o!"

A burst of strident laughter, infernal and diabolical, reached Fandor,
who now guessed the horrible truth.

"If it isn't Juve who is speaking, who is it?" he cried. "For the love
of God, who are you?"

"The person speaking to you ... is Fantomas."

"Fantomas!"

Staggering, terrified, Fandor screamed:

"Fantomas! Fantomas!... It can't be possible! Fantomas has been
arrested! Fantomas is in the hands of Juve!"

"Fantomas arrested?... Fantomas can't be arrested! He will never be
caught! He is above and beyond every attack, every menace! Fantomas is
Death, Eternal Death, Pitiless Death, King Death! Good-bye!"

A long silence followed. Fandor was stunned by the awful reality. He
experienced all the sensations of a man buried alive, condemned to death
with torture. And then another thought flashed through his mind:

"The papers spoke of Fantomas's arrest. But if Fantomas is at liberty,
it must mean that Juve has been beaten! Juve went to Glotzbourg to
arrest him. A man has been arrested under the name of Fantomas. That man
must be Juve himself!"

And his letter! The first thing Fantomas would do would be to go to
Juve's apartment and destroy it.

"He has got me," he exclaimed. "He can choose his own time to kill me.
He can send down asphyxiating gas or a deluge of water through the
connecting tube, or he can just leave me here to die slowly of hunger
and thirst."

The journalist began pacing up and down his prison. He tried to recover
his calm and argue the case out:

"Here I am in perfect health, clear in my mind and able to struggle to
the bitter end. I have enough food and water to last me about nine or
ten days. In my pocket I have my revolver, so that I can blow my brains
out if it comes to the worst. But I won't. I'll fight! I'll fight until
I drop!"

CHAPTER XXII

BETWEEN US THREE--FANTOMAS!

For the second time, the Grand Duchess Alexandra solemnly repeated to
the Queen:

"I have the honor to take leave of your Majesty, and I dare to hope that
I may hear news of your Majesty when I reach my journey's end. I shall
be away a long while from the court of Hesse-Weimar and from its august
Sovereign for whom I profess the deepest respect."

The interview between the Queen and the woman she deemed her mortal
enemy took place about eleven o'clock, two days after the famous ball in
the midst of which the detective Juve had so unfortunately been mistaken
for Fantomas, and thrown into a gloo