"Poor fellow!" he murmured. "Another who has to pay! Ah! they have left my 'sixty horse' for my use presently. But there is no time to lose, I'll bet that Juve, flanked by his everlasting journalist, will not be long in coming here. Very well! Juve, it is not as master that you will enter this house, but as a doomed man!" Fantômas now became absorbed in a strange task which claimed all his attention. On the floor of the dark closet where all the electric gear of the house terminated, the bandit laid a sort of oblong fusee that he drew from his capacious cloak. He fitted to the end of this fusee two electric wires previously freed of their insulator; then having verified the tie of the pulls of the distribution board, he hid the cartridge under a little lid of wood. Then he left the closet, taking care to double-lock the door. "These detectives," he growled, "are about to witness the finest firework display imaginable and, I dare say, take part in it, too. Dynamite can transform a respectable middle-class house into a sparkling bouquet of loose stone!" Such was, indeed, the fearful reception Fantômas held in reserve for his opponents. He had made everything ready to blow up the house and escape unhurt himself. If Juve and Fandor had paid more attention to the piping of the wires, they would have seen that some of them ran outside the house and disappeared below ground, reappearing at the far end of the property in an old deserted woodshed. Fantômas was about to leave the house. He was already stepping onto the terrace when, suppressing an oath, he wheeled about suddenly. As Juve and Fandor were about to enter the grounds, Detective Michel rose up out of the dusk. "That you, sir?" "Well," replied Juve, "is the bird in the nest?" "Yes, sir, and the cage is well guarded, I assure you. Fifteen of my men kept a strict guard round the house." "Good. Here is the plan of action. You, Sergeant, will enter the house with Inspector Michel, at my back. The men will continue to watch the exit." Juve broke off sharply. He saw the door of the house open a little way and Fantômas appear, then vanish again inside the house. "At last!" cried Juve, who sprang forward, followed by Fandor. "Slowly, gentlemen! We have now victory in sight, we mustn't imperil it by rashness. You remain on the ground floor. Each one in a room, and don't stir without good reason. I am going up." "I am going with you," exclaimed Fandor. The two went cautiously up the stairs to the first floor. "Fantômas!" challenged Juve, halting on the landing, "you are caught; surrender!" But the detective's voice only roused distant echoes; the big house was silent.