ly Etienne Rambert has been compelled to send
her to an asylum."

"That does not tell us how his son comes to be your guest," President
Bonnet urged.

"It is very simple: Etienne Rambert is an energetic man who is always
moving about. Although he is quite sixty he still occupies himself with
some rubber plantations he possesses in Colombia, and he often goes to
America: he thinks no more of the voyage than we do of a trip to Paris.
Well, just recently young Charles Rambert was leaving the _pension_ in
Hamburg where he had been living in order to perfect his German; I knew
from his father's letters that Mme. Rambert was about to be put away,
and that Etienne Rambert was obliged to be absent, so I offered to
receive Charles here until his father should return to Paris. Charles
came the day before yesterday, and that is the whole story."

"And M. Etienne Rambert joins him here to-morrow?" said the Abbe.

"That is so----"

* * * * *

The Marquise de Langrune would have given other information about her
young friend had he not come into the room just then. He was an
attractive lad with refined and distinguished features, clear,
intelligent eyes, and graceful figure. The other guests were silent, and
Charles Rambert approached them with the slight awkwardness of youth. He
went up to President Bonnet and plucked up sudden courage.

"And what then, sir?" he asked in a low tone.

"I don't understand, my boy," said the magistrate.

"Oh!" said Charles Rambert, "have you finished talking about Fantomas?
It was so amusing!"

"For my part," the president answered dryly, "I do not find these
stories about criminals 'amusing.'"

But the lad did not detect the shade of reproach in the words.

"But still it is very odd, very extraordinary that such mysterious
characters as Fantomas can exist nowadays. Is it really possible that a
single man can commit such a number of crimes, and that any human being
can escape discovery, as they say Fantomas can, and be able to foil the
cleverest devices of the police? I think it is----"

The president's manner grew steadily more chilly as the boy's curiosity
waxed more enthusiastic, and he interrupted curtly.

"I fail to understand your attitude, young man. You appear to be
hypnotised, fascinated. You speak of Fantomas as if he were something
interesting. It is out of place, to put it mildly," and he turned to the
Abbe Sicot. "There, sir, that is the resu