XXXII
THE SILENT EXECUTIONER
Juve was in his study smoking a cigarette. It was nine in the evening.The door leading to the lobby opened and Fandor walked in.
"All right, this evening?"
"All right. What brings you here, Fandor?"
The journalist smiled and pointed to a calendar on the wall: "The factthat--it's this evening, Juve."
"The date fixed by Chaleck or Fantomas for my demise. To-morrow morningI am to be found in my bed, strangled, crushed, or something of thesort. I suppose you've come to get a farewell interview for _LaCapitale_. To gather the minutest details of the frightful crime so thatyou can publish a special edition. '_The tragedy in Rue Bonaparte! Juveovercome by Fantomas!_'"
Fandor listened, amused at the detective's outburst.
"You'd be angry with me, Juve," he declared, in the same jocular strain,"for passing by such a sensational piece of news, wouldn't you?"
"That is so. And then I own I expected my last evening to be a lonelyone, there was a feeling of sadness at the bottom of my heart. I thoughtthat before dying I should have liked to say farewell to young Fandor,whose life I am continually putting in peril by my crazy ventures, butwhom I love as the surest of companions, the sagest of advisers, themost discreet of confidants."
Fandor was touched. With a spontaneous movement he sprang to thearmchair in which Juve sat, seized and wrung the detective's hands.
"What?"
"I shall stay here. You don't suppose I'm going to leave you to passthis night alone?"
Juve, touched beyond measure by Fandor's words, seemed uncertain what heought to decide.
"I can't pretend, Fandor, that your presence is not agreeable, and I'mgrateful to you for your sympathy; I knew I could count on you: butafter all, lad, we must look ahead and consider all contingencies.Fantomas may succeed! Now you know what I have set out to do; if Ishould fail, I should like to think that you would carry on the work asmy successor and put an end to Fantomas."
"But, Juve, you are threatened by Fantomas; that is why I am here tohelp you."
"Well, I have no bed to put you in."
Fandor, taken aback, stared at the detective. The latter rose and beganwalking about the room, then turned sharply and gazed at the young man:
"You are quite determined to stay with me?"
"Yes."
"And if I bade you go?"
"I should disobey you."
"Very well, then," concluded Juve, shrugging his shoulders, "come alongand light me."
The detective passed out of the apartment and made for the stairs.
"Where are we bound for?" asked Fandor.
"The garret," Juve replied.
A quarter of an hour later Juve and Fandor dragged into the bedroom ahuge open-work wicker-basket.
"Whew!" cried Juve, mopping his forehead, "no one would believe it wasso heavy."
Fandor smiled.
"It's full of rubbish. Really, Juve, you are not a tidy man!"
Juve, without reply, proceeded to empty the basket, pulling out books,linen, pieces of wood, carpet, rolls of paper; in fact, the accumulatedrefuse of fifteen years.
"What is your height?" he asked.
"If I remember right, five feet ten."
Juve got out his pocket measure and took the length of the crate.
"That's all right," he murmured. "You'll be quite snug and comfortablein it."
Fandor burst out:
"You're a cheerful host, Juve. You bottle up your guests in cages now!"
Juve placed a mattress at the bottom of the basket and laid two blanketsover that, then he put a pillow on top. Patting the bedding to make itsmooth, he declared with a laugh:
"I fear nothing, but I have taken precautions. I have posted two men inthe porter's lodge. I have loaded my revolver, and dined comfortably.About half-past eleven I shall go to bed as usual. However, instead ofgoing to sleep I shall endeavour to keep awake. At dinner I took threecups of coffee, and when you go I shall drink a fourth."
"Excuse me," said Fandor, "but I am not going away."
"There! You'll sleep splendid inside that, Fandor."
The journalist, used to the devices of his friend, nodded his head. Juvehad already taken off his coat and waistcoat and now drew from a boxthree belts half a yard in breadth and studded outside with sharppoints. "Look, Fandor! I shall be completely protected when I am swathedin them. Oh," he added, "I was going to forget my leg guards!"
Juve went back to the box and took out two other rolls, also studdedwith spikes. Fandor looked in amazement at this gear and Juve observedlaughingly:
"It will cost me a pair of sheets and maybe a mattress."
"What does it mean?"
"These defensive works have a double object. To protect me againstFantomas, or the 'executioner' he will send, and also I shall be able todetermine the civil status of the 'executioner' in question."
Fandor, more and more puzzled, inspected the iron spikes, which were twoor more inches in length.
"This contrivance is not new," said Juve; "Liabeuf wore arm guards likethese under his jacket, and when the officers wanted to seize him theytore their hands."
"I know, I know," replied Fandor, "but----"
The detective all at once laid a finger on his lips.
"It's now twenty past eleven, and I am in the habit of being in bed athalf past. Fantomas is bound to know it: when he comes or sends, he mustnot notice anything out of the way. Get into your wicker case and shutthe lid down carefully. By the by, I shall leave the window slightlyopen."
"Isn't that a bit risky?"
"It is one of my habits, and not to make Fantomas suspicious I alter myways in nothing."
Fandor settled himself in his case and Juve also got into bed. As he putout the light he gave a warning.
"We mustn't close an eye or utter a word. Whatever happens, don't move.But when I call, strike a light at once and come to me."
"All right," replied Fandor.
* * * * *
"Fandor!"
Juve's cry rent the stillness of the night, loud and compelling. Thejournalist leaped from his wicker-basket so abruptly that he knockedagainst the lamp stand and the lamp fell to the floor. Fandor searchedfor his matches in vain.
"Light up, Fandor!" shouted Juve.
The noise of a struggle, the dull thud of a fall on the floor, maddenedthe journalist. In the darkness he heard Juve groaning, scraping thefloor with his boots, making violent efforts to resist some mysteriousassailant.
"Be quick, in God's name," implored the pain-wrung voice of thedetective. Fandor trod on the glass of the lamp, which broke. Hetripped, knocked his head against a press, rebounded, then suddenlyuttered a terrible cry. His hands, outstretched apart, in the gloom, hadbrushed a cold, shiny body which slid under his palms.
"Fandor! Help, Fandor!"
Desperate, Fandor plunged haphazard about the disordered chamber,wrapped in darkness. Suddenly, he rushed into the study hard by, foundthere another lamp which he lit in haste, and hurried back with it.
A fearful sight wrung a cry of terror from him. Juve, on his knees onthe floor, was covered with blood.
"Juve!"
"It's all right, Fandor. Some one has bled, but not I."
The detective rushed to the open window and leaned out into the darknight.
"Listen!" he cried. "Do you hear that low hissing, that dull rustling?"
"Yes. I heard it just now."
"It was the 'executioner.'"
The detective drew back into the room, shut the window, pulled down theblinds, and then took off his armour. Curiously he examined the stainsof blood, the tiny shreds of flesh that had remained on the points.
"We have no more to fear now," he said, "the stroke has been tried--andhas failed."
"Juve! tell me what has just happened? I may be an idiot, but I don'tunderstand at all!"
"You are no fool, Fandor; far from it, but if in many circu
mstances youreason and argue with considerable aptness, I grant you far lessdeductive faculty. That does not seem to be your forte."
Fandor seated himself before the detective, and the latter held forth.
"When we found ourselves faced with the first crime, that of the CiteFrochot, and our notice was drawn to the elusive Fantomas, we wereunable to decide in what manner that hapless Mme. Raymond, whom we thentook for Lady Beltham, had been done to death. Now, remember, Fandor,that during that night of mystery, hidden behind the curtains inChaleck's study we heard weird rustlings and faint sort of hissings,didn't we?"
"We did," admitted Fandor, at a loss, "but go on, Juve."
"When we were called to investigate the attack on the American, Dixon,it was easy for us to conclude that the attempt of which the pugilisthad been the object was the outcome of the same plan of battle as thatwhich cost the widow Valgrand her life. The mysterious 'executioner,'which Chaleck did not disguise from Lady Beltham, was thus a beingendowed with vigour enough to completely crush a woman's body, andlikely do as much to that of an ordinary man. But the 'executioner' inquestion was not strong enough to get the better of the grand physiqueof the champion pugilist, since it failed in its attempt.
"This instrument 'of limited power,' if I may so describe it, must thenbe, not a mechanism which nothing can resist, but a living being! Itmust also be a creature striking panic, terrifying, formidable: you askwhy, Fandor?"
"Yes, to be sure."
"I am going to tell you. If our poor friend Josephine were not still ina high fever she would certainly uphold me. You remember the business onthe Boulevard Pereire? Chaleck or Fantomas wants to be rid of the womanhe loved under the guise of Loupart, since he has gone back to LadyBeltham. Moreover, Josephine chatters too much with Dixon, with thepolice.
"Chaleck, Fantomas, therefore, goes up to Josephine's. After having toldthe poor creature I know not what yarn, he departs, leaving behind inhis hold-all, the instrument. Now this last, when it shows itself, soterrifies the poor girl that she throws herself out of the window."
"I begin to see what you mean," said the journalist.
"Listen," replied Juve. "The mysterious, nameless and terribleaccomplice of Fantomas, is no other than a snake! A snake trained tocrush bodies in its coils. After having long suspected its existence, Ibegan to be sure of it when I found that strange scale at Neuilly. Thisaccounts for the incomprehensible state of Mme. Valgrand's body, theextraordinary attempt on Dixon, the murderous thing that terrifiedJosephine! That is why, expecting to-night's visit, I barbed myself withiron like a knight of old, feeling pretty sure that if the hands of theofficers were torn by the armlets of Liabeuf, the coils of Fantomas'serpent would be flayed on touching my sharp spikes."
"Juve!" cried Fandor, "if I hadn't had the bad luck to upset the lamp,we should have caught this frightful beast."
"Probably, but what should we have done with it? After all, it's betterthat it should go back to Fantomas."
"But you haven't yet told me what happened!"
The young man's face displayed such curiosity that Juve burst outlaughing.
"Journalist! Incorrigible newsmonger! All right, take notes for yourarticle describing this appalling adventure. So, then, Fandor, the lamponce out, the hours go by, a trifle more slowly in the darkness than inthe light. You are silent and still like a little Moses in your wickercradle. As for me, armoured as I was, I tried not to stir in my bed--tospare the sheets--Juve is not wealthy. Midnight, one o'clock, two, thequarter past. How long it is!--Then, an alarm! A cat that mewsstrangely. Then comes that little hissing sound I begin to know.Hiss--hiss! Oh, what a horrid feeling! I guess that the window isopening wider. You heard, as I did, Fandor, the revolting scales grit onthe boards. But you didn't know what it was, whereas I did know it wasthe snake! I swear to you it needed all my pluck not to flinch, for Iwanted at any cost to see it through to the end, and know whether,behind this reptile, Fantomas was not going to show his vile snout.
"Ah, the brute, how quickly he went to work. As I was listening, mymuscles tense, my nerves on edge, I suddenly felt my sheet stir--thefoul beast is trained to attack beds, remember the attack on Dixon--andsuddenly it was the grip, furious, quick as a whip stroke, twining aboutme. I was thrown down, tossed, shaken, torn like a feather, tied up likea sausage!
"My arms glued to my body, my loins hampered. I intended not to say aword, I had faith in my iron-work; but to be frank, I was scared,awfully scared. And I yelled: 'Fandor! Help!'
"Oh, those accursed moments. He began to squeeze horribly when all atonce I felt a cold liquid flow over my skin--blood. The brute waswounded. We still wrestled, and you tripped in the darkness and smashedthe glass of the lamp, and I was choking gradually. All my life I shallremember it. And then, what relief, what joy when the grip slackened,when he gives up and makes off. The beast glided over the floor, reachedthe window, hissed frantically and vanished. There, M. Reporter, youhave impressions from life, and rough ones, too! Well, the luck isturning, and I think it is veering to our quarter. Things are going frombad to worse for Fantomas. I tell you, Fandor, we shall nab him beforelong!"