, and withdrew to the backof 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 theadventuress, with the consummate art of the actress, leaned out,whispering:
"Hope, Prince, hope ... some day, perhaps ... later ... and rememberthat even the most virtuous of women, when she cannot giveencouragement, is not averse to leaving regrets behind her."
* * * * *
During the evening which preceded Lady Beltham's departure, Juve sat inhis cell eating his frugal repast.
For forty-eight hours he had seen no one except his two jailors, and hewas beginning to worry over his situation. There had now been plenty oftime for them to discover their mistake in arresting him. His eyes hadpained him greatly the first day but were now slowly recovering. Feelinga desire to sleep, Juve stretched himself on his bed and gave way toreflection.
What had happened?
It was not difficult to guess. The officers of the Palace, finding himin 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 hisuniform and escaped with the diamond. But what was Lady Beltham doingthere known to the Hesse-Weimar people as the Grand Duchess Alexandra?What new and diabolical projects were on foot to bring the monster andhis mistress together in this honest, bourgeois court of Hesse-Weimar?
As for the diamond, of what possible use could it be to the thief? Itwould 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 anintense desire to sleep come over him, his limbs suddenly became numband 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, helost 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 throughthe half-opened door and reached the face of a sleeping man; causing himto 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 skysown with stars. The detective who had gone to sleep in a dungeon,smiled instinctively at the heavens and the fresh, pure air which filledthe 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 timehad elapsed since he had lost consciousness. He had, besides, theimpression that beneath his ample and warm bed clothes he was quitenaked. His movements, too, seemed constricted as though he were lying ina 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 theground floor. Outside, shapes flitted by, and these Juve soon found tobe bats hurrying to their nearby lairs. An owl hooted in the distance.The detective determined to make an effort to get up. To his surprisehe met with no resistance and easily climbed out of the sort of box inwhich he had been lying.
As his eyes became accust
omed to the semi-obscurity, he started uponseeing the bed he had been lying in. It was a coffin.
Juve then shuddered at the thought of the horrible death he might haveundergone. He might have been buried alive! But a further surprise wasin store for him. Not far away stood another coffin, and in this secondone lay a corpse.
The dead man was about fifty, strongly built and robust. A small clot ofblood had congealed on his temple and this was enough to show Juve thecause of his death.
He had been shot through the head with a revolver, and his death hadbeen instantaneous. The rigidity of the body showed that the crime hadbeen committed some time before. And then he made a still furtherdiscovery. By the side of the coffin lay a pile of clothes, and toJuve's amazement he recognized them as being his own!
"Well," he exclaimed, "there can be no harm in putting them on, sincethey are mine." A further search disclosed, tucked away in a corner ofthe coffin, his pocketbook. Not only that, but some generous person hadstuffed it literally full of bank notes, and in a small pocket he alsofound 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 arailway time-table, upon which a certain train was underscored in redink. From another corner of the coffin he brought out a false beard anda pair of yellow spectacles! In a twinkling Juve dressed himself andcrossing 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 bigand little--some with crosses, others with crowns and flowers.
Juve was in a cemetery, and the strange room in which he found himselfwas the mortuary chapel. Nothing disturbed the impressive silence ofthis vast resting place. In the distance a clock struck five, and faroff Juve perceived the silhouette of the Glotzbourg Cathedral.
The detective pulled himself together and began to piece out by hiswell-known habit of induction some solution to this incomprehensiblemystery.
"To begin with," he exclaimed, "my being still alive is evidently dueto the will of my adversaries. It is possible that the police ofHesse-Weimar may have discovered their mistake, and taken this method ofsetting me at liberty. Or, it has been given out that I am dead, andthey intend to bury this poor fellow in my place....
"No, that's stupid. I was forgetting it is Fantomas who is supposed tobe 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 naturaldeath, 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 pressingproblem. I have been given money, a ticket with the time of departuremarked 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 owndevices ... but be careful to use the disguise given you.'"
"Well," continued Juve to himself, "I haven't the least desire to thwartmy mysterious friends, having no wish to prolong my visit here."
Soon afterward Juve set out toward the town. As he walked the dawn brokeon the horizon.
* * * * *
For three hours the Berlin express had been speeding across Hesse-Weimaron its way to Paris. Night was beginning to fall and multi-coloredsignals showed their points of light as the train sped past waystations.
Juve, plunged in his thoughts, paid no attention to what was passingwithout. He had picked up a copy of the _Hesse-Weimar Gazette_ beforeleaving, and in it had read the following:
"The desperate bandit, Fantomas, arrested two days ago in the RoyalPalace while in the act of stealing the diamond, has committed suicideby shooting himself through the head with a small revolver he had hiddenin his clothes. His body is now lying in the mortuary chapel of thecemetery awaiting the inevitable autopsy."
This information but confirmed Juve in the hypothesis he had formed. Butthere still remained a point to be cleared up. Undoubtedly the publicwere being duped ... but who was duping them, and why? If Juve wasthought to be Fantomas, they wouldn't have let him escape and put a deadman in his place. On the other hand, if they knew that Juve was notFantomas, 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 theGovernment have been fooled!"
A glimpse caught of Prince Gudulfin descending from the private car atthe Hesse-Weimar station, was sufficient to start this train of thought.By association of ideas the sight of the Prince brought to Juve's mindthe figure of the Grand Duchess Alexandra, who was no other than LadyBeltham. And Lady Beltham suggested Fantomas, whom Juve was inclined tocredit not only with his arrest but also with his liberation.
When the train pulled into the Frontier Station Juve, still wearing hisfalse beard and whiskers, jumped down and hurried to the ticket officeto buy his transportation to Paris. As he was returning, he happened toglance at the private car attached to the train at Glotzbourg, when, inspite of his self-control, he could not repress a cry of triumph.
One of the window curtains was suddenly raised and then immediatelylowered again, but Juve had time to recognize a face. It was that of theGrand Duchess Alexandra ... otherwise Lady Beltham. The train whistled.
Juve had only just time to regain his compartment. He began pacing upand down the corridor, rubbing his hands, almost jumping for joy. Atlast the mystery was cleared. He understood what had been going on. LadyBeltham had fainted when Juve was arrested. Why?
Evidently, because she had accepted the general opinion that he wasFantomas. After coming to herself and learning that the monster was inprison, she had made up her mind to effect his escape cost what itmight.
But how was she to set about it?
Doubtless Lady Beltham, in her capacity of Grand Duchess, had manydevoted friends, and it was evidently with their aid that the evasionhad been brought about. And Lady Beltham, herself a dupe, still imaginedit was her lover she had saved; when in reality she had set at libertyhis most determined enemy.
As the air now began to grow chilly, Juve returned to his compartmentand picked up his overcoat. He was about to put it on, when he stoppedin amazement.
On the lining was pinned a paper with the following words scribbled inpencil:
"America Hotel, Paris."
For a long time Juve, with bent brows, read and reread these words. Theycould only have been brought here by Lady Beltham herself while Juvewas away getting his ticket. What did this mysterious address portend?
If Lady Beltham believed she was communicating with Fantomas, shecertainly would have no need to write to him; she would know well enoughwhere to find him.
Furthermore, why didn't she simply walk through the several interveningcars and talk to him? What could be the motive powerful enough toprevent the mistress rejoining her lover? Upon second thoughts Juvedoubted the hypothesis that Lady Beltham had intended to instigate therelease of Fantomas. Might she not have become weary of the yoke whichjoined her to this monster and be really repentant of her crimes? Itwould not be the first time she had tasted remorse--and, instead ofsaving Fantomas, was aware that Juve had been set at liberty.
"Yes," echoed Juve, "this second hypothesis is evidently the right oneand 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 repaysyou with ingratitude, and if you care to have it so we will say inunison:
"Between us three, Fantomas!"
* * * * *
The train thundered through the night. It was only at sev
en in themorning that the suburbs of Paris showed through an uncertain fog.
Saint Denis, the fortifications, and then the train slowed up andstopped under the great glass dome of the Gare du Nord. Juve, wakingwith a start, hastily sprang out and made his way to the private car inthe hope of seeing Lady Beltham. But the Lady had alreadydisappeared.... Juve caught up with her just in time to see her enter anautomobile which instantly got under way. He managed to catch the numberof the car, but could not find a taxi rapid enough to make the attemptof 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 ofthe false Frederick-Christian is about due. I don't suppose Fandor hastaken 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!"