on was discovered before the poison they administered had done
its deadly work on him, and Dollon was arrested.... You can imagine the
fury, the distracted state of the guilty! Dollon had seen them--he was
going to speak at the legal interrogation--very well, then--they will
kill him--and they do kill him...."

"But Jacques Dollon lives, since his imprints are found here, there and
everywhere!..." cried Monsieur Barbey.

Fandor replied:

"They kill Jacques Dollon, since it has been formally established that
Jacques Dollon was seen dead; and once they have killed Dollon, they
think that a dead man cannot be arrested by the police, and _they accept
this dead man as one of their band_.... He, they decide, shall steal the
pearls of Princess Danidoff!..."

"This is raving lunacy!"

"All that is pretty clearly proved, Monsieur Nanteuil!... It is he also
who stole the millions in the rue du Quatre Septembre, a sensational
robbery which would have ruined your bank, had not this issue of bullion
been well covered by an insurance: this insurance signified that you
were no losers by this robbery--in fact, owing to an ingenious
combination of insurances, you have actually gained by the robbery! As
we are on this subject, I might add that were I a member of the Band I
should propose restoring to you the vanished ingots--robbers find
bullion somewhat difficult to put into circulation: you might buy them
back; then turn them into false coin, for instance--that would be all
profit--for you!..."

"I wonder at you--making such a joke as that!" remarked Nanteuil.

"Please wonder at me!... To continue!... Having carried out their plan
successfully, these robbers remembered something they had forgotten--a
compromising paper, or something like it, which had been left in
Elizabeth Dollon's possession. Thereupon, they send the dead
man--Jacques Dollon--to look for it: he attempts to murder his sister: I
arrive just in time to open the windows before she is past all human
aid.... Meanwhile a series of cleverly arranged deals on the Bourse are
brought off, so that if Thomery disappeared the Barbey-Nanteuil Bank
would rake in important profits ... in haste the assassins get rid of an
accomplice who is in their way--that duffer of a Jules, the rue Raffet
servant, and they send Dollon to kill Thomery. After that they decide to
rob your Bank which is stuffed with gold; for, were it not for this
theft, it would be your Bank, burdened as it is