“I think so! Come, now, events happened thus ...”
“I will detail them precisely as they did happen. At the very moment at which the chauffeur found the murdered Joffre’s body in the gardens, the rumour was circulating among the dancers, a well-founded rumour, that Tom Bob, Tom Bob, still wearing his ‘Fantômas’ costume, had just left. If we are to credit the cloak room attendant, he had come in a few minutes before to claim back the black mantle that covered his shoulders on his first arrival, and which he had entrusted to the man’s care in the course of the evening. Now, as he put on the garment, Tom Bob would appear to have mentioned that he was wounded in the arm, and on the man expressing surprise, he would seem to have gone on to say: ‘It’s the penalty for having chosen to play up a bit too hard against the real Fantômas.’ Then, still going by what the attendant says, he seems to have pulled up his sleeve, unbuttoned his cuff, and—the cloak room was empty at the moment—examined a deep cut on his arm, half way between shoulder and elbow, to be precise, a cut apparently made by a knife, and which, moreover, was still bleeding freely. Tom Bob seems after that to have pulled down the sleeve again, declaring it was a trifle, and so taken his departure.”
M. Havard fell silent, the Minister seemed to be thinking, then suddenly he asked:
“Monsieur Havard, why do you speak in the conditional mood?... Tom Bob would appear to have done such and such a thing, said such and such a thing: seems to have taken his departure! So you don’t believe the witness to be trustworthy?”
This time, M. Havard’s habit of plain speaking took the upper hand, and it was in a tone by no means over and above respectful that he replied:
“Oh, yes, I do! The witness is telling the truth, the story is quite correct. But if I do speak in the conditional, the real fact is all these happenings, all this evidence about the wound, is so ... so odd, so improbable, that ...”
“How improbable?” protested the Minister, “Why, sir, if Joffre was murdered, I take it he was not killed without defending himself; even if he received a mortal blow quite unexpectedly, he could have struck back, wounded Tom Bob, wounded his assailant....”
In a tone of raillery, M. Havard finished the other’s sentence:
“... And Fantômas could have committed the imprudence of boasting of it in the cloak room? But, my dear sir, that is foolishness, utter foolishness! I won’t so much as think of it! If Tom Bob was Joffre’s murderer, he would be Fantômas; if he was Fantômas, he would never have been guilty of the mad inconsistency of showing his wound to a witness.”
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.”