es. For since your departure, the identity of the King has been
established beyond dispute. Yesterday I learned that the director of the
bank had had an interview with him, and he also received a visit from an
intimate friend, an attache of the Embassy."

Juve heard these words with growing uneasiness. The King was Fandor. How
had Fandor managed the affair?

M. Annion continued:

"And what do you think happened yesterday afternoon? I received a visit
from a little idiot called Marie Pascal, who still insisted on the
imposture. She asserted that the King was no longer the same."

Juve felt his head swimming.

Marie Pascal had paid one visit to Fandor, and now declared he was no
longer the same! So Fandor was not at the Royal Palace. Who had taken
his place?

The real King?

Was Fandor himself a victim?

"By the way," pursued M. Annion, oblivious of Juve's trouble, "you
didn't happen to learn any details concerning the King's toilette at
Glotzbourg?"

"No, why?"

"Oh, nothing of importance. I should like to have known whether it was a
fact that Frederick-Christian wore an 18-inch collar. It would merely
have been another proof."

The words literally stupefied the detective. If the man at the Royal
Palace wore 18-inch collars, he was certainly not Fandor, whose neck
was very slender. The journalist wore size 14-1/2.

* * * * *

One hour later--it was then half-past ten in the morning--Juve arrived
at the Royal Palace. He did not attempt to send up his card to the King,
but contented himself with gathering what information he could from
among his colleagues who were stationed about the hotel.

"The deuce!" he cried, twenty minutes later. "It's true that
Frederick-Christian is really here. What has become of Fandor? Well, I
shall probably be able to get news of him at his own apartment. What I
have to do now is to recover the diamond and catch Fantomas ... if that
is possible."

CHAPTER XXV

"I WANT TO LIVE!"

During two days which passed like two centuries, Fandor had been held
prisoner in his dungeon where death awaited him.

"I am condemned to death," he exclaimed, "very good, then I will wait
for death."

But Fandor was of those who do not give up until the struggle is over.
Besides, he had his faithful revolver. He could end his life at any
moment and shorten the torture. He had found sufficient ham to last for
two meals, and when that had been eaten and