"He is not hidden in the room...."
"You think then that he has hidden himself somewhere in the house?"
Speaking in the same hard, decisive tone, Fandor asserted:
"He is not hidden in the house! In the very height of the struggle, I kept a strict watch on the direction taken by the man who was doing his utmost to strangle me. I am positive I had my back against the door when I fired, so that exit was barred! Neither by door nor window did Fantômas escape!" Fandor's tone was one of absolute assurance.
"If you are certain of that," said Nanteuil, "can you tell us how Fantômas did escape?"
Fandor's reply was to rise from his arm-chair. He took the candlestick from the table where Juve had placed it and walked towards a large mirror. He carefully examined his neck.
"Very curious!" said he, in a low voice...: "Now, monsieur, the man who tried to strangle me was Fantômas—we have seen him.... Well, this man had a wound on his thumb, or, more probably, he wounded me, anyhow he has left on my collar the mark of his thumb in blood—you guess what this thumb-mark is?"
Simultaneously, Barbey, Nanteuil, and Juve rushed towards the young journalist.... Fandor showed them a little red mark, clear cut on the white surface of the collar; it was a finger-print so characteristic, that the two bankers cried in a trembling voice:
"Again the imprint of Jacques Dollon!"
Silence fell—a pregnant silence. The four men gazed at one another. Fandor soon started whistling a popular air. Juve smiled: Monsieur Barbey was the first to speak: