They swept the ground thoroughly, careful to remove any gravel which
might have affected the equilibrium of the framework, and then set up
the red uprights of the scaffold. The floor timbers fitted one into
another and were joined by stout metal clamps fastened together by a
bolt; next the men set the grooved slides, down which the knife must
fall, into holes cut for the purpose in the middle of the floor. The
guillotine now raised its awful arms to the sky.

Hitherto Deibler had merely watched his men at work. Now he took a hand
himself.

With a spirit-level he ascertained that the floor was absolutely
horizontal; next he arranged the two pieces of wood, from each of which
a segment is cut so as to form the lunette into which the victim's neck
is thrust; then he tested the lever, to make sure that it worked freely,
and gave a curt order.

"The knife!"

One of the assistants brought a case which Deibler opened, and Fandor
instinctively shrank as a flash from the bright steel fell full in his
eyes, that sinister triangular knife that presently would do the work of
death.

Deibler leant calmly against the guillotine, fitted the shank into the
grooves in the two uprights, and, setting the mechanism to work, hoisted
up the knife which glittered strangely; he looked the whole thing over
and turned again to his assistants.

"The hay!"

A truss was arranged in the lunette, and Deibler came up to the
instrument and pressed a spring. Like a flash the knife dropped down the
uprights and severed the truss in two.

The rehearsal was finished. Now for the real drama!

While the guillotine was being set up Juve had stood by Fandor nervously
chewing cigarettes.

"Everything is ready now," he said to the lad. "Deibler has only got to
put on his coat and take delivery of Fantomas."

The assistants had just arranged two baskets filled with bran along each
side of the machine; one was destined to receive the severed head, the
other the body when that was released from the plyer. The executioner
pulled on his coat, rubbed his hands mechanically, and then strode
towards a group of officials who had arrived while the guillotine was
being erected, and were now standing by the entrance to the prison.

"Gentlemen," said Deibler, "it will be sunrise in a quarter of an hour.
We can proceed to awaken the prisoner."

Slowly, in single file, the officials went inside the prison.

* * * * *

There