Pierre Souvestre & Marcel Allain
Fantômas: 5 Book Collection
Published by
Books
- Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting -
2018 OK Publishing
ISBN 978-80-272-4627-4
Table of Contents
Fantômas
VII The Criminal Investigation Department
XVII At the Saint-Anthony's Pig
XVIII A Prisoner and a Witness
XXIII The Wreck of the "Lancaster"
XXVII Three Surprising Incidents
I
The Genius of Crime
"Fantômas."
"What did you say?"
"I said: Fantômas."
"And what does that mean?"
"Nothing.... Everything!"
"But what is it?"
"Nobody.... And yet, yes, it is somebody!"
"And what does the somebody do?"
"Spreads terror!"
Dinner was just over, and the company were moving into the drawing-room.
Hurrying to the fireplace, the Marquise de Langrune took a large log from a basket and flung it on to the glowing embers on the hearth; the log crackled and shed a brilliant light over the whole room; the guests of the Marquise instinctively drew near to the fire.
During the ten consecutive months she spent every year at her château of Beaulieu, on the outskirts of Corrèze, that picturesque district bounded by the Dordogne, it had been the immemorial custom of the Marquise de Langrune to entertain a few of her personal friends in the neighbourhood to dinner every Wednesday, thereby obtaining a little pleasant relief from her loneliness and keeping up some contact with the world.
On this particular winter evening the good lady's guests included several habitués: President Bonnet, a retired magistrate who had withdrawn to his small property at Saint-Jaury, in the suburbs of Brives, and the Abbé Sicot, who was the parish priest. A more occasional friend was also there, the Baronne de Vibray, a young and wealthy widow, a typical woman of the world who spent the greater part of her life either in motoring, or in the most exclusive drawing-rooms of Paris, or at the most fashionable