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Gurn took it from him and read: "Will leave Verrières to-morrow evening by 7.20 train, arriving Paris 5 A.M...." Gurn appeared to be sufficiently edified: at all events he paid no attention to the rest of the message. Lord Beltham's murderer handed the document back to the barrister without a word.
A single link was missing in the chain which would connect Gurn with Rambert, and identify the murderer of Lord Beltham as the author of the other crimes. That link was some common clue, or, better still, some object belonging to the murderer of Lord Beltham, which had been forgotten and left on the scene of the Langrune murder. "That object I found.
"In other words, your tenant does not keep too sharp an eye on his money?" he suggested. "No, indeed: the rent is always paid in advance, and sometimes M. Gurn even pays two terms in advance because he says he never can tell if his business won't be keeping him away when the rent falls due."
If Etienne Rambert was the guilty party, Charles Rambert 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 add that Etienne Rambert is Gurn that is to say, Fantômas!
"Everything points to Gurn," Juve thought, "and yet would an ordinary murderer have dared to commit such a crime as this? Am I letting my imagination run away with me again?
"J ... K ... L ... M ... Ma ... Me ... Why, M. Valgrand " "What's the matter?" "Why, it is the street where the prison is!" "The Santé? Where Gurn is in the condemned cell?" Valgrand cocked his hat rakishly on one side. "And I have an assignation at the prison?" "Not exactly, but not far off: right opposite; yes, number 22 must be right opposite." "Right opposite the prison!"
He made a sign to Gurn to say nothing, and went to the door. "I'll be back in a few minutes: I'll just go and order a decent dinner for you." Gurn felt as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from him; the cell seemed larger, the prison walls less high; he had an intuition that Lady Beltham was not deserting him.
"That's all right, that's all right," Siegenthal muttered, not attempting to hide his emotion; "let us hope that everything will turn out well," and he left Gurn alone in the cell to his meditations.
He did not propose, he said, to recite the story of his enquiries, which had resulted in the arrest of Gurn, for this had been set forth fully in the indictment, and the jury had also seen his depositions at the original examination: he had nothing to add to, or to subtract from, his previous evidence.
"I am sure I should not have recognised him; and some proof of this is, that just before his arrest was effected I was conversing with the prisoner for several minutes, without having the faintest idea that the poor man with whom I imagined I had to do was no other than the man Gurn for whom the police were looking."
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