en, the fragment of map which was picked up in the field was
left in the custody of the steward Dollon. That unfortunate man was
summoned to Paris by M. Germain Fuselier. There was only one person who
had any interest in preventing Dollon from coming, and that person was
Gurn, or it would be better to say Rambert-Gurn; and you know that
Dollon was killed before he reached M. Germain Fuselier. Is it necessary
to declare that it was Gurn, Rambert-Gurn, who killed him?"

Juve said the last words in tones of such earnest and solemn
denunciation that the truth of them seemed beyond all doubt. And yet he
read incredulous surprise in the attitude of the jury. From the body of
the court, too, a murmur rose that was not sympathetic. Juve realised
that the sheer audacity of his theory must come as a shock, and he knew
how difficult it would be to convince anyone who had not followed every
detail of the case as he himself had done.

"Gentlemen," he said, "I know that my assertions about the multiple
crimes of this man Gurn must fill you with amazement. That does not
dismay me. There is one other name which I must mention, perhaps to
silence your objections, perhaps to show the vast importance I attach to
the deductions which I have just been privileged to detail to you. This
is the last thing I have to say:

"The man who has been capable of assuming in turn the guise of Gurn,
and of Etienne Rambert, and of the man of fashion at the Royal Palace
Hotel: who has had the genius to devise and to accomplish such terrible
crimes in incredible circumstances, and to combine audacity with skill,
and a conception of evil with a pretence of respectability; who has been
able to play the Proteus eluding all the efforts of the police;--this
man, I say, ought not to be called Gurn! He is, and can be, no other
than Fantomas!"

The detective suddenly broke off from his long statement, and the
syllables of the melodramatic name seemed to echo through the court,
and, taken up by all those present, to swell again into a dread murmur.

"Fantomas! He is Fantomas!"

For a space of minutes judges and jury seemed to be absorbed in their
own reflections; and then the President of the Court made an abrupt
gesture of violent dissent.

"M. Juve, you have just enunciated such astounding facts, and elaborated
such an appalling indictment against this man Gurn, that I have no doubt
the Public Prosecutor will ask for a supplementary examination, which
this