M. Havard’s objection was evidently well founded, the whole story was undoubtedly baffling. But the Minister still refused to confess himself beaten. _He_ believed in Tom Bob’s guilt. Had the detective not been seen in the “Fantômas” costume? Was he not known to have had an altercation with Joffre, to have gone off in his company into the gardens, where Joffre had been killed. Nothing, if not logical, the Minister drew the conclusion: “Tom Bob is the murderer.” Then another point struck him, and he added triumphantly: “Besides, Havard, if Tom Bob were not guilty, why should he not have come in answer to your invitation this morning?” M. Havard shook his head doubtfully, and made no answer. This point, raised by the Minister’s last question, was precisely what most exercised the head of the Investigation Department. When at an early hour he had been awakened by a ring on the telephone and a message from the Commissary’s office at the Parc des Princes, telling him that a new and appalling crime had just been committed by Fantômas, a crime that was spreading frantic terror among the members of Parisian society, a crime that it seemed must be set down to Tom Bob, M. Havard had come to several important decisions. He telephoned immediately to the Prefecture to send officers of the Department to shadow the Hôtel Terminus, where Tom Bob was still in residence. For himself, he set off at once to the Grand Duchess Alexandra’s. There he had, with his usual ability and acumen, held a rapid investigation, in the course of which he had discovered certain facts, facts if not directly relevant, at least suggestive. On leaving the villa in the Parc des Princes, M. Havard hurried to the Ministry of Justice. It was eight o’clock when the head of the Criminal Bureau reached the Minister’s private apartments. By dint of eager representations to the ushers on duty and a like insistence with the ministerial _attachés_, he obtained immediate audience of M. Désiré Ferrand’s successor. A few moments more and he was closeted with the Minister of Justice, and was rapidly narrating, almost without drawing breath, the extraordinary events of the previous evening. “Monsieur le Ministre,” M. Havard concluded, “I deemed it expedient to put you in possession of the facts at once, in order to save myself from incurring too heavy a load of responsibility; at this present moment a man is suspected, and reasonably suspected; this man is Tom Bob, the American detective. Unless we arrest him, public opinion, alarmed, agitated, terror-stricken, is going to cause us the most troublesome embarrassments; questions will be asked in the House, for certain! On the other hand, to arrest Tom Bob is a serious step; he is an American citizen, a foreigner, and will no doubt claim the protection of his consul and involve us in diplomatic difficulties. In fact, to arrest the man seems a monstrous thing to do.”