"Will do for the public, my friend. But you won't make M. Formerie swallow that Lupin and Lenormand were one and the same man." He burst out laughing. "Lupin, chief of the detective-service! No, anything you like, but not that! . . . There are limits. . . . I am an easy-going fellow. . . . I'll believe anything . . . but still. . . . Come, between ourselves, what was the reason of this fresh hoax? . . . I confess I can't see . . ." Lupin looked at him in astonishment. In spite of all that he knew of M. Formerie, he could not conceive such a degree of infatuation and blindness. There was at that moment only one person in the world who refused to believe in Prince Sernine's double personality; and that was M. Formerie! . . . Lupin turned to the deputy-chief, who stood listening open-mouthed: "My dear Weber, I fear your promotion is not so certain as I thought. For, you see, if M. Lenormand is not myself, then he exists . . . and, if he exists, I have no doubt that M. Formerie, with all his acumen, will end by discovering him . . . in which case . . ." "We shall discover him all right, M. Lupin," cried the examining-magistrate. "I'll undertake that, and I tell you that, when you and he are confronted, we shall see some fun." He chuckled and drummed with his fingers on the table. "How amusing! Oh, one's never bored when you're there, that I'll say for you! So you're M. Lenormand, and it's you who arrested your accomplice Marco!" "Just so! Wasn't it my duty to please the prime minister and save the cabinet? The fact is historical." M. Formerie held his sides: "Oh, I shall die of laughing, I know I shall! Lord, what a joke! That answer will travel round the world. So, according to your theory, it was with you that I made the first enquiries at the Palace Hotel after the murder of Mr. Kesselbach? . . ." "Surely it was with me that you investigated the case of the stolen coronet when I was Duc de Chamerace,"[8] retorted Lupin, in a sarcastic voice. [Footnote 8: See _Arsène Lupin_ by Edgar Jepson and Maurice Leblanc.] M. Formerie gave a start. All his merriment was dispelled by that odious recollection. Turning suddenly grave, he asked: "So you persist in that absurd theory?" "I must, because it is the truth. It would be easy for you to take a steamer to Cochin-China and to find at Saigon the proofs of the death of the real M. Lenormand, the worthy man whom I replaced and whose death-certificate I can show you." "Humbug!" "Upon my word, Monsieur le Juge d'Instruction, I don't care one way or the other. If it annoys you that I should be M. Lenormand, don't let's talk about it. We won't talk about myself; we won't talk about anything at all, if you prefer. Besides, of what use can it be to you? The Kesselbach case is such a tangled affair that I myself don't know where I stand. There's only one man who might help you. I have not succeeded in discovering him. And I don't think that you . . ." "What's the man's name?"