Ah, if only Juve were here! If only this loyal servant of Justice, this sincerest of friends, this bravest of the brave, had not been struck down, Fandor would have been full of enthusiasm for the Dollon affair; for its interest was increasing, its mystery deepening! But Fandor was single-handed now! He had had a miraculous escape from the bomb which had blown up Lady Beltham's house on that tragic day when Juve had all but laid hands on Fantomas! But Fandor would not allow himself to become disheartened--never that! In the school of his vanished friend he had learned to give himself up with single-minded devotion to any task he took up; his sole satisfaction being duty well fulfilled.... Well, the Dollon case should be cleared up!... To do so was to render a service to humanity! Having come to this conclusion he hastened to interview Monsieur Fuselier. * * * * * "Monsieur Fuselier," cried Fandor as he shook hands with the magistrate, "you must know quite well why I have come to see you!" "About the rue Norvins affair?" "Say rather about the Depot affair! It is there the affair became tragic." Monsieur Fuselier smiled: "You know then?" "That Jacques Dollon has hanged himself? Yes. That he was innocent? Again, yes!" confessed Fandor, smiling in his turn: "You know that at _La Capitale_ we get all the information going, and are the first to get it!" "Evidently," conceded the magistrate. "But if you know all about it, why put my professional discretion to the torture by asking absurd questions?" "Now, what the deuce are they about on Clock Quay? Don't they supervise the accused in their cells?" "Certainly they do! When this Dollon arrived at the Depot he was immediately conducted to Monsieur Bertillon: there he was measured and tested, finger marks taken, and so on." "Just so," said Fandor. "I saw Bertillon before coming on to you. He told me Dollon seemed crushed: he submitted to all the tests without making the slightest objection; but he never spoke of suicide, never said anything which could lead one to imagine such a fatal termination." "Well, he would not cry it aloud on the housetops!... When he left Monsieur Bertillon, what then?" "After!... Oh, the police took him to a cell, and left him there. At midnight the chief warder made his rounds and saw nothing abnormal. It was in the morning they found this unfortunate Dollon had hanged himself." "What did he hang himself with?" "With strips of his shirt twisted into a rope.... Oh, my dear fellow, I see what you are thinking! You fancy that there has been a want of common prudence--that the warders were lax--that they had let him retain his braces, his cravat or his shoe laces!... Well, it was not so--precautions were taken." "And this suicide remains incomprehensible!"