“No, I do not know, my pretty dear, and if I did, I should have told you long ago, if only to satisfy your curiosity.”
“It’s not a plant, that?” asked the “Gasman,” half inclined to come to the old fellow’s help.
“I swear it isn’t! You think I know more than you do, and that my lot’s more enviable. Nobody so blind as those who won’t see. I tell you my look-out is just as pitiable as yours. He owes you your pay, well, he owes me mine, too. All I’ve been able to do for you is to hinder your getting disheartened and thinking Fantômas doesn’t care for you any more. Well, I’m convinced Fantômas still looks after us and thinks a deal of us. If we don’t see him, if we have no direct news from him, it’s because he has powerful reasons for acting as he does.... What, isn’t a chap like him cleverer than all the lot of us?”
“Hear, hear! Fantômas for ever!”
“Well and good! Fantômas for ever!... So then, I still deserve your confidence, eh? I was to come here to explain things. Haven’t I come? did I shirk away?”
“That’s true enough; but where is the Chief?”
“Where he is precisely, he’d be a mighty cute customer who could tell us and be sure he was not mistaken. What is unfortunately certain is that he must have been put in confinement as from time to time we receive orders from the Santé prison, orders we have, in fact, always faithfully carried out. And all the same, with Fantômas, we are bound to look for the most amazing surprises.... Oh! if only we could see him!”
“We can if we want to!” declared the “Beadle” in a tone of conviction.
Everyone was startled at this bold statement spoken with such confidence, while Fandor felt his curiosity more keenly excited than ever.
“Why, yes, we can see him. If Fantômas writes from the Santé, that means he is there. If he’s there, we must manage his escape, that’s all.”