ed by
Fandor. They went up a cork-screw staircase to the floor above. De
Naarboveck switched on a light, and Fandor saw that he and his rescuer
were in a studio of vast proportions, well furnished.

Thick curtains hung before a large glass bay: it was a lofty room with
very slightly sloping walls.

Two or three rooms must have been thrown into one, for several thick
supporting columns of iron crossed the middle of the studio.

Fandor failed to find either piece of furniture or picture he could
recognise: everything in the place was new to him.

De Naarboveck had slipped off his gown at once. He was in elegant
evening dress.

Fandor also threw off the advocate's gown. He wore the black trousers
de Naarboveck had brought him, but was in his shirt sleeves. The
Vinson uniform had been left in the cell.

Having sufficiently enjoyed the surprise of his protege, the baron
asked:

"Do you know where we are, Monsieur Fandor?"

"I have not the remotest idea."

"Think a little!"

"I do not know in the least; that is a fact!"

"Monsieur," said de Naarboveck, coming close to Fandor, as though he
was afraid of being overheard: "You know, at least, by name a certain
enigmatic individual who plays an important part in the affairs of
which we both are victims, in different ways.... I will no longer hide
from you that we are in this individual's house!"

"And," gasped Fandor, "this individual is called?"...

"He is called Vagualame!"

"Vagualame!"

Fandor was aghast! Had the devil himself appeared before him he could
not have been more dumbfounded. Vagualame, the agent of the Second
Bureau--Vagualame, whom Fandor, for some time past, had taken to be a
spy with more than one string to his bow--it was he, then, who was the
author of the crimes for whom search was being made, in whose stead
Fandor himself was suffering humiliation and imprisonment, with
further dreadful possibilities to come! Fandor recalled his
conversation with Juve the day after Captain Brocq's assassination: in
the course of their conversation Juve had asserted that Fantomas was
the criminal.

Fandor himself had not followed the mysterious evolutions of this
sinister accordion player as had Juve; but now he wondered whether
there might not be a connection between Vagualame and Fantomas.... All
this was obscure: Fandor felt he was groping amid dark mysteries....

De Naarboveck was moving hither and thither in the studio: at the same
time he was ob