"It is impossible! I have two hundred men in the ruins. He cannot have entered. He would have been seen."
"Some one has seen him, beyond a doubt."
"Who?"
"Isilda."
"Let her be questioned! Waldemar, take your prisoner to where the girl is."
Lupin showed his bound hands:
"It will be a tough battle. Can I fight like this?"
The Emperor said to the count:
"Unfasten him. . . . And keep me informed."
In this way, by a sudden effort, bringing the hateful vision of the murder into the discussion, boldly, without evidence, Arsène Lupin gained time and resumed the direction of the search: