XXIX. VERDICT AND SENTENCE
Once more a wave of sensation ran through the court. There was not asingle person present who had not heard of Juve and his wonderfulexploits, or who did not regard him as a kind of hero. All leanedforward to watch him as he followed the usher to the witness-box, whollyunaffected in manner and not seeking to make any capital out of hispopularity. Indeed, he seemed rather to be uneasy, almost nervous, asone of the oldest pressmen present remarked audibly.
He took the oath, and the President of the Court addressed him infriendly tones.
"You are quite familiar with procedure, M. Juve. Which would you prefer:that I should interrogate you, or that I should leave you to tell yourstory in your own way? You know how important it is; for it is you whoare, so to speak, the originator of the trial to-day, inasmuch as it wasyour great detective skill that brought about the arrest of thecriminal, after it had also discovered his crime."
"Since you are so kind, sir," Juve answered, "I will make my statementfirst, and then be ready to answer any questions that may be put to meby yourself, or by counsel for the defence."
Juve turned to the dock and fixed his piercing eyes on the impassiveface of Gurn, who met it unflinchingly. Juve shrugged his shouldersslightly, and, turning half round to the jury, began his statement. Hedid not propose, he said, to recite the story of his enquiries, whichhad resulted in the arrest of Gurn, for this had been set forth fully inthe indictment, and the jury had also seen his depositions at theoriginal examination: he had nothing to add to, or to subtract from,his previous evidence. He merely asked for the jury's particularattention; for, although he was adducing nothing new in the caseactually before them, he had some unexpected disclosures to make aboutthe prisoner's personal culpability. The first point which he desired toemphasise was that human intelligence should hesitate before noimprobability, however improbable, provided that some explanation washumanly conceivable, and no definite material object rendered theimprobability an impossibility. His whole statement would be based onthe principle that the probable is incontestable and true, until proofof the contrary has been established.
"Gentlemen," he went on, "hitherto the police have remained impotent,and justice has been disarmed, in presence of a number of serious casesof crime, committed recently and still unsolved. Let me recall thesecases to your memory: they were the murder of the Marquise de Langruneat her chateau of Beaulieu; the robberies from Mme. Van den Rosen andthe Princess Sonia Danidoff; the murder of Dollon, the former steward ofthe Marquise de Langrune, when on his way from the neighbourhood ofSaint-Jaury to Paris in obedience to a summons sent him by M. GermainFuselier; and, lastly, the murder of Lord Beltham, prior to the casesjust enumerated, for which the prisoner in the dock is at this momentstanding his trial. Gentlemen, I have to say that all these cases, theBeltham, Langrune and Dollon murders, and the Rosen-Danidoff burglaries,are absolutely and indisputably to be attributed to one and the sameindividual, to that man standing there--Gurn!"
Having made this extraordinary assertion, Juve again turned roundtowards the prisoner. That mysterious person appeared to be keenlyinterested in what the detective said, but it would have been difficultto say whether he was merely surprised, or not rather perturbed andexcited as well. Juve hushed, with a wave of his hand, the murmur thatran round the court, and resumed his address.
"My assertion that Gurn is the sole person responsible for all thesecrimes has surprised you, gentlemen, but I have proofs which must, Ithink, convince you. I will not go into the details of each of thosecases, for the newspapers have made you quite familiar with them, but Iwill be as brief and as lucid as I can.
"My first point, gentlemen, is this: the murderer of the Marquise deLangrune and the man who robbed Mme. Van den Rosen and Princess SoniaDanidoff are one and the same person.
"That is shown beyond dispute by tests made in the two cases with aBertillon dynamometer, an instrument of the nicest exactitude, whichproved that the same individual operated in both cases; that is onepoint made good. And next, the man who robbed Mme. Van den Rosen andPrincess Sonia is Gurn. That is proved to equal demonstration by thefact that the burglar burned his hand while engaged upon his crime, andthat Gurn has a scar on his hand which betrays him as the criminal; thescar is faint now perhaps, but I can testify that it was very obvious atthe time of a disturbance which occurred at a low cafe named theSaint-Anthony's Pig, where, accompanied by detective Lemaroy, who isstill in hospital for treatment for injuries received on that occasion,I attempted, and failed, to arrest this man Gurn.
"Thus, gentlemen, I prove that the Langrune and Danidoff cases are thework of but one man, and that man, Gurn.
"I come to another point. As you know, the murder of the Marquise deLangrune was attended by some strange circumstances. At the inquest itwas proved that the murderer most probably got into the house fromoutside, opening the front door with a skeleton key, and that heobtained admission into the bedroom of the Marquise, not by burglariousmeans--I lay insistence upon that--but by the simple means of her havingopened the door to him, which she did on the strength of his name, and,finally, that if robbery was the motive of the crime, the nature of therobbery remained a mystery.
"Now I have ascertained, gentlemen, and--if, as I shall ask youpresently, you decide to have an adjournment and a supplementaryinvestigation--I shall be able to prove two important facts. The firstis that the Marquise had in her possession a lottery ticket which hadjust won a large first prize; this ticket had been sent to her by M.Etienne Rambert. This ticket was not found at the time, but it wassubsequently traced to a person, who for the moment has utterlydisappeared, who declared that it was given to him by M. EtienneRambert. And it is further noteworthy that M. Etienne Rambert seemed tobe in greater funds from that time. The second fact I have ascertainedis that, although M. Etienne Rambert pretended to get into a first-classcarriage of a slow train at the gare d'Orsay, he most certainly was notin that train between Vierzon and Limoges: I can, if you wish, call awitness who inspected all the compartments of that carriage, and canprove that he was not there.
"The probable, almost certain, inference is that M. Etienne Rambert gotinto that slow train at the gare d'Orsay for the definite purpose ofestablishing an alibi, and then got out of it on the other side, andentered an express that was going in the same direction, and in front ofthe slow train.
"You may remember that it was shown that all trains stopped at the mouthof the Verrieres tunnel, near Beaulieu, and that it was possible for aman to get out of the express, commit the crime and then return--I wouldremind you of the footprints found on the embankment--and get into theslow train which followed the express at an interval of three hours anda half, and get out of that train at Verrieres station. The passengerwho did that, was the criminal, and it was M. Etienne Rambert.
"As I have already proved that it was Gurn who murdered the Marquise deLangrune, it seems to follow necessarily that M. Etienne Rambert must beGurn!"
Juve paused to make sure that the jury had followed his deductions andtaken all his points. He proceeded, in the most tense hush.
"We have just identified Gurn with Rambert and proved that Rambert-Gurnis guilty of the Beltham and Langrune murders, and the robbery from Mme.Van den Rosen and Princess Sonia Danidoff. There remains the murder ofthe steward, Dollon.
"Gentlemen, when Gurn was arrested on the single charge of the murder ofLord Beltham, you will readily believe that his one fear was that allthese other crimes, for which I have just shown him to be responsible,might be brought up against him. I was just then on the very point offinding out the truth, but I had not yet done so. A single link wasmissing in the chain which would connect Gurn with Rambert, and identifythe murderer of Lord Beltham as the author of the other crimes. Thatlink was some common clue, or, better still, some object belonging tothe murderer of Lord Beltham, which had been forgotten and left on thescene of the Langrune murder.
"That object I found. It was a fragment of a map, picked up in a fieldnear t
he chateau of Beaulieu, in the path which Etienne Rambert musthave followed from the railway line; it was a fragment cut out of alarge ordnance map, and the rest of the map I found in Gurn's rooms,thereby identifying Gurn with Rambert.
"Gentlemen, the fragment of map which was picked up in the field wasleft in the custody of the steward Dollon. That unfortunate man wassummoned to Paris by M. Germain Fuselier. There was only one person whohad any interest in preventing Dollon from coming, and that person wasGurn, or it would be better to say Rambert-Gurn; and you know thatDollon was killed before he reached M. Germain Fuselier. Is it necessaryto declare that it was Gurn, Rambert-Gurn, who killed him?"
Juve said the last words in tones of such earnest and solemndenunciation that the truth of them seemed beyond all doubt. And yet heread incredulous surprise in the attitude of the jury. From the body ofthe court, too, a murmur rose that was not sympathetic. Juve realisedthat the sheer audacity of his theory must come as a shock, and he knewhow difficult it would be to convince anyone who had not followed everydetail of the case as he himself had done.
"Gentlemen," he said, "I know that my assertions about the multiplecrimes of this man Gurn must fill you with amazement. That does notdismay me. There is one other name which I must mention, perhaps tosilence your objections, perhaps to show the vast importance I attach tothe deductions which I have just been privileged to detail to you. Thisis the last thing I have to say:
"The man who has been capable of assuming in turn the guise of Gurn,and of Etienne Rambert, and of the man of fashion at the Royal PalaceHotel: who has had the genius to devise and to accomplish such terriblecrimes in incredible circumstances, and to combine audacity with skill,and a conception of evil with a pretence of respectability; who has beenable to play the Proteus eluding all the efforts of the police;--thisman, I say, ought not to be called Gurn! He is, and can be, no otherthan Fantomas!"
The detective suddenly broke off from his long statement, and thesyllables of the melodramatic name seemed to echo through the court,and, taken up by all those present, to swell again into a dread murmur.
"Fantomas! He is Fantomas!"
For a space of minutes judges and jury seemed to be absorbed in theirown reflections; and then the President of the Court made an abruptgesture of violent dissent.
"M. Juve, you have just enunciated such astounding facts, and elaboratedsuch an appalling indictment against this man Gurn, that I have no doubtthe Public Prosecutor will ask for a supplementary examination, whichthis Court will be happy to grant, if he considers your arguments worthconsideration. But are they? I will submit three objections." Juve bowedcoldly. "First of all, M. Juve, do you believe that a man could assumedisguise with the cleverness that you have just represented? M. EtienneRambert is a man of sixty; Gurn is thirty-five. M. Rambert is an elderlyman, slow of movement, and the man who robbed Princess Sonia Danidoffwas a nimble, very active man."
"I have anticipated that objection, sir," Juve said with a smile, "bysaying that Gurn is Fantomas! Nothing is impossible for Fantomas!"
"Suppose that is true," said the President with a wave of his hand, "butwhat have you to say to this: you charge Etienne Rambert with the murderof Mme. de Langrune; but do you not know that Etienne Rambert's son,Charles Rambert, who, according to the generally received, and mostplausible, opinion was the real murderer of the Marquise, committedsuicide from remorse? If Etienne Rambert was the guilty party, CharlesRambert would not have taken his own life."
Juve's voice shook a little.
"You would be quite right, sir, if again it were not necessary to addthat Etienne Rambert is Gurn--that is to say, Fantomas! Is it not apossible hypothesis that Fantomas might have affected the mind of thatlad: have suggested to him that it was he who committed the crime in aperiod of somnambulism: and at last have urged him to suicide? Do younot know the power of suggestion?"
"Suppose that also is true," said the President with another vague waveof his hand. "I will only put two incontestable facts before you. Youaccuse Etienne Rambert of being Gurn, and Etienne Rambert was lost inthe wreck of the _Lancaster_; you also accuse Gurn of having murderedDollon, and at the time that murder was committed Gurn was in solitaryconfinement in the Sante prison."
This time the detective made a sign as if of defeat.
"If I have waited until to-day to make the statement you have justlistened to, it was obviously because hitherto I have had no absoluteproofs, but merely groups of certainties. I spoke to-day, because Icould keep silent no longer; if I am still without some explanations indetail, I am sure I shall have them some day. Everything comes to lightsooner or later. And as to the two facts you have just put before me, Iwould reply that there is no proof that M. Rambert was lost in the wreckof the _Lancaster_: it has not been legally established that he ever wason board that ship. Of course, I know his name was in the list ofpassengers, but a child could have contrived a device of that sort.Besides, all the circumstances attending that disaster are still anutter mystery. My belief is that a Fantomas would be perfectly capableof causing an explosion on a ship and blowing up a hundred and fiftypeople, if thereby he could dispose of one of his identities, especiallysuch a terribly compromising identity as that of Etienne Rambert."
The President dismissed the theory with a word.
"Pure romance!" he said. "And what about the murder of Dollon? I shouldlike, further, to remind you that the fragment of map which, accordingto you, was the real reason for this man's death, was found on hisbody, and does not correspond in the least with the hole cut in the mapyou found in Gurn's rooms."
"As for that," Juve said with a smile, "the explanation is obvious. IfGurn, whom I charge with the murder of Dollon, had been content merelyto abstract the real fragment, he would so to speak have set hissignature to the crime. But he was much too clever for that: he wassubtle enough to abstract the compromising fragment and substituteanother fragment for it--the one found on the body."
"Perhaps," said the President; "that is possible, but I repeat, Gurn wasin prison at the time."
"True! True!" said Juve, throwing up his hands. "I am prepared to swearthat it was Gurn who did the murder, but I cannot yet explain how he didit, since he was in solitary confinement in the Sante."
Silence fell upon the court; Juve refrained from saying anything more,but a sarcastic smile curled his lip.
"Have you anything else to say?" the President asked after a pause.
"Nothing: except that anything is possible to Fantomas."
The President turned to the prisoner.
"Gurn, have you anything to say, any confession to make? The jury willlisten to you."
Gurn rose to his feet.
"I do not understand a word of what the detective has just been saying,"he said.
The President looked at Juve again.
"You suggest that there shall be a supplementary investigation?"
"Yes."
"Mr. Solicitor-General, have you any application to make on thatsubject?" the President asked the Public Prosecutor.
"No," said the functionary. "The witness's allegations are altogethertoo vague."
"Very well. The Court will deliberate forthwith."
The judges gathered round the President of the Court, and held a shortdiscussion. Then they returned to their places and the Presidentannounced their decision. It was that after consideration of thestatement of the witness Juve, their opinion was that it rested merelyupon hypotheses, and their decision was that there was no occasion for asupplementary enquiry.
And the President immediately called upon the Public Prosecutor toaddress the Court.
Neither in the lengthy address of that functionary, nor in the ensuingaddress of Maitre Barberoux on behalf of the defendant, was theslightest allusion made to the fresh facts adduced by the detective. Thetheories he put forward were so unexpected and so utterly astonishingthat nobody paid the least attention to them! Then the sitting wassuspended while the jury considered their verdict. The judges retiredand guards rem
oved the prisoner, and Juve, who had accepted thedismissal of his application for a further enquiry with perfectequanimity, went up to the press-box and spoke to a young journalistsitting there.
"Shall we go out for a quarter of an hour, Fandor?" and when they werepresently in the corridor, he smote the young fellow in a friendly wayon the shoulder and enquired: "Well, my boy, what do you say to allthat?"
Jerome Fandor seemed to be overwhelmed.
"You accuse my father? You really accuse Etienne Rambert of being Gurn?Surely I am dreaming!"
"My dear young idiot," Juve growled, "do pray understand one thing: I amnot accusing your father, your real father, but only the man whorepresented himself to be your father! Just think: if my contention isright--that the Etienne Rambert who killed the Marquise is Gurn--it isperfectly obvious that Gurn is not your father, for he is onlythirty-five years of age! He has merely represented himself to be yourfather."
"Then who is my real father?"
"I don't know anything about that," said the detective. "That's a matterwe will look into one of these fine days! You take it from me that weare only just at the beginning of all these things."
"But the Court has refused a supplementary enquiry."
"'Gad!" said Juve, "I quite expected it would! I have not got the proofsto satisfy the legal mind; and then, too, I had to hold my tongue aboutthe most interesting fact that I knew."
"What was that?"
"Why, that you are not dead, Charles Rambert! I had to conceal thatfact, my boy, for the melancholy reason that I am a poor man and dependon my job. If I had let out that I had known for a long time thatCharles Rambert was alive when he was supposed to be dead, and that Ihad known him first as Jeanne and then as Paul, and yet had said nothingabout it, I should have been dismissed from the service as sure as eggsare eggs--and it is equally certain that you would have been arrested;which is precisely what I do not wish to happen!"
* * * * *
In tense silence the foreman of the jury rose.
"In the presence of God and man, and upon my honour and my conscience, Ideclare that the answer of a majority of the jury is 'yes' to all thequestions submitted to them."
Then he sat down: he had made no mention of extenuating circumstances.
The words of the fatal verdict fell like a knell in the silent Court ofAssize, and many a face went white.
"Have you anything to say before sentence is passed?"
"Nothing," Gurn replied.
In rapid tones the President read the formal pronouncement of the Court.It seemed horribly long and unintelligible, but presently thePresident's voice became slower as it reached the fatal words: there wasa second's pause, and then he reached the point:
"--the sentence on the prisoner Gurn is death."
And almost simultaneously he gave the order:
"Guards, take the condemned away!"
Juve, who had returned to court with Fandor, spoke to the youngjournalist.
"'Gad!" he exclaimed, "I know what pluck is. That man is a trulyremarkable man: he never turned a hair!"