“Why, what is it now? Where d’you come from?”
The officer saluted respectfully.
“Sir,” he was beginning, “I’ve come from the Commissary’s office at Alfort....”
“From Alfort? Alfort, what the devil’s up at Alfort? What do you want?”
“Sir,
” the man persisted, “they have just captured a dozen brigands ... a dozen accomplices of Fantômas.”
“Who has captured them?”
“Inspector Juve, sir.”
The Minister stood hesitating a moment. “Juve?” he said at last. “But that’s impossible; Juve is dead!”
Losing all sense of the respect due to a superior, the officer, overwhelmed by the news, asked excitedly: