Detective and mystery stories; Fantômas (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
"Well," he exclaimed, "there can be no harm in putting them on, since
they are mine." A further search disclosed, tucked away in a corner of
the coffin, his pocketbook. Not only that, but some generous person had
stuffed it literally full of bank notes, and in a small pocket he also
found a first-class ticket from Glotzbourg to the frontier.
"What on earth does all this mean?" he exclaimed.
A search of his erstwhile bed now brought to light a sheet torn from a
railway time-table, upon which a certain train was underscored in red
ink. From another corner of the coffin he brought out a false beard and
a pair of yellow spectacles! In a twinkling Juve dressed himself and
crossing to the door, pushed it open and looked out.
"The deuce!" he cried, "that's a funereal outlook!"
Before him stretched away on all sides ... tombstones! tombstones big
and little--some with crosses, others with crowns and flowers.
Juve was in a cemetery, and the strange room in which he found himself
was the mortuary chapel. Nothing disturbed the impressive silence of
this vast resting place. In the distance a clock struck five, and far
off Juve perceived the silhouette of the Glotzbourg Cathedral.
The detective pulled himself together and began to piece out by his
well-known habit of induction some solution to this incomprehensible
mystery.
"To begin with," he exclaimed, "my being still alive is evidently due
to the will of my adversaries. It is possible that the police of
Hesse-Weimar may have discovered their mistake, and taken this method of
setting me at liberty. Or, it has been given out that I am dead, and
they intend to bury this poor fellow in my place....
"No, that's stupid. I was forgetting it is Fantomas who is supposed to
be caught, then are they going to give out that Fantomas is dead?...
That seems out of the question.... Besides this man didn't die a natural
death, he was killed! I can't make head or tail of it."
Juve paced up and down, rejecting one hypothesis after another. Finally,
with a shrug of his shoulders, he cried:
"Bah! I shall know all in good time. Let's get to the most pressing
problem. I have been given money, a ticket with the time of departure
marked on the time-table, that is as much as to say:
"'My dear Sir, you are to go to the Station and take the 1.22 train,
first class, for the frontier, there you will be left to your own
devices ... but be careful to use the disguise given you.'"
"Well," continued Juve to himself, "I haven't the least desire to thwart
my mysterious friends, having no wish to prolong my visit here."
Soon afterward Juve set out toward the town. As he walked the dawn broke
on the horizon.
* * * * *
For three hours the Berlin express had been speeding across Hesse-Weimar
on its way to Paris. Night was beginning to fall and multi-colored
signals showed their points of light as the train sped past way
stations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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