a few seconds after Vagualame and
Bobinette had escaped from it!... To tell the truth, Juve did not know
of the hidden entrance to the secret room. Dizzy from his rapid glide
downwards, Juve raised his lantern. He was not surprised to find this
retreat empty. He knew the slide led to second and lower series of
cellars....

His eye caught a movement. The huge stack of magazines, looking as if
it would topple over, so much on the slant was it, was slowly moving
into an upright position again! He leaped forward, thrusting his
revolver between the opening of the two portions, and prevented them
from joining completely!...

What was going on behind this tricky collection of magazines, which
had undoubtedly just opened to give passage to Vagualame and
Bobinette?

Juve glued his ear to the fissure which marked the edge of the hidden
door.... Ah!... Voices of men in discussion!... Juve could not
distinguish all that the voices were saying, but a word reached his
ear, clear, unmistakable--_Fantomas_!

He listened intently.

"You are right," remarked an invisible speaker: "It is to Fantomas we
owe all these police visits and annoyances--his crimes exasperate the
police--and to justify themselves in the opinion of the public they
track us down more vigorously than ever!"

Another voice answered:

"I know for certain that these coppers are after Fantomas to-night!"

Shouts and hoots resounded.

Menacing voices repeated:

"Since Fantomas is indirectly our persecutor, let us avenge ourselves
on Fantomas!... What matters one life compared with the cause we
defend--the cause of a whole people!... If Fantomas is in our way,
troubles us, let us kill him!... Trokoff will be here to-morrow, this
evening perhaps! Trokoff will guide us! Trokoff will find this
mysterious bandit who does us so much harm! Trokoff is a valiant
man!... We do not know him, but we know what he has done!"

Juve smiled a sardonic smile. He thrust his hand into the opening
wedged apart by his revolver, widened the space, opened the secret
door, and entered the assembly room of the Nihilists.

"God save Russia!"

Juve pronounced these words with unction, in a solemn voice.

"God save Poland," was the reply. The oldest man present, who had thus
been spokesman for the assembly advanced towards the stranger.

"Who are you?" he demanded.

Without the quiver of an eyelid, an eyelash, Juve answered: "I am he
whom you have awaited.... He who will direct