Juve was impenetrable.
"I am inclined to think that the companion, Mademoiselle Berthe, otherwise Bobinette, has played, and perhaps still plays, an incomprehensible part in these affairs."
"You find it incomprehensible?" Juve burst into laughter. "I do not!"
"Well then, were I in your place, I should not hesitate to arrest her!"
"And then?"
"Oh, explanations could follow."
Juve considered his companion a minute: then, taking his arm in friendly fashion, continued their walk along the quay.
"I have a theory," said Juve; "that when dealing with such complex affairs as these we are now engaged on, affairs in which the actors are but puppets, acting on behalf of the prime mover, a master-mind, ungetatable, or almost so, we should aim at first securing the prime mover. To secure the puppets and leave the prime mover free is to obtain but a partial success: the victory is then more apparent than real.... I might have arrested Bobinette as we shall probably arrest Corporal Vinson before long; but would her arrest furnish us with the master key to this problem? Have we not a better chance of discovering the powerful head of this band if we allow his collaborators to perform their manœuvres in a fancied security?"
The prime mover of these mysteries? Juve was convinced that the prime mover of these nefarious mysteries, the murderous master mind was, and could be, none other than—Fantômas!
Juve paused abruptly.