But, when he examined the question more deeply, Fandor realized the fact that Fantômas’ crimes invariably had a double object—to get rid of an obnoxious adversary and at the same time to throw suspicions on the dead man that went to prove by their very nature the innocence of some accomplice of Fantômas or of Fantômas himself. Thus he pondered, all the while carrying on with the utmost awkwardness his duties as a waiter, under the wary and ever watchful eye of the landlord of _The Orange Blossom_. At the same time Fandor did not allow his attention to be absorbed solely by the conversation between Moche and Nini. A short while before Ascott had left the rest of the party—it was an incident which had, in fact, contributed not a little to the rising nausea that had driven the young Englishman from the table—two of the apache gang, the same two, “Bull’s-eye” and the “Gasman” who had signalized themselves in the _Silver Goblet_ affair and at the unpleasant interview with the Police Commissary, appearing unexpectedly within sight of the window, had been invited to join the wedding feast by the irrepressible Bouzille. The two intruders were now seated at the table, and the _soi-disant_ waiter made a point of plying them with drink and incidentally catching up any fragments of their talk that struck him as being to the point. The apaches, in ambiguous terms, but in a fashion explicit enough for Fandor’s comprehension, were discussing recent enterprises in which the gang had been mixed up. It became very evident that a unanimous and general feeling of suspicion and ill-will towards Fantômas was growing up among the criminal confraternity. Fantômas, they muttered, used everybody for his own purposes, forced each man to risk his skin and in the end compensated nobody. In covert phrases, too, they spoke of Père Moche, who, they hinted, must know all about Fantômas, and whose task was always to pour oil on the troubled waters, who was for ever putting off till to-morrow payments that should have been made yesterday, in one word playing a double game. “Oh!” grumbled the “Gasman,” while Fandor was refilling his glass, “things can’t go on no longer like this, to-morrow night and the hour sounds for definite and final explanations; we want our money, Fantômas will have to answer our questions.” “Bull’s-eye” bent over to his comrade, and in his hoarse voice asked: “So the _rendez-vous_ still holds good at the same place, eh?” At that moment Fandor was obliged to go away, M. Moche was calling him; nevertheless the journalist had gathered from a remark of the “Gasman’s” that the following night there was to be a meeting of the gang on the outskirts of the city, close down by the banks of the Seine at the far end of Alfort. * * * * *